When Anna Mock started homeschooling her kids over a decade ago, she had a second grader, a kindergartener and a $200 yearly budget between the two of them. It covered math and grammar lessons and some art supplies from Walmart. Whatever else she needed, she outsourced.

They went on field trips to free museums and hikes out in central Utah to learn more about the world around them. They maxed out their library checkouts, borrowing 70 books at a time from their local branch in Spanish Fork to pore over at home. They scrimped and saved to make do with what they had. And it all worked out just fine with that shoestring budget, at least for a while.

For generations, state governments funded only public education. If a family chose to bring up their children outside of the public school syste

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