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Home Schooling: An Alternative School Choice
Author(s) -
Houston Robert G.,
Toma Eugenia F.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00540.x
Subject(s) - school choice , unit (ring theory) , quality (philosophy) , educational attainment , home school , demographic economics , empirical evidence , public economics , business , economics , economic growth , sociology , psychology , pedagogy , mathematics education , market economy , philosophy , epistemology
There is a fairly large, evolving literature on school choice. This literature addresses the factors that influence the choice between schools in the public and private sectors. Overlooked by this literature, however, is the growing segment of school enrollment in home schools. This article empirically examines the decision to educate children at home. The empirical results suggest that the decision to home school depends on the expected quality of schooling the home unit can produce relative to that available from alternatives. More specifically, our results indicate that women's educational attainment helps explain home school enrollment, that greater heterogeneity of income within a public school district increases home enrollment, and that stricter regulations decrease home school enrollment.