{"id":72823,"date":"2021-10-03T01:39:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T06:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=72823"},"modified":"2021-10-03T01:39:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T06:39:34","slug":"72823","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=72823","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Homeschooling Growing by Leaps and Bounds<\/a><\/p>\n

Homeschooling numbers have increased over 300% in the last two years, according to federal government\u00a0Census data<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0This spike does not include Americans engaged in virtual learning through a public or private school program due to COVID protocols.\u00a0\u00a0These are full-time homeschoolers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States Census Bureau has been tasked with collecting data through nationwide surveys for over 80 years.\u00a0\u00a0The data are intended for use by other government agencies and elected officials for policy decisions.\u00a0\u00a0This is the first time the Census Bureau has sought to identify the total number of homeschoolers in America.\u00a0\u00a0Previous surveys only marked children who were un-enrolled from public or private schools.\u00a0\u00a0That rate usually hovered around 3.3% and was as high as 5.4% in 2019.<\/p>\n

Homeschool families have been traditionally seen as a small minority and have been largely ignored by elected representatives.\u00a0\u00a0In 2020, due to the COVID school closures, Census questions were modified to specifically identify the number of homeschoolers, and the results were shocking for many.\u00a0\u00a0In October 2020,\u00a011.1% of 22\u201323 million<\/a>\u00a0U.S. households reported being full-time homeschoolers, without any enrollment in a public or private school.\u00a0\u00a0Besides Alaska, which reported 27.5% of households dedicated to full-time homeschool, Oklahoma led all states at 20.1%.\u00a0\u00a0Other notable states included Florida at 18.1%, Vermont at 16.9%, Georgia at 16.0%, and Tennessee and Arizona at 13.0%.<\/p>\n

There was little surprise at the exodus from public and private schools due to COVID mask mandates and health concerns in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0What has been surprising is that many of these students did not re-enroll for the 2021\u20132022 school year.\u00a0\u00a0No doubt the push for Critical Race Theory, and the loss of confidence in the traditional institutions’ ability to teach children via virtual technology, played a significant role in a shift toward full-time homeschooling.\u00a0\u00a0The number of homeschool kids grew from 11.1% in 2020 to 16.5% in May 2021.\u00a0\u00a0Homeschool numbers are continuing to rise, along with their potential political influence.\u00a0\u00a0Homeschooling parents will undoubtedly have a larger impact on their local and state policymakers, and this is a good thing for America.<\/p>\n

Two common points advocated by opponents of homeschooling are that homeschooling is inferior to a public-school education and that homeschooled children lack the social skills that other children learn in public- and private-school extracurricular activities.\u00a0\u00a0However, one reason for the record growth in homeschool is due to the dispelling of some of these negative assumptions through social media connections and support groups.\u00a0\u00a0All colleges and universities, including the Ivy League, accept homeschooled students and homeschooled students have traditionally performed better in college than public- and private-school students.<\/p>\n

Not all pro-homeschool data have been published by homeschool advocacy groups.\u00a0\u00a0For example,\u00a0one study<\/a>, published in the Journal of College Admissions, found that homeschoolers who attended the College of St. Thomas averaged 26.5 ACT scores versus 25.0 for private- and public-school students.\u00a0\u00a0The researchers also found that homeschoolers finished their freshman year of college with an average GPA of 3.46 compared to 3.16 in the alternate group.<\/p>\n

Communities around the country continue to dispel the popular misconception of a lack of socialization among homeschoolers.\u00a0\u00a0Increased opportunities have come with the rising number of students.\u00a0\u00a0Homeschoolers can partake in co-ops, organized sports, and any extra-curricular activity imaginable.\u00a0\u00a0At least\u00a029 states<\/a>\u00a0allow homeschool students to participate in public school interscholastic activities.\u00a0\u00a0For example, in Oklahoma City, there are even homeschool junior high and high school football teams.<\/p>\n

Homeschooling has many beneficial impacts on communities and public school districts.\u00a0\u00a0More homeschoolers mean lower teacher-to-student ratios.\u00a0\u00a0Smaller class sizes make it easier for teachers to address the needs and unique challenges of individual students.\u00a0\u00a0Fewer students lowers the overhead for school transportation and administrative functions.\u00a0\u00a0This should lead to a reduction in administrative faculty and drastically reduce education expenses, which homeschool proponents argue is the real reason why teacher unions are so opposed to homeschool growth.<\/p>\n

Homeschoolers still pay public school taxes, which usually account for the greatest portion of state and county property taxes.\u00a0\u00a0The purpose of these taxes is to ensure the proper education of future American citizens.\u00a0\u00a0It seems reasonable that homeschool, private school, and charter school parents should be granted a reduction in education taxes.\u00a0\u00a0Redirecting these funds to parents who are seeking alternative forms of education would help cover the costs of curricula, computers, technology, and other educational resources.<\/p>\n

There are also many reasons why parents should be given the freedom of school choice.\u00a0\u00a0Homeschools offer an alternative solution for parents whose children face situations like bullying (including cyber-bullying), poorly performing school districts, a need for flexibility and personalized education, chronic illness, and military moves.\u00a0\u00a0Many parents have argued that the right of school choice is more important than ever, as public curricula veer away from traditional teaching methods toward Critical Race Theory and other forms of political and immoral indoctrination.<\/p>\n

There is a definite rallying cry for the freedom of school choice, and many Americans are advocating for policy change.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps the 300% nationwide increase in the number of homeschool families will finally encourage policy change to protect parents’ right to homeschool their children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homeschooling Growing by Leaps and Bounds Homeschooling numbers have increased over 300% in the last two years, according to federal government\u00a0Census data.\u00a0\u00a0This spike does not include Americans engaged in virtual learning through a public or private school program due to COVID protocols.\u00a0\u00a0These are full-time homeschoolers. The United States Census Bureau has been tasked with collecting … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72824,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72823\/revisions\/72824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}