Homeschooling

     There is a lot in the news lately about whether children can be home-schooled or not in Spain. Apparently it´s not clear here if homeschooling is constitutional. Most of the debate centers around the ambiguity of the Spanish Constitution on the issue of free and mandatory education. People who want to home-school their children claim that the document establishes the right and obligation of all children to receive an education, but never stating WHERE. In other words, that as long as they are educated they do not need to attend school.

     In the United States about 2.9 percent of children are home-schooled. Depending on the state, the laws that regulate homeschooling range from virtually no regulation at all (not even notification of homeschooling) to very strict controls by the state of the curriculum taught, the parent/home teacher qualifications, official evaluation, and home visits. The picture on the right shows the degree of regulation and its distribution by state, according to the Home-School Legal Defense Association.

     The reasons parents decide not to send their children to school are very diverse, with morals and disagreement with the school system behind most of them. These are the top ten reasons given by American parents to home-school their children according to the National Center for Education Statistics:

Reason for homeschooling	Number of homeschooled students	Percent	s.e.
Can give child better education at home	415,000	48.9	3.79
Religious reason	327,000	38.4	4.44
Poor learning environment at school	218,000	25.6	3.44
Family reasons	143,000	16.8	2.79
To develop character/morality	128,000	15.1	3.39
Object to what school teaches	103,000	12.1	2.11
School does not challenge child	98,000	11.6	2.39
Other problems with available schools	76,000	9.0	2.40
Child has special needs/disability	69,000	8.2	1.89
Transportation/convenience	23,000	2.7	1.48

     According to several studies home-schooled students on an average outperform their schooled peers in all subjects. However those who oppose homeschooling claim that it severely hampers the social and civic development of children. Controversial issues would not be so if there weren´t good reasons to both sides and this is no exception. If we dig a little we can find tons of evidence both in favor and against homeschooling. The important thing is to keep an open mind and make informed decisions weighing advantages and disadvantages and reading as much information as there is around, especially when we are dealing with such an important issue. Now that Spain is staring to consider homeschooling as an option, Spanish people should take advantage of the vast experience the US has with it and use the information available there to form a more complete opinion.