The US Department of Education loves a culture war. 

Last month, Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan called homeschooling “trickle down stupidity” on their podcast, and it set the internet ablaze. The US Department of Education decided to chime into the discussion, and clapped back on X, saying “the only thing that is stupid is your ignorance.” If homeschool moms weren’t already on fire, they were now, with the apparent endorsement of the federal government. 

Here’s the thing–Jennifer and Angie aren’t completely wrong.

I’m a homeschool graduate and I grew up knowing that dinosaurs and humans never co-existed. In my childhood home, the earth was fully round, but my experience is only one among the estimated 5-6 million children homeschooled in the United States. As someone who works in the education policy space and a proud homeschool alumna, I’ll co-sign the sentiments shared that homeschooling can be extraordinarily weird–but there’s a lot more to the conversation. 

Homeschooling is a lifeline for families whose kids aren’t safe in traditional schools–queer kids in deeply conservative areas, children of color targeted for violence. It’s also, plain and simple, the best way to meet the educational needs of some kids. More secular, progressive families are choosing to homeschool than ever before, and resources available for those children have exploded. 

However, the insular, conservative homeschooling described by the hosts still represents a huge swathe of homeschooling families. Some parents do isolate their children, subject them to indoctrination, and thwart their access to an open future. As a country, we’ve allowed, supported, and voted for a policy landscape that makes childhoods like these possible. 

In most states, any baseline accountability measures for homeschooled children have been methodically stripped away, leaving gaping holes in a safety net. No state requires a homeschooled child to come into contact with a mandated reporter. 11 states do not even require homeschooling parents to tell anyone they are homeschooling. 47 states allow withdrawal from school during an active CPS or DCF investigation. 48 states currently allow people convicted of violent and sexual crimes against children to homeschool (this Marion, Iowa case is just one example). 

This is the policy space considered acceptable for homeschooled children. It’s the environment legislators have created, pushed by the parental-rights agenda that ignores the states’ responsibilities to its most vulnerable constituents. Policy isn’t just policy, though: it’s the reality for many vulnerable children across the country who do not have the support systems and safety nets that traditional schools offer. 

A child does not become less deserving of an education, a safe home, and an open future because their parent chooses a different educational setting.

As a professional who champions safe, responsible homeschooling, it’s frustrating to see these risks minimized and children caught in this ecosystem dismissed as destined for a limited worldview and limited opportunities. On every social media platform, the Department of Education’s post has been further amplified with readers making sweeping statements claiming homeschool superiority (and backing these up with limited, cherry-picked research). Homeschooling research is notoriously methodologically messy, but studies have found lower college attendance among homeschool graduates and higher levels of reported social isolation among homeschool alumni. I’m not in the business of judging others’ choices, but at a baseline, children have a right to an adequate education and a safe home.

The Department of Education shouldn’t be trading jabs at podcasters on X- but it absolutely should be paying attention to the policy failures that leave some homeschooled children unprotected.

Two things can be true. We can celebrate what homeschooling offers, and we can acknowledge that we all have a responsibility to protect children. That means establishing reasonable policy guardrails to protect vulnerable children whose parents choose to homeschool. 

Oh, and another truth? Nobody wants the Department of Education becoming the department of culture wars.