Homeschool Hints Podcast · Midwest Parent Educators - MPE

Deborah Burns: How medical transcription can help homeschool families

·22 min·1 clip

Deborah Burns expected homeschooling to fail, then says it became “the best thing that ever happened to us.”

Shansi opens by asking Deborah Burns to share her story for homeschool moms. Deborah starts with her long career in corporate America and the choice to start her own business. That choice mattered even more after her son was born with health issues. Working from home let her stay close to him while he needed more care. Her husband’s teaching job at a Christian private school gave their son a place to attend, and for a while that seemed to work. Then, around seventh grade, their son said he hated it there and was miserable. Deborah says they did not yet understand ADHD, even though he was clearly hyperactive. They tried the usual things, including soccer and avoiding medication, but he still wanted to be homeschooled. She said no at first. That tension feels familiar to many parents trying to protect a child without losing the family’s sense of order. The conversation then turns to the realities of medical transcription as a work-from-home field. Deborah explains that independent contractors do not get the same benefits as employees on site. There is no employer-paid social security, unemployment, workers’ compensation, or health insurance. The tradeoff, she says, is that large medical facilities often offer sign-on bonuses, retirement plans, and strong benefits to onsite staff. She also talks through the tax benefits of working from home. She can deduct part of her house payment or rent based on office space, along with utilities and even some pool maintenance when it is tied to business use. Travel to homeschool conferences can also count as a deduction. Deborah is blunt that these details matter. She also talks about the appeal of setting her own schedule. She describes herself as a morning person, while some of the people she works with prefer to work all night as long as the work is back the next day. That flexibility let her son work beside her at the desk and learn how to run a business. She says that experience helped shape him into someone who now owns his own business. The conversation also looks at how the field has changed over time. Deborah, who has been working since the mid-1980s, notes the common confusion between medical transcription and medical billing and coding. The host asks whether AI might help with some of the work, which leads into a practical discussion of how the profession actually functions. Near the end, Deborah returns to discipline. She says homeschooling takes discipline, and medical transcription does too. The tone stays steady, open, and familiar throughout. Deborah even invites viewers to email her directly, saying she stays responsive during the week and checks messages even after church on Sundays.

As heard by us

A grounded story about making homeschooling and work fit together without pretending it is simple.

Deborah Burns gives a plainspoken account of homeschooling while holding down work and family duties. She moves from corporate America to a home-based medical transcription business, then into raising a son who had health issues at birth and later wanted to be homeschooled after…

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Hear a homeschool parent explain how work, care, and school can share the same table.

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