The Many Differences Between School Choice Propaganda and Education Freedom
- rstinson10
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
Education freedom has been around for a long time and this principle is the foundation of America, and has been since its very inception. We are blessed to live in a country where families have the freedom to utilize the education that works best for them in the way that they feel best applies to their children. You and your spouse -- and not some bureaucracy -- are the best ones to determine what your child needs to be equipped for future.
The vast majority of people agree that education freedom is important (roughly 85 to 90% based upon polls) with only a small minority of voters holding to the belief that government should have full control of your children. Practically speaking, families need to be able to utilize whatever education options works best for them. And so when our politicians embrace education freedom, we may believe that they are on our side. However, often when politicans talk about school choice, they are not operating under the principle that you have a Constitutional right to educational freedom. Indeed, the majority of politicians regard the Constitution as either a throw-back document that can be ignored with government regulations being supreme, or that the Constitution is a "Living Breathing Document" that can be reinterpreted based upon their present opinions: and so they feel they can ignore the 1st Amendment to the Constitution whenever they would like or when it is expedient for them. More specifically, when politicians discuss school choice, they are operating under an inverted perspective of the freedoms and liberties that the Consitution provides for us. They are not talking about how to ensure that you have the liberty to choose the right education for your children: they are debating how much involvement the government should have in non-public education, under the assumption that they are the ones that are in control.
To this end, "School choice" type bills are the Trojan Horse of the education world and do not help our communities. In fact, these "School Choice" bills harm us. They create extra bureaucracy, regulations and tax problems that would never exist in a truly free country. When the government creates laws and special committees to oversee these laws aimed at specific groups, we loose the freedom that is part of the very legislation they are advocating for. This is very against the premise of education freedom.
In this article we will outline what the many differences are between true education freedom and school choice propaganda that we have been experiencing from our government officials.
Taxpayers are Paying Too Much for other People's Education
True freedom is when I pay for me and you pay for you. True education freedom is when I pay for my child's education and you pay for yours.
About Taxpayer Funded Public Education
Given the number of school choice bills now being launched in many states, American citizens are aware (and likely sympathetic) to homeschoolers and private school families' plight in having to pay for their private and homeschool education expenses while also paying for a public school system that they do not utilize via their taxes. Most would agree that the system of subsidizing a system that we do not use is economically unfair, effectively penalizing the exercise of an inherent freedom. However, passing school choice vouchers is not the solution to this problem.
Unknown to many, the homeschool community has actively lobbied against school voucher programs for decades, and resists the use voucher laws on a regular basis. Even in states where such vouchers are available, many homeschoolers do not use them given the control that these voucher systems enable bureacrats to exercise over homeschooling families. Homeschoolers would rather pay taxes for the public school system, without being reimbursed, rather than receive any kind of vouchers. Paying the high taxes for public school, as a homeschooler, is the lesser of the two evils.
A family who chooses not to use the public school system will get their tax dollars returned to them via school choice vouchers.
This is FALSE
One common misconception about school choice vouchers is that homeschool and private school families will simply get their public school tax dollars returned to them. This is not true. When the state government creates school choice voucher bills, legislators also include strict and overly complicated regulations about how much money a family gets, who is eligible for the funding, how the family obtains the money, when they can receive it, and what they are allowed to use the vouchers on. School vouchers enable bureacrats to have a deep level of involvement in the private finances of families and create a system of direct of control. And there may be other restrictions as well. In other words, school vouchers do not provide for education freedom -- they are mechanism for controlling families that are otherwise beyond the power of the bureacrats that run the education departments in your state and local government. School vouchers are a form of tyranny.
If it was really about education freedom, why was it 500 pages?
In truth, the public school model is a socialist construct. Money is taken from taxpayers to support a government controlled service that only benefits a specific group of people. According to Census Bureau, the average cost per pupil per year is $15,633. These monies should not be taken from us to begin with. At the very least, public school budgets should be smaller and reduced to providing the absolute basics in education; math, science, history and english.
The same is true for other government services. We don't use the community center, so do we also get a voucher refund for that? What about that anacrhonistic public library that exists in every town, but which is a remnant of past time -- do we get a voucher for that too? (Side note, don't the library people know that the internet exists yet?) There are so much tax dollars going towards services that you or your neighbors do not actually use, or do not use enough to justify the actual cost of the service. This is a huge waste of your tax dollars and very anti freedom.
School vouchers still force tax payers to pay for public education, just in a different way.
Again, forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for a government service that only benefits one group of people is not freedom -- even if it benefits homeschoolers and other families that use private schooling. Also, it is a redundant payment if taxpayers are paying for private and public school. What makes any of this "private" if taxpayers are paying for these programs?
