What if . . . Institutionalized Schooling Edition, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

And so on to the hypothetical: What if all the schools (public and private) in the US were closed tomorrow?

Well, let's ignore for now the uproar it would cause. Besides that, I think a number of interesting things would or might happen:

1) More parents would stay home with their kids and assume the responsibility of educating them. They would seek out other folks in a similar situation and collaborate to find the most effective way of doing it. Because of more parents leaving the work force, it would affect . . .

2) . . . unemployment. I have no idea how this would work, but it seems that unemployment would decrease, as more jobs would be open. (Though there would be an influx of unemployed teachers that would need to find new work as well)

3) No more tax money would be spent on these schools. These families going from two incomes down to one could get additional tax rebates to help keep the boat afloat, so to speak. This would be another incentive for a parent to stay home. I don't know about the rest of the money (presumably in the hundreds of millions(?) . . . could we keep it, perhaps? I'm not sure how the economy would be impacted by 2) and 3) . . .

4) Many children would thrive; many would not. I think that the learning that happens in a homeschooling environment (the way that our peers do it, at least) is far superior than it's public school counterpart. Thousands of children who did not find fulfillment in schools will be astonished at the wonders of exploring things in a way that's not mandated by the government.

There's no question that thousands of children with poor home lives would be worse off . . . I don't have a good answer for this. Maybe small schools could be set up for those children that need to get out of their houses for 30 hours a week? Just a few to a classroom though . . .

5) Non-governmental schools would be set up. With teachers out of a job, and parents who refuse to give up that second income, is it possible that new schools could be formed, without governmental regulations? Maybe it's just glorified homeschooling; a teacher with 10 kids, all exploring different things with an adult to guide them . . .


I don't know, maybe I'm on to something . . . what am I not thinking of?