The Homeschool Generation Is Growing Up - And A New Battle Is Just Beginning: Recognizing Their Educational Credentials

PNW ^ | 09/25/2026

[SeekAndFind]

For 22-year-old Andrew Coates, becoming a professional firefighter seemed like a natural next step.

He already volunteers with the Cedar Bluffs Fire Department in Nebraska. He holds a state EMT license. He has experience responding to emergencies and wants to make a career out of doing what he already loves.

But when Coates applied to become a paid firefighter in Fremont, Nebraska, he ran into an obstacle that had nothing to do with fighting fires.

He had been homeschooled.

The city's original job posting required "graduation from high school." But Fremont rejected Coates because his homeschool diploma did not come from an accredited high school. The city subsequently changed its wording to specifically require graduation from an accredited school.

Coates challenged the decision, arguing that the issue was now bigger than his application. "We want to make sure that every homeschooler has an equal opportunity," he told WOWT.

His case should get America's attention because Coates isn't an educational anomaly anymore.

He's part of a generation that is rapidly getting bigger.

The Homeschool Boom Didn't End With COVID

When schools shut down during the pandemic, homeschooling exploded. Many assumed families would eventually return to the old system and homeschooling numbers would settle back to their previous levels.

That hasn't happened.

New data from the Johns Hopkins Homeschool Research Lab show that of the 22 states reporting 2025-26 numbers so far, 17 — 77 percent — experienced another increase in homeschooling.

Montana jumped 27.7 percent. North Dakota increased 18.8 percent. Arkansas rose 14 percent. Nebraska increased 9.8 percent, California 8.5 percent and Vermont 8.4 percent.

Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wisconsin have now reached their highest recorded homeschool enrollment.

Homeschooling hasn't disappeared with the pandemic. It has become an established part of the American educational landscape.

And what people call "homeschooling" increasingly doesn't resemble the stereotype.

A nationally representative Johns Hopkins/RAND survey found 88 percent of homeschooling parents use additional educational resources. Forty-four percent use online resources, 29 percent participate in co-ops, 27 percent use online classes and 24 percent use online schools.

Today's homeschool can be part kitchen table, part online academy, part co-op, part tutor and part community classroom.

Something bigger than homeschooling is happening.

Parents are discovering that education doesn't necessarily have to come from one building, one curriculum or one institution.

Why This Matters Even If Your Kids Attend Public School

It would be easy for parents with children in public or private schools to look at these battles and conclude they don't concern them.

They do.

Behind the homeschooling debate is a much larger question: Who bears primary responsibility for a child's education?

Government unquestionably has legitimate interests in protecting children and ensuring they receive an education. The disagreement begins when "ensuring an education" becomes defining exactly what that education must look like.

Consider how differently states already answer that question.

Rhode Island requires homeschool instruction to cover subjects including reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, U.S. and Rhode Island history and American government. Attendance must be substantially equivalent to public schools, and local school committees approve home instruction.

New Hampshire just moved dramatically in the opposite direction. A law taking effect this year makes homeschool declarations largely optional, eliminates annual evaluations and makes certain record keeping optional. Its law explicitly recognizes a parent's right to direct a child's education as a "natural right."

Those are two very different philosophies of the relationship between family and state.

And that question reaches far beyond homeschoolers.

It touches Christian schools, private education, charter schools, curriculum disputes, religious instruction and ultimately the ability of parents to make educational choices that differ from whatever government considers normal.

Success Brings A New Battle

For years, the major homeschool fight was whether parents should be allowed to educate their own children.

That battle has largely moved on.

The emerging fight is over how much control government should exercise over families once they make that choice.

As homeschooling grows, expect debates over testing, notification, curriculum requirements, attendance records, educational assessments and state oversight to intensify.

Some regulation advocates argue that minimum standards protect children from educational neglect. Homeschool advocates respond that reasonable child-protection laws are very different from forcing parents to recreate government school at home.

That distinction becomes especially important because homeschooling's growth itself could invite additional scrutiny.

When something involves a tiny minority, government can largely ignore it. When millions of families begin choosing another path, lawmakers, regulators, universities and employers eventually have to decide how that alternative fits into existing systems.

Which brings us back to Andrew Coates.

What Happens When The Homeschool Generation Grows Up?

This could become the next major homeschool battle.

Today's homeschool students eventually become tomorrow's firefighters, police officers, nurses, tradespeople, business owners, soldiers and professionals.

Coates already possesses a Nebraska EMT license and serves as a volunteer firefighter. Yet Fremont determined that his homeschool education did not satisfy its requirement for a career position because his high school wasn't accredited.

Think about the contradiction.

A state can legally permit parents to educate their child outside an accredited school system, only for that child to reach adulthood and discover that an employer requires credentials from the very system his parents legally chose not to use.

If that becomes widespread, homeschool freedom could exist on paper while carrying a penalty in practice.

