As readers of Homeschooling: a Family’s Journey may recall, we have always paid close attention to the relationship between homeschooling, economics, and lifestyle. The global financial crisis that began shortly after publication of our book led us attempt to identify the best places to live for homeschoolers. The reason was simple: income was uncertain and costs were rising relentlessly in New Jersey. Could we keep affording this place? Was it worth it? Was there a better place to be?
In order to answer those questions for ourselves, we tried to consider all of the factors that make places particularly good to live for homeschoolers. Our conversations with other homeschoolers indicate that many people across the country are asking the same questions we were asking about their own states. So we present the preliminary results of our own analysis here, with more to come over the next few weeks.
In the Best Places To Live for Homeschoolers project, we rank states according to such factors as:
- Economic: cost of living, cost of housing, taxes, cost of health insurance, employment, support for small business and entrepreneurship.
- Cultural: rates of college education, marriage, church attendance, library use, mental health, state productivity, etc.
- Civic: volunteering, voter turnout, political corruption and government transparency.
This information can be accessed in spreadsheet form here.
Many of the factors might matter to anyone. However, we think that some are particularly important to homeschoolers. Research and our own experience suggest that homeschoolers are entrepreneurial, involved in civics, and likely to make use of cultural opportunities such as museums and libraries.
The top ten states in our preliminary analysis may be surprising. They are:
1) Wyoming
2) South Dakota
3) Colorado
4) Michigan
5) Utah
6) Kansas
7) Nebraska
8 ) Idaho
9) Iowa
10) Virginia
In addition, we will include in our analysis certain indicators that will be directly and primarily important to homeschoolers. We have developed what we call the homeschool intensity index. This index is the ratio of the number of homeschool groups in a state to its population. The higher the index, the greater the intensity of homeschooling in the state. We also consider the burden of regulation on homeschoolers. We will be posting more information about this in a few days.
Of course, homeschoolers are a diverse bunch, and most would not welcome being told what is best for them. So we plan to make spreadsheets and charts interactive. This way, users can choose to weight factors differently depending on their preferences. For example, one of our data sources for homeschool regulation is the HSL DA. Some people love it, and some loathe it. The interactive feature will allow you to make your own decision about whether to include this data in your own assessment. Please check back fo this feature.
We hope that this project will be interesting and useful to homeschoolers. We would like to ask for your help and input to make it better. For example, we would like to go beyond the state level to provide people with advice on individual communities within the states we have selected. We would also like to have a conversation about these findings. We have provided a forum in which this conversation can take place and we hope you will participate. After all, you know your state and your neighborhood best.
We also welcome your advice about how to improve this analysis for the future. Thank you.
Greg
7 responses so far ↓
1 mstmompj // Apr 21, 2010 at 5:30 pm
One way to improve the analysis would be not to rely so heavily on HSLDA’s input. Another would be to consider lack of regulation of homeschoolers. Texas, Indiana, and Illinois are far more homeschool-friendly states than most on your top ten list. What about California, Washington, New Mexico, and Alaska–all long- time homeschool hotbeds? It’s laughable to consider some states on your list homeschool-friendly; many of them have seriously challenged homeschoolers’ freedoms over the years.
2 Clarifying the Rankings “Best Places to Live for Homeschoolers” | Homeschooling: A Family's Journey // Apr 22, 2010 at 1:30 am
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3 Tim Myles // Apr 22, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Wow, and I thought we were the only nerds who did this sort of thing. My wife and I developed a spreadsheet and database with many of these same factors in trying to reach our decision. Some factors had heavier weighting depending on our preferences, and, of course, it had to be blind so we could each weigh our preferences independent of the other’s influence! Funny. I second the comment above about considering which states are homeschool friendly. Also important to us were taxes, general philosophy toward gov’t intervention (hard to measure), proximity to mountains and the ocean, and vaccine regulation (exemptions). It was a hard decision but NH came out on top!
4 Russell // Apr 24, 2010 at 1:40 am
I’m a big wary of trusting this data.
I think what you did is great, but I’m not sure of what I am seeing or the formulas used to come up with the final 1-10 ranking in each category. It seems like there had to be an interprative layer between the actual data and how you you chose to give it a 1-10 ranking.
If, for each category, you could explain where the data was gathered (or how -method) and what your formula or weighting system was to come up with the 1-10 or each, that would be helpful in using the data.
For example, I see that Idaho has a huge population density rating of 9, but CA is only 3. How can that be?
Is the data telling me that higher density is better? Or is it trying to tell me that CA has lower density than ID (which is not the case).
I’d love to be able to make use of your research to help our decision making, but I have to know how it came about and how it is interpretted first.
Thanks so much.
5 lrm // Sep 1, 2010 at 7:59 pm
bottom line is: there is no list that will fit everyone…so no need to use someone else’s criteria in making your decision….americans all want a ‘package’…where do i buy the book or guide? lol.
That said, of course the work of others can benefit and provide resources/inspiration/ideas….
Thanks for your efforts in outlining homeschool friendly states.
Not sure why the person mentioned CA, etc. when one of the criteria was affordability.
But, CA is a good place to hs—we do it and are pleased with the climate of overall acceptance, support resources, and a billion different public homeschool programs for those who want them.
6 AnonE // May 27, 2011 at 7:21 pm
I’ve homeschooled in New Mexico, Illinois & Colorado and must affirm that Colorado is, by far, the best homeschooling community we’ve experienced. We’re also very familiar with Arizona’s homeschooling regulations and community. Although the legal side of things may be much easier in AZ, NM & IL, the homeschool groups, activities, resources and general attitude of the community toward homeschooling is no where near as positive and supportive as it is in CO (a state with more regulations). I don’t believe these regulations add anything positive; however, the overall support of the community outweighs the additional regulations. I’m new to the state and have been astounded by the support, resources and positive attitudes home educators receive in Colorado (I’m speaking about COS/DEN areas, in particular). The public libraries here even host Science labs and market a newsletter to homeschoolers, in addition to a section on the library’s website for homeschooling families. I think things like this are indicative of a larger trend in this community toward supporting homeschooling families.
7 Alison // Nov 2, 2011 at 4:11 am
I don’t really agree with this. CA, TX, MS, and OK seem so much more relaxed in their requirements and for me that’s all that really matters. The rest is really comparable by other means as far as safety, population, air quality and other findings such as these…
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