In response to the article "Home is no place for school" by Dennis L. Evans, while Mr. Evans is entitled to his opinion, his opinion is dangerous, ignorant, and misguided.

When Mr. Evans states, "while not significant in terms of the number of children involved," he is incorrect. There were approximately 1.2 million home schooled children in the nation in 1996 (Ray 1997), comparable to the public school populations of the states of Georgia or New Jersey, which have the 9th and 10th largest public school populations nationwide respectively.

Mr. Evans also asserts, "Research on student achievement overwhelmingly supports the ''common-sense'' logic that the most important factor affecting student learning is teacher competency. While some parents may be competent to teach very young children, that competence will wane in more advanced grades as the content and complexity increases." This is misdirection and incorrect. In a nationwide study of 5,402 home school students, research found that home schooled children on average scored 30 percentile points higher than the public school average in every subject area. Additionally, home schooled children on average scored in the 67th percentile on the SAT, compared to the 50th percentile on average for public school children. (Ray 1997) As an example, home schooled children had nearly double the acceptance rate at Stanford in 1999 than did publicly schooled children (The Stanford Daily, Feb. 22, 2000).

Finally, Mr. Evans postulates, "The isolation implicit in home teaching is anathema to socialization and citizenship. It is a rejection of community and makes the home-schooler the captive of the orthodoxies of the parents." This is incorrect. Home schooled children have significantly fewer behavioral problems than publicly schooled children (Shyers, 1992). Private and home schooled children are also more involved in civic life than those schooled in public schools (Smith, Skikkink 1999).

Mr. Evans is dangerously out of touch with the true state of affairs of education in America today. Uninformed opinions such as his encourage the drafting of onerous laws preventing or seriouly impeding the practice of home schooling.