To paraphrase Murray Rothbard’s great quote about economics: It is no crime to be ignorant about the subject of homeschooling, which is, after all, a specialized discipline. But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on homeschooling while remaining in this state of ignorance.

I guess “progressive” Dick Cavett thought he would be preaching to the choir when he wrote this ignorant diatribe against homeschooling in The New York Times.

While there are the usual comments by ignoramuses who have no idea what homeschooling is about (One reader writes: “Would all of the engineers, scientists, and surgeons out there who were homeschooled please stand up.” Obviously, this “informed” person doesn’t realize that homeschoolers attend college just like State schoolers.), one of the best of the many pro-homeschooling comments is made by an informed reader in which he lists the statistics comparing the standardized test scores of homeschoolers versus State schoolers:

Had Mr. Cavett even attempted the slightest amount of research on homeschooling, he would have found homeschooled students routinely out-perform their public schooled counterparts. As a result, most colleges today embrace homeschooled applicants. Some even go out of their way to find them. And why wouldn’t they, considering that a 2010 study published in the Journal of College Admissions determined that homeschoolers:

• Had a higher average ACT/SAT score (26.5 vs. 25 on the ACT)
• Had a higher freshman GPA (3.37 vs. 3.08)
• Had a higher graduation rate (66.7% vs. 57.5%)
• Had a higher average GPA at graduation (3.41 vs. 3.11)

UPDATE: Apropos the reader who assumes that no homeschoolers become, among other things, scientists, Heidi Crimmin writes:

“That would include Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project and director of the National Institutes of Health (homeschooled on a small farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley).”

And Daniel Woolley sent this website which contains lists of famous people in different professions who were homeschooled.