> but you can really boil it down to "let smart, wealthy parents homeschool their kids without social media scorn"
The whole reason smart people are engaging in this debate in the first place is that professional educators keep trying to train their sights on smart wealthy parents homeschooling their kids.
By the way, this small fraction of the population is responsible for the driving the bulk of R&D.
I mean, I'm fine addressing Tabarrok's argument head on: I think there's far more to gain helping the millions of kids/adults who are functionally illiterate than helping the small number of gifted kids the educational system is underserving. His argument is essentially "these kids will raise the tide and lift all boats", but it's clear that although the tide has been rising for generations (advances in the last 60-70 years are truly breathtaking) more kids are being left behind, not fewer. There's no reason to expect this dynamic to change unless we tackle it directly.
The whole reason smart people are engaging in this debate in the first place is that professional educators keep trying to train their sights on smart wealthy parents homeschooling their kids.
By the way, this small fraction of the population is responsible for the driving the bulk of R&D.