https://reason.com/2024/08/05/homes...e-from-failing-schools-and-curriculum-fights/ Homeschooling Grows as an Escape from Failing Schools and Curriculum Fights Turned off by fumbling public schools and curriculum wars, families teach their own kids. J.D. TUCCILLE | 8.5.2024 7:00 AM North Carolina is one of the few states to keep detailed statistics on homeschoolers—who are famously resistant to scrutiny, and for good reason—and officials in the state recorded an interesting development this year. After dipping from a pandemic-era high when public schools were closed or generally making a poor job of remote learning, the ranks of homeschoolers have again begun to rise. With census figures showing similar growth elsewhere, we have further evidence that DIY education is here to stay. Homeschooling Surges Again In the Statistical Summary for Homeschools 2023–2024, compiled by the state's Department of Administration, the number of registered K–12 homeschools in North Carolina stands at 96,529. Each school can serve more than one student, and the estimated number of homeschooled K–12 students is 157,642. That's down from the peak of 112,614 registered homeschools serving an estimated 179,900 students during the chaos of 2020–2021, but up from 94,154 registered homeschools and 152,717 students last year. Before the pandemic, in 2019–2020, 94,863 homeschools served 149,173 students. For K–12 private schools, enrollment is up from 126,678 in 2022–2023 to 131,230 in 2023–2024. In 2019–2020, before the pandemic, North Carolina private schools had 103,959 students enrolled. By contrast, traditional public school enrollment is declining. "Traditional public schools have 1,358,003 students in 2023-24, losing 0.4% of students from last year to this year and down 3.6% overall from before COVID-19," according to Chantal Brown of EducationNC, which covers education issues in the state. "Charter schools have 139,985 students in 209 schools in 2023-24, gaining 4.9% over last year." North Carolina isn't alone. In May, Carly Flandro of Idaho Education News found, based on Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data, "about 6% of Idaho students were home-schooled, on average, during the past two school years. And the state data that is available shows increases since the height of the pandemic. At the same time, public school enrollment dipped this year for the first time since the 2020-21 school year." Newsweek's Suzanne Blake added that Texas also saw a rise in homeschooling in a continuation of a trend that began "even before the pandemic." A National Taste for DIY Education In fact, the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, which takes a continuing series of snapshots of data over the course of each year, shows a national increase among the ranks of homeschooled students from roughly 3.6 million in 2022–2023 to about 4 million this past year (there's variation depending on the snapshot you examine, so it's best to look for averages). Meanwhile, public school enrollment declines. Based on average of survey data from 2022–2023, Johns Hopkins University's Homeschool Hub, which compiles information about DIY education, estimates that 5.82 percent of American K-12 students were homeschooled that year. Of course, that's down from the height of the pandemic when public schools closed or just dropped the ball. "In the first week (April 23-May 5) of Phase 1 of the Household Pulse Survey, about 5.4% of U.S. households with school-aged children reported homeschooling," the Census Bureau reported of comparing data from the spring of 2020 to the fall of that year. "By fall, 11.1% of households with school-age children reported homeschooling (Sept. 30-Oct. 12)." But before the pandemic, the folks at the Homeschool Hub remind us, "homeschooled students between the ages of 5 and 17 made up 2.8% of the total student population in the United States in 2019." That means that, while a lot of families that took to homeschooling out of necessity returned to familiar public schools when they could, enough stuck with it to more than double the number of homeschooled kids. With COVID-19 and intrusive public health policies largely a bad memory, homeschooling continues as an increasingly popular practice as a matter of choice. Fleeing Public Schools… In a June article about declining public school enrollment in EducationWeek, Mark Lieberman explained that about half of the loss can be attributed to population changes as the number of kids declines, but about 20 percent fled to private alternatives and another 20 percent turned to homeschooling. (Another 10 percent are unaccounted for, though some probably skipped kindergarten and others may be in DIY arrangements such as homeschooling and microschools, but unreported.) Lieberman delved into the school choice programs that let education funds follow students to the options of their choice rather than being assigned to brick-and-mortar public schools. But he didn't examine what might drive families to abandon the familiar for education alternatives the require greater dedication and commitment. Disappointment with schools' pandemic responses clearly played a role in driving many families to try educating their own kids—and many liked the experience. But so do endless battles over how kids are taught and, especially, what is incorporated in the lessons presented to them by often deeply politicized schools. To please one faction of parents with spin that they like is to inherently alienate others. …To Escape Pointless Conflicts "Schools in many parts of the U.S. have become a battleground and parental involvement is one of the topics at the center," ABC News reported last September. "Fights in school board meetings, including in Chester County, [Pennsylvania] have erupted over how race, sexual orientation, gender and other topics are brought up, or taught, in the classroom." Families can fight school administrators and other parents in struggles that inevitably leave those on the losing side unhappy with lesson content. It makes sense for those who lose to withdraw their children from the public schools in favor of lesson plans and approaches that meet their standards. For that matter, it's tempting for even those on the winning side to forego the curriculum wars and just pick the education they like for their kids without battling their neighbors. Why argue with your ideological opponents over what should be taught when you can ignore them and teach your kids what you please? "When parents can choose where and how their children will be educated, they're no longer at the mercy of politicians and bureaucrats," the Cato Institute's Colleen Hroncich wrote in 2022. "That means they don't have to rely on political battles when it comes to education." That's undoubtedly a big part of the impetusmothe for recent school choice victories that expand options for families, as well as decisions parents and students make to embrace those options. Homeschooling and other education alternatives are on the rise because they're liberating, and they work.
