Almost half of parents turning to homeschooling today say they are concerned about their children being “influenced by liberal viewpoints,” according to a Washington Post and George Mason University poll released Tuesday.
The number of American families that are homeschooling saw a significant spike following the COVID-19 pandemic, with one study finding that the number had risen by 30% during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Urban Institute. A new poll found that, when asked why they decided to homeschool, 46% of families replied that they were worried that “local public schools” are “too influenced by liberal viewpoints,” according to the Post. (RELATED: Biden Admin Set To Deport German Family Who Sought Asylum After Being Persecuted For Homeschooling)
Parents have grown increasingly dissatisfied with public schools in recent months after a series of controversies regarding policies that hide preferred pronouns from parents and allow transgender students to use whatever bathroom or locker room they wish. State lawmakers have waded into the debate by passing legislation to provide more transparency and protect parental rights, while some government officials have punished school districts for not pushing transgender and LGBTQ ideology in the classroom.
Leslie Cortez, a Mexican and US citizen, helps her son Andree attend a homeschool class while feeding her daughter Pia Renee, at their house in Tijuana, Baja California state, in Mexico on October 6, 2020. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
Traditionally, faith has been the primary motivation for homeschooling, but the poll found that religious reasons for taking children out of public schools had dropped by 30% since 2012, according to the Post. However, 68% of parents cite a desire to provide “moral instruction” as one of the reasons to opt out of public schooling and nearly half of those parents said that they based this on their “religious values.”
Other top reasons for pulling kids out were concerns about school environments at 74% and discontent regarding public school academic instruction at 64%, according to the poll. Fears about school shootings and bullying also ranked high at 62% and 58% respectively.
Both public and homeschooling parents indicated that they were confident about their child’s proficiency in math, reading, science and history, according to the poll.
The poll was conducted from Aug. 1-10 with a national sample of 1,027 families with children between the ages of 5-20. The margin of error was determined to be 1.8%.
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