Homeschool Oklahoma: Why we don’t want the option of “Free Money”

Last week, I posted a guest op-ed, The dangers 'school choice' brings to the homeschool community. Here's a similar article from Homeschool Oklahoma (formerly OCHEC, for you fellow old-timers) on the topic of the dangers posed by the new Parental Choice Tax Credit for homeschoolers.

Why We Don’t Want the Option of “Free Money”

Originally published February 7, 2025 | Jonathan Bartlett, HSOK President

Many people are surprised at Homeschool Oklahoma’s position regarding vouchers or voucher-like (i.e., tax credit) payments to homeschoolers. While many people understand the basic idea that accepting government money involves accepting government strings (now or in the future), the same people often don’t understand why we don’t want it even as an option. Why are we against giving people the option of having public money, as long as it isn’t forced?

Let me outline several.

The Presumption of Goodwill of Homeschooling

While there are many people who don’t like homeschooling, most people recognize that homeschooling families are at least trying in their own way to do the right thing. Even if they think we are misguided, they presume that we are at least misguided in an attempt to help our children.

Why is that?

The fact is that homeschooling is not an easy option. If I wanted to be self-centered, the easier path would be sending the children away to a place where they would be watched, educated, and fed for free where they are someone else’s concern. There is no reason to “fake” homeschooling. If you want to be self-serving and indulgent, having kids around isn’t the best way to do it.

Let us imagine the same self-serving person but in an environment where the government supplies significant money for homeschooling. What do you think self-centered people will do when free money is available? I can guarantee you that an expansive homeschooling voucher-like option will encourage immoral people to pretend they are homeschooling to collect a paycheck.

Now you have the worst of both worlds: the children of immoral parents are being pulled out of school to be cash cows for their parents, and the true homeschooling parents are now viewed suspiciously as if they are stealing public money to fund their personal lives.

It doesn’t matter if you personally take the voucher in this situation. You can’t show your tax returns and say, “See, I promise I’m not one of the freeloaders!” No one will know, and no one will care. We will all just be lumped together.

If you think CPS is a danger now, wait until homeschooling becomes the bastion of government freeloaders. In fact, in a personal conversation with a legislator during Capitol Day, the legislator said that he thought that Swope’s bill to regulate homeschooling was a reaction to people abusing the foster care system in a similar way.

Impact on the Homeschooling Community

Having vouchers available will severely undermine the wider homeschooling community. If only 25% of homeschoolers take the voucher, what will that do to the homeschool community at large?

For the money to be helpful to homeschoolers, co-ops will have to accept the funds in payment. If that happens, the curriculum of the entire co-op will then have government money strings attached. That means that the education freedom of every student in the co-op will be compromised, even if they didn’t take the money themselves.

Even if a small minority of the homeschooling population takes the voucher, it will entangle the entire homeschooling ecosystem of Oklahoma in a web of government control, where every community, organization, and business will be asking themselves, “how should I shift what I’m doing to accommodate more of what the government is pushing?”

Impact on the Homeschooling Market

Another impact that is certain to happen is on the price of homeschooling. What is the current largest government education voucher system? That’s right, college. What do we know about college costs? Are they going up or down? If you guessed “up,” you would be right! College tuition has increased at a rate that far surpasses inflation.

Now, let’s look at K-12 private education. Since the voucher program started in Oklahoma, Oklahoma’s private schools have raised their prices significantly. Strangely, some have raised their tuition by almost precisely the amount of the voucher.

We know that government funding increases the costs of what it funds. That is a well-established fact, and it is exceptionally well-established in the education market.

Sadly, if I am a homeschooling parent who doesn’t take the voucher, I can’t wave a magic wand and only pay the pre-voucher prices for everything. Again, I’m stuck with the negative outcomes of the voucher even if I never took a single cent.

Training New Parents

The benefits of homeschooling freedom aren’t immediately obvious to most families when they start. Most people start homeschooling because they are trying to solve a specific problem: learning difficulties, social problems, or even physical disabilities. These parents are just trying to figure things out. They only later realize, ” Wow, this is amazing—I had no idea what education freedom can do for my family!”

Now, let’s consider the same family under a voucher system. They decide to homeschool for the same reason but then take state money to “help.” Because of this, they are locked into the state’s way of thinking and never conceive that their homeschool could be more than a tiny replica of what the public school is doing.

The voucher system essentially bribes people who are just leaving the public system to stay within its orbit, and those who have not tasted the free air don’t know what they are missing out on. Even if they didn’t take the money to begin with, organizations would undoubtedly spring up that specialize in convincing parents to take the money and spend it with them. It’s “free,” after all.

For individuals, being continually pressured and prodded by every organization at every instance to take free money eventually leads to compromise and then the normalization of compromise. After some time, this reduced the power and independence of the homeschool community, acting as a corrupting force on the whole institution.

The government is essentially incentivizing businesses to prey upon new homeschoolers to suck them back into the system they are trying to leave. This not only keeps people from discovering their own freedom, but it also diminishes the whole community, relegating freedom to a backwater concept.

Handouts are a Drug

There are a lot of legitimate purposes of government, and even government money. However, here’s the deal – government handouts are a drug. Once you are addicted to the money, you can’t let it go, even if you realize it is harmful. Additionally, since everyone needs money, many people can’t say no.

If drug dealers come into our community, we don’t say, “oh, that’s fine, just as long as it’s a choice then that means that everything is good.” No. The practical fact is that human nature will lead many people to make bad choices in difficult moments. If you don’t believe me, think about the explosion in the usage of weed since it was semi-legalized.

What does the handout money do? It changes the ways families prioritize and spend money. It changes what programs you choose to involve yourself with. What happens when the strings come? It is more than just “not taking the credit now,” it is disentangling your life from your previous choices. It makes the drug harder to refuse.

The facts are simple. Government handouts are a drug. Drugs are bad. And we don’t want legislators dealing in our neighborhoods.

Jonathan Bartlett and his wife Christa have homeschooled their three sons since 2006. Jonathan is a software developer in Tulsa, and serves the homeschool community by tutoring with Classical Conversations, writing STEM-oriented textbooks, and serving as the President of Homeschool Oklahoma. He also is a regular writer for the tech blog MindMatters.ai.

Below is a related podcast, also from Bartlett: