Home schooling legislation and its diffusion

My dissertation examines the diffusion of home schooling legislation throughout the fifty states. It explores why home schooling has evolved into the most popular alternative to public and private schools today. Diffusion analysis is used to examine how home school policy is generated, adopted, and implemented throughout the states. I also assess the long term prospects of home schooling throughout the United States.;The following questions are addressed: Why did certain states adopt home schooling legislation and others not? Why did some states adopt the legislation earlier than others? What states that have not adopted are likely to do so? To answer these questions, I use event history analysis. Several state level characteristics are associated with higher odds of enacting home schooling legislation including the percentage of residents adhering to a fundamentalist religion, per pupil expenditures, Democratic Party control of state government, teachers per capita, and location in the Northeast region.;I review different forms of home schooling legislation and how these have diffused across the states. A reinvention study shows that states primarily consider their own internal politics when enacting home schooling legislation. There is a tendency for home schooling laws to become more restrictive over time.;I assess the implementation of home schooling laws using data from a survey of state level officials. State governments have not done much to enforce home schooling laws, something that has not changed over time.;I test for factors responsible for differences across the states in the percentage of home schooled students. Using multiple regression analysis, I show that states with more mobile populations have a higher percentage of home schooled students.;Finally, I compare the diffusion of home schooling to that of charter schools and school vouchers. Teacher's unions and racial segregation are important components in the success or failure in the diffusion of such programs.;My study demonstrates the importance of diffusion processes in understanding the evolution of home schooling. It shows how and why school choice alternatives emerge and is relevant to the debate regarding their impact on the public educational system as a whole.