100% of parents who withdrew their kids for culture wars unfortunately will not be capable of teaching their children calculus if they made babies that are curious about stem fields. 60% of them will be molested by someone in heir household because often homeschooling comes from a desire to isolate your children. Usually there aren't good reasons why parents want to isolate their children.
like 90% of the kids I knew growing up that were homeschooled were socially stunted…so awkward around kids their own age it was sad
Yup and the defense is often about how they do better academically but then you realize how much parents self report grades and the fact that the survives taken to determine these claims are from self reporting themselves as in a parent of a struggling homeschooling kid is more likely to refrain from doing the survey. It's a self reporting bias. In my field of mech engineering , I really haven't met a successful homeschooled engineer for example but that is my own anecdotal bias
Division of labor is a thing right? Parents are often good at providing nutrition, providing emotional support and even intellectual support when the children are you g and trying to do the basics like read and arithmetic. Parents at least the vast majority of parents are bad at things like instilling the baseline education to be successful in a STEM field for example. This is going to come as a shocker but most parents are bad at teaching basic differential calculus It's weird you resorted to some eugenics talking point. That's weird.
I'm not reading this. If you want to in good faith express your argument on your own words. I don't know how eugenics came into play about the concept that most parents are equipped to instil a intellectual curiosity towards fields like engineering. Public education has the benefit of properly funded to access to computers, lab equipment, teachers who know calculus etc. Most parents aren't equipped for that. They are equipped to teach early childhood education levels of language and arithmetic but beyond that they are ill equiped. Hence division of labor. But I'm curious how eugenics came into your head from that argument.
The requirements on reporting and testing is different for every state. https://hslda.org/legal I’d agree that nationwide the requirements should be at least on the moderate end, that being said parents should have the right to homeschool their children, given they can meet some basic requirements ensuring the children are getting a decent education.
No. We have the community to help raise kids from the short comings of the average parent. The average parent can't foster an intellectual curiosity in advanced mathematics. A public school can if the right funding and teachers exist. The parents are still integral to raising children but it takes a community to raise a child.
In general, I don't like the idea of home schooling. But some of the lack of social education is addressed by community projects of a group nature. They do theatrical and arts presentations, sometimes have athletic teams etc. It is by no means the same as attending school at campus, but there is some opportunities provided in at least some of the cases.
I dated a homeschooled girl once. Parents were the super religious, judgy type, and I'm pretty sure the father was abusive. Anyway, she was a freak. She was a lot of fun for a month or so until she went full crazy. I ran into her a few years ago and she has 2 kids from 2 different men and was still living with her parents.
this is true, but there are way too many “I’m 18 years old, and my main and pretty much only friends are my 12 year old sister and 8 year old brother”…the lack of proper socialization can be appalling, and I genuinely feel sorry for them
a lot of the time, home schooling is done because the parents are paranoid and mistrusting of the school system and other people in general…they are often overbearing helicopter type parents as well the kids suffer as a result
Homeschooling will be like 2020 when we get all the chatbots to replace unionized teachers. Thanks Project 2025!
A lot of homeschooling decisions are made by narcissistic abusive parents who want to keep the abuse behind closed doors. Homeschooling is perfect for abusive parents.
