Texas Gov. Greg Abbott picks homeschooler to chair State Board of Education

Anti-intellectualism at it's finest or can a balance be struck? 

The issue is not homeschooling versus traditional schooling per se but, that someone may have an agenda that is detrimental to a child's education as a whole.  An issue Amanda Marcotte notes for Slate:

Bahorich is one of the quieter members of the board, largely going along with the board's radical right-wing agenda, which has included voting to approve history textbooks that claim Moses helped shape democracy, show sympathy with Joseph McCarthy, and argue country music is culturally relevant but hip-hop is not,,,.  But the school board battles that Republicans have been waging in Texas have nothing to do with improving the quality of the state's public schools. Most of these efforts are about making the education experience less educational, by injecting conservative propaganda into history class and religious dogma into science class. Texas is bent on undermining public schools, not fixing them. This appointment only serves as further proof.

An individual with a background with homeschooling might, conceivably be a good candidate - as in fixing issues that caused them to choose that option - but not if that person denounces the public school system. Nobody belongs in a job they don't believe should exist.

According to Texas Public Radio, Bahorich homeschooled her own sons before sending them to a private high school.

The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group, warned that Bahorich would “put culture war agendas ahead of educating more than 5 million Texas kids.”

“If Gov. Abbott wanted to demonstrate that he won’t continue his predecessor’s efforts to politicize and undermine our state’s public schools, this appointment falls far short,” Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said in a statement. “The governor has appointed as board chair an ideologue who voted to adopt new textbooks that scholars sharply criticized as distorting American history, who rejected public education for her own family and who supports shifting tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private and religious schools through vouchers.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott picks homeschooler to chair State Board of Education