Support homeschool families

I was a home school advisor at Twindly Bridge for 7 years. During that time, I worked with a lot of great families. In most instances, stay-at-home moms taught their children. For many families, this works great. For reasons ranging from religion to the desire to spend more time with their children, these moms are already staying at home, so homeschooling is not a noticeable financial burden. Other families enroll their children in private schools. Again, for those who can afford the tuition, this works great.

My wife and I chose to homeschool 1 of our 3 children over the last couple years. As a consequence, my wife has not been able to pursue a full time job. The impact on our finances has been huge. We are definitely not able to save as much for retirement as we should. Luckily, thanks to my job and our relatively frugal lifestyle, we are able to make it work.

I mention this because several homeschool parents have testified to legislators over the past couple weeks. Some claimed they are able to do a better job with $2200 per student than our schools can do with much more. Please remember that we are fortunate to be able to homeschool. For most of the students I now have at Teeland Middle School, homeschooling is not a viable alternative for a variety of reasons ranging from the need for both parents to work, to single parent families, to incarcerated parents.

I admit our public schools are not perfect. There will always be room for improvement. But, like it or not, public schools are by far the most economical way to ensure every child has access to a quality education. Private schools may be doing a good job, but they exist thanks in large part to generous donations and teachers who are working for far less than they are worth (most could easily find better paying jobs).

When you talk with your friends, families, fellow parishioners, legislators, and when you vote, keep my students in mind. I know advocating for students you’ve never met is a stretch, but we need you. Homeschool families make up a good portion of our community. Without your support, our public schools will only get worse.

Michael Backus,

Wasilla