School choice vouchers enable fraud
The mis-use, sinister or illegal use of allocated tax funds is government fraud and it is not new. Most Americans were very happy with DOGE's recent uncovering of the massive amount of fraud in medicaid, SSI, SNAP, NGOs and other government programs. The school choice voucher programs are just another way that fraud can occur. Consider the pathway through which money has to traverse to get back to you in the form of a school voucher and you will see why education regulators are in favor of school voucher programs: the money still gets to flow through their agencies, but they don't have to do the work involved in education!
True education freedom is when there is no government oversight and money can be used the way American families see fit, without going through an agency that steals a percentage of it.
FL 1/2026 A months-long WLRN investigation revealed the state mismanaged school vouchers and was unable to accurately track student enrollment, resulting in delayed and missing funds to families and private school leaders
Private Charter Schools
Private schools are religious schools, day cares, private preschools and charter schools that are separate from the public school system. They often have tuition or a scholarship program.
Fraud is happening at private charter schools as well
The issue here is that there are many ways for fake schools or even legitimate ones to game the school voucher system, so that a school voucher system enables such fraud to happen. The current crackdown occurring in Minnesota is a perfect example of where:
A government has provided funding for private education, creating a system by which private organizations can receive grants, and,
That system was used to steal from the taxpayers.
Charter Schools will Increase their Tuition Rates as a Result
This is an unintended byproduct of school choice voucher bills that needs to be acknowledged. School choice vouchers create an imbalanced and complicated economy, where the government is now artificially injecting more money into the economy. Private schools have no incentives to keep their prices low or offer scholarships for families to be able to attend, which is what true education freedom would look like. So what will charter and private schools do when they realize that the government is subsidizing their income? From an economic perspective, they will raise their rates! That is, the increasing enrollment of students in their organizations (increasing demand) will result in increasing prices. This is basic economics 101.
Charter schools are aware that all families have money in their pocket from the government. They are able freely increase their tuition because it is implied that families will attend their school no matter what their tuition amount is.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling is older than the public school system we are familiar with today. Homeschooling inherently offers the most education freedoms when compared with private and public school. Homeschool families are able to choose their own curriculum, go at their own pace, utilize extracurriculars and participate in co-ops and micro-schools. Homeschoolers have more control over their schedule. They have freedom of association when making friends and can choose their own teachers for their family. Homeschooling is also the most budget friendly option. Homeschool families have more medical freedom with their children.
School choice legislation hinders Homeschooling
Private school families are somewhat removed from school choice regulations: they don't have to participate in such regulations as long as they get their subsidy. So school choice bills largely do not affect them in a negative way. The major effect of school voucher programs is that they can presumably receive money that they can use for a taxpayer funded "private" school.
This is not true in the homeschool community. Many parents are surprised to learn that they cannot simply remove their child from public school to homeschool and then get the voucher, at least not easily. Every state has their own homeschool laws which may include testing, vaccination, curriculum requirements and school district communication protocols to name a few. The red tape and numerous "hoops families have to jump through" make homeschooling more complicated than it needs to be due to navigating the massive amount of tyrannical government overreach involved, and school choice programs only make things even more complicated.
And "Law-fare" (where a government's accusation of illegal activities is a punishment in of itself, which occurs without a judge or jury) is very common in the homeschool community. If a homeschool family does not follow any one of the homeschool legal steps correctly, the homeschool parents may face truancy claims, CPS reports and other serious legal consequences, all at discretion of the government officials. This is not education freedom.
Click for more information about why HSLDA is an important organization in the homeschool community.
Help Protect True Education Freedom
The education freedom community needs your help to stop these laws, including voucher programs and fraudulent "School Choice" schemes. I wish we could be informed voters who simply show up at the polls during an election after researching ballot initiatives. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We must all be proactive and diligent in protecting school choice (education freedom).
Our legal representatives often do not give us as option to vote on many important laws, like school choice bills. Instead, they write and vote on sometimes tyrannical laws in a congressional setting behind closed doors or with limited exposure to the public. This makes it so that instead of just showing up to vote a few times a year at the polls, American citizens have to contact our representatives, attend congressional hearings and have elaborate social media activist campaigns in order to protect our freedoms. We have to do this, as our freedom is at stake.
Join the fight. Some bills are good bills we hope to pass and some are dangerous. If your state has a school choice bill out, there is likely homeschool groups organizing practical ways to get involved.
We are veteran homeschoolers. We invite you to browse our website for more articles about navigating the homeschool world, encouragement when making friends and limiting screen time for your family.
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