Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

How have homeschool curriculum providers been able to compete with the public schools? Today on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Smith takes a look at the benefits of living in a free society.

Mike Smith:
Four billion dollars annually is the recent estimate for the public school textbook market. By comparison, the homeschool market is 850 million dollars.


But that four billion dollars is divided by 45 million public school students and the homeschoolers number just two million. These numbers show that it's homeschoolers who are investing the most in curriculum materials by a 5-to-1 ratio, which helps to explain why homeschoolers generally succeed in their education.


How did this happen? The free market is the key.


Veteran homeschoolers were able to produce materials they thought would sell in the homeschool market. There was no need to work through huge committees and prepare for lengthy hearings the way public schools have to select their curriculum. All you needed was your own effort.


Most homeschool families want the best curriculum materials available and the place to buy them is from homeschool entrepreneurs.


People respond to incentives and the incentives in the homeschool market are clear. More high-quality products are in the pipeline.


Please join us next time when we'll talk about curriculum as it pertains to high school. And until that time, I'm Mike Smith.