Economics of Home- Schooling Clive Belfield National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education
Ultimate form of privatization Private provision, funding, and regulation Legalized in 1980s-90s Enrollment risen to ≈ million students ( % of all students) Home-schooling on average 2 years (home- based education)
Economic implications Affordability Intergenerational transfer Expenditure patterns Time allocations within the family Labor force participation Housing decisions Tiebout sorting (preferences for other government-provided amenities) Signaling to firms
How can families afford it? Opportunity cost: Compare to public and private school Additional cost items Cost items with economies of scale Cost items with low economies of scale Savings Invisible funding (cyber schooling)
Who home-schools? Public School Independent School Religious School Home School Mother’s education: High school BA degree Family income: <$20K $20K-$60K $60K-$100K >$100K Ethnicity: Asian Hispanic African-American Any faith: Baptist faith:115718
Intergenerational transfers Hypothesis: Family background effects on academic achievement will be stronger for home- schoolers than for students in other types of school Test: Comparisons of coefficients on family background in achievement equations across school type
SAT premia vs. public school students Effect Size Verbal Math Independent schools Religious schools Home schoolers Equation controls for personal, family, home, community, higher education characteristics
SES effects on SAT by school type
Conclusions Economic implications Niche preference General option for some time period Educational implications