Froma Harrop

About the author: Froma Harrop is a syndicated columnist.

Because home-schooled children are isolated from the community, home schooling hides any evidence of instability and child abuse within the family. A number of high-profile cases of homeschooling parents abusing their children highlights the need for more extensive evaluation of home schooling's effects on children. Home-schooling advocates garner support for alternative education by arguing that home-schooled children score high academically. However, these students generally come from upper-income, well-educated families, the types of families whose children also perform well in public schools.

America's most famous home-schooling parents at the moment are Andrea Yates and JoAnn McGuckin. Yates allegedly drowned her five children in a Houston suburb. McGuckin was arrested and charged with child neglect in Idaho. Her six kids barricaded themselves in...