The Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank in Boston, estimates the savings are roughly $22 billion annually.

“The homeschool families are paying their taxes, their property taxes, their local taxes, of course, their state and local taxes, and a small percentage of those go to the state and federal departments of education, and an even smaller percentage back to the local schools,” explains Will Estrada, director of Federal Relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association. “But then the homeschooling families are not using services from the public schools.”

Estrada

As of last year, an estimated two million students were being homeschooled, and Estrada says there may come a time when homeschool families demand some fairness.

“It is a little unfair for homeschoolers and for private schoolers that we are helping to support the public schools,” he points out. “No one is against that, but I think there’s starting to be a growing chorus that there has to be some sort of fairness for homeschool families.”

The state benefitting taxpayers the most is California, which enjoys $1.8 billion in annual savings.