Hacker News Reader

> You pay for the cost of government elementary schools even if you homeschool your kids.

Which means that your kids will live in society largely made up of people who have received some education. You could argue that there is more value in this than there is in providing parking.

View on HN

The argument is that he is paying double: for homeschooling and for other kids in public schools. Other parents are paying only for public schools even though they benefit from living in a society where kids not attending public school received education as well. I sympathize with parent's views but I think early education (say up to high school) is a good thing to put in a common basket. If you want to home school you need to do well enough to be able to afford it which filters out people who shouldn't be homeschooling at least a bit.

Agreed. Pare it back to someone who doesn't have kids. If I had no kids I would still want a society where most people are generally educated. I benefit from that public good.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com