Home schooling is on the rise in every state that was analyzed since the 2017-2018 school year as public school enrollment dropped, according to a Washington Post analysis.
The number of home-schooled students increased by 51% in states with comparable enrollment statistics in the last six school years, and private school enrollment increased by 7%, according to the Post. Public school enrollment dropped 4% in the same states over that period. (‘BLM At School’ Shares Pro-Palestinian Teaching Guides To Mobilize Kids In ‘Daily Struggle’ Against Israel)
“This is a fundamental change of life, and it’s astonishing that it’s so persistent,” Nat Malkus, deputy director of Education Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, told the Post.
Leslie Cortez, a Mexican and US citizen, helps her son Andree attending 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 via Getty Images)
“The personal costs to home schooling are more than just tuition,” Malkus continued. “They are a restructuring of the way your family works.”
There was at least one home-schooled child for every 10 in public schools in the 2021-2022 school year in the 390 districts that the Post analyzed, which was nearly quadruple the number of districts at that rate in the 2017-2018 school year, according to the Post.
Home schooling fell slightly from its peak in the 2020-2021 school year, according to the Post. In South Carolina, Louisiana and South Dakota, home-schooling continued to rise, and in Georgia and Maryland, it has returned to levels seen before the pandemic.
“Policymakers should think, ‘Wow — this is a lot of kids,'” Elizabeth Bartholet, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School and child poverty advocate, told the Post.
Hillsborough County School District in Florida was the largest home-school population, with 10,680 children when the 2022 school year began, according to the Post. The number of home-schooled children in Florida is the largest among the states measured, at 154,000.
New York’s home-school population doubled since 2017, sitting at 52,000, according to the Post. The number of home-schooled children in 24 of New York City’s 33 school districts increased by at least 200% over six years.
“I can tell you right now: Many of these parents don’t have any understanding of education,” Hillsborough County School Board member Lynn Gray told the Post. “The price will be very big to us and to society. But that won’t show up for a few years.”
Nearly half of parents turning to home-schooling their kids say they are concerned with their children being “influenced by liberal viewpoints.” Another poll revealed that school choice had bipartisan support, with 88% of Democrats and 83% of Republicans supporting it.
The data for the Post’s analysis came from 32 states and the District of Columbia, which represents over 60% of the country’s school-age population. Data was available from 18 of those states from private and public schools.
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