Politics & Common Sense — Column by John Spencer
For most of American history, education did not begin in a classroom, it began at home.
Long before school districts, standardized testing, or education departments existed, parents taught their children to read, write, count, reason, work, and live within a moral framework. This model was not an ideological preference; it was a practical necessity. Families understood that education was inseparable from responsibility, character, and preparation for adult life.
In colonial America and the early republic, parents instructed children directly, often using religious texts, handwritten primers, and everyday experience. Literacy enabled self-government, commerce, and moral discernment. Children learned practical skills, farming, carpentry, sewing, bookkeeping, trades, alongside academics, because education prepared them for real life, not abstract benchmarks.
Community schools, when they existed, supplemented rather than replaced family instruction. One-room schoolhouses were local, seasonal, and directly accountable to parents who knew the teacher personally and could see results firsthand.
This parent-led model shifted in the mid-19th century as America industrialized and urbanized. Reformers promoted standardized schooling to educate large populations efficiently. Compulsory attendance laws followed, along with age-graded classrooms and centralized administration. These changes expanded access but transferred authority from families to institutions. Over time, education became something delivered by systems rather than shaped by parents. Through the 20th century, public education’s bureaucracy grew: administration layers multiplied, budgets expanded, and decision-making moved farther from households.
Parents continued funding the system through taxes, but their influence diminished. Accountability became indirect, filtered through boards, administrators, and state agencies. Schools absorbed roles once held by families, moral instruction, social development, value formation, often without broad community consensus. Homeschooling did not emerge as a reactionary movement. It reemerged as parents rediscovered an older responsibility and the fact that school systems did not reflect their values and in some instances were completely opposite.
It is my opinion that modern homeschooling reflects the same principles that guided early American education where direct parental involvement, moral grounding, practical learning, and visible accountability were paramount.
What has changed today, is the environment, where parents navigate regulations, curriculum choices, time constraints, and logistics unknown to earlier generations.
Despite these challenges, homeschooling has grown steadily, accelerating during the pandemic and continuing its upward trend. Nationally, recent estimates place the number of homeschooled students at approximately 3.7 million (roughly 6.7 to 7.9 percent of school-age children), with average growth of 5.4 percent in the 2024 to 2025 school year, nearly triple pre-pandemic levels.
In Idaho, low-regulation policies and a culture valuing independence place homeschooling participation well above the national average, with estimates around 8.7 percent or higher.
Research from sources like the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) and peer-reviewed studies consistently shows homeschool parents prioritize academic quality, moral instruction, safety, and family values. Academic outcomes support this choice: homeschool students typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school peers on standardized tests, with particular strengths in reading, language arts, and critical thinking. These results stem from individualized instruction, flexible pacing, and daily parental oversight, conditions difficult to replicate in large institutional settings.
Education is not one-size-fits-all. Idaho families rely on a mix of public schools, charters, private options, and homeschooling, each serving different needs. Many public and charter schools deliver strong education, and private schools provide focused environments for those who can afford them. Homeschooling offers something unique where there is full alignment between education, family values, and direct accountability. Yet many parents interested in homeschooling never take the step.
The barrier is rarely philosophy, it’s practicality. Newcomers find curriculum choices overwhelming, access to tutors, enrichment, co-ops uneven, and concerns about socialization, cost, and work-life balance daunting. While homeschooling is fully legal and minimally regulated in Idaho, it is not always easy or accessible. Thoughtful support matters. Making homeschooling easier does not weaken public education or steer families away from other options, it recognizes parents as capable partners.
Resource centers, curriculum guidance, shared enrichment programs, hybrid opportunities, and cooperative networks could lower barriers without mandates.
Idaho has always favored local control, strong families, and fierce personal responsibility which is the bedrock of who we are.
It is time our education system lived up to those same uncompromising principles.
As Idaho surges in population and influence, we have the opportunity to boldly embrace the full spectrum of educational freedom our values demand.
We must actively build a thriving, diverse educational landscape where public schools, charter schools, private academies, and homeschooling all flourish side by side, each strengthened by competition, innovation, and true parental choice.
It is my opinion that supporting the return of education to its rightful origin with parents as the first and primary teachers will benefit Idaho’s future and it will secure a stronger, freer, more principled Idaho for generations to come.
