ABSTRACT
Home-schooling represents perhaps the most radical reform of the U.S. education system (Lines, 2000). The ultimate form of privatization, the education of children who home-school is typically privately funded, privately provided, and largely privately regulated. In essence, home-schooling gives primacy to private interests in education over a broader public interest, with limited oversight and legal action by government authorities (Buss, 2000). With the development of the Internet, the distinction between home-schooling and distance learning has essentially blurred. Most distance learning takes place at home. Most home-schoolers use the Internet to obtain some instructional materials such as syllabi and curricula. Moreover, some home-schoolers receive instruction through the Internet; these students might be as accurately called “cyber-schoolers” rather than home-schoolers. So, as the “distance” aspect of distance learning is covered elsewhere in this volume (see rural schooling), the focus here is on home-schooling in all its forms. The effi cacy of cyber or Web-based learning per se is not discussed.
