Using an article from the Washington County News, Lisa Dyess of Millry, in a recent Letter to the Editor to The South Alabmaian, quoted David Davis, Washington County Board of Education Truancy Officer: "The main problem we face comes with parents telling us their children are being homeschooled and yet they are not in school receiving an education. These cases have been neglected in the past and I am going to make sure that they start receiving attention."

Dyess made the point (accurately) that Alabama has two ways parents can legally homeschool: tutoring by a certified teacher or parent(s) teaching under the umbrella of a church related school.

Davis’ quote is ambiguous in that it is not clear whether he meant that the homeschooling parents are not following through, or homeschool is inferior to public school? Dr. Lawrence M. Ruder, with the College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland did exhaustive research in 1998 comparing public schools, private schools and homeschool students. Dr. Ruder is a former director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation and he has been in quantitative analysis for over 30 years. His two children attend public schools.

Everything that follows is taken from Rudner’s findings, published in 1999.