And I appreciate the efforts of Lindalyn, the Friedman Foundation, the Institute for Justice, and all the others who are working to develop the inside of the educational spectrum. Like I’ve said to a number of them, I support them on principle and will rejoice with their success at opening up more options for families who may not be able to “go all the way” and teach at home. Studies and surveys have repeatedly shown the home education community, both parents and students, are very active politically, and I think most of the candidates who value their participation have an open mind to alternatives to the BLOB … so perhaps indirectly, the support is there, Lindalyn, just not in a lobbying context.
Roy and I are simply making the point that the homeschooling community is very effective protecting their own position from attack, but they don’t mobilize the same way for proposals that don’t connect directly to what they’ve sacrificed to pursue. I think their remarkable level of engagement on particular issues is sometimes mistaken for a portable electoral force, and it’s not. For that matter, it’s not even monolithic, as some educational choice proponents have found in neighboring states.
