The politics of homeschools: Religious conservatives and regulation requirements

• Supports the growing body of literature suggesting the culture wars are still relevant to understanding US politics.
• Adds to research suggesting that education policy-making is a key area to examine the role of religiosity.
• Demonstrates that evangelicals are important factors to consider when analyzing state homeschool regulations.
• Finds that evangelicals are significant predictors of state home school notification requirements.

Over the last few decades, the number of homeschools in the United States (US) has grown, and a large proportion is attributed to increases in religiously affiliated homeschools (Kunzman, 2009). However, empirical analyses of the relationship between religion and homeschooling are lacking. This analysis begins to fill that void using a culture wars framework, and indicates that states with higher percentages of evangelical residents are less likely to regulate homeschooling. Consistent with Deckman's (2004) claim, these findings demonstrate the culture wars are active in education policymaking.