This isn't an argument that every homeschool diploma must automatically qualify someone for every job. Employers obviously have the right to establish legitimate qualifications.

But demonstrated ability ought to matter.

If an applicant can pass examinations, meet physical standards, obtain professional certifications and demonstrate the knowledge required for a position, should the location where he learned algebra at age 15 determine whether he gets an interview at 22?

That question won't disappear with Andrew Coates.

It's going to become more common.

The Next Education Revolution

Homeschooling's continued growth tells us something important about America.

Parents are increasingly willing to question institutions that previous generations simply accepted. Some leave because of academics. Others because of safety, special needs, flexibility, religious convictions or disagreements over what schools are teaching.

Technology has made acting on those concerns easier than ever.

You no longer need to reproduce an entire school inside your home. Parents can access teachers, curricula, lectures, tutoring, advanced courses and educational communities from almost anywhere.

The old educational monopoly is being broken into pieces.

And that means the argument is changing.

The question is no longer simply whether Americans should have the freedom to homeschool.

The coming question is whether government institutions, universities and employers will genuinely respect that freedom when those children become adults — and how much control government will demand over families still raising them.

Andrew Coates may be one young man trying to become a firefighter in Nebraska.

Behind him is an entire generation.

And that generation is growing up.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: education; homeschooling

[ProgressingAmerica]

That is good that Zinn is removed.

But negation isn’t enough otherwise we’d have a half million Charlie Kirks out there and we simply don’t.

“You’re clearly not at all familiar with the history and theology curricula that are out there.”

And

“I’m teaching my younger boys about the run-up to WWII right now”

Yeah, I know. Everybody teaches that formula. That’s exactly what I was getting at. Exactly.

I have seen some of the curricula. It is clearly superior - math, spelling, etc. We will receive better employees out of the children because of home schooling. That to me is not disputable.

But we aren’t really all that short of employees in the U.S.

[blackdog]

My home schooled children had no problem taking the SAT, ACT, LSAT, or Unified Bar Exam. The colleges love homeschooling students. They manage their time better, make better social activity choices, and pay their tuition without student loans, and those slave papers, called the “FAFSA”.

[Antoninus]

Yeah, I know. Everybody teaches that formula. That’s exactly what I was getting at. Exactly.

I don't think you do know. My kids' history education began with in depth studies of ancient Egypt, Greece, and China, with a focus on Biblical history, Ancient Rome, Christian Rome and Byzantium, Lives of the Saints, Rise of Islam, the Crusades, Medieval and Renaissance art, Age of Exploration, American colonial history, foundation of the American Republic, War of 1812 + US naval history, the US Civil war, Catholicism in the US, Age of Invention (focusing on Edison as we're in NJ), the SpanAm War and TR, the Great War, and now Churchill and the crumbling of the British Empire into WWII. This process has taken 10 years.

Does that sound like a typical history curriculum to you?

we’d have a half million Charlie Kirks out there

We were lucky to get one Charlie Kirk. He was unique.

That said, all my kids and their peers are Charlie Kirk fans and were devastated when he was killed. Give that generation a decade and see if your opinion changes.

[Antoninus]

The colleges love homeschooling students.

The professors also love homeschooling students. They are more engaged, interested, and participatory in class. They also tend to care about what they're learning and want to excel, not just tick boxes. My kids almost always became their professors' favorite students.

[Semper Vigilantis]

As usual the bureaucracy is over-thinking the issue and ignoring the obvious. To receive a diploma students should have to take a national standardized test.
I had to pass a test to get my drivers license. I had to take another to get a pilots license, and another for my LTC. Once again the over educated idiots (I’m looking at you Teacher’s union, Universities and ‘scholars’) are mucking up progress by ignoring the obvious solution. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

You can also have an accepted teacher “supervise” your homeschooling in order to receive high school diploma.

[ProgressingAmerica]

I have not been to any conferences so that is a thing.

However the question is what America’s youth should be, and what America actually needs.

Can you acknowledge that I have said more than once that home schoolers definitely produce/become better employees?

[Antoninus]

Can you acknowledge that I have said more than once that home schoolers definitely produce/become better employees?

Our goal in homeschooling was never to produce "better employees". It was to produce virtuous Catholic adults who would get to heaven, and help others get there as well. That was the primary goal. Secondarily was to produce men and women who would be loving, nurturing, solid, steady siblings, spouses, and parents in their own right. Thirdly, was to provide our country with excellent, responsible, honest, active, independent-thinking American citizens and potential leaders.

All of the above our schools used to do pretty regularly. Sadly, they can't be counted upon to do so today. In most cases, they are doing the opposite of all the above.

[Antoninus]

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer.

More nanny-state bureaucracy is never the right answer. It is often the easy answer, though.

[Political Junkie Too]

Do they still allow college students to take the CLEP test to skip basic first year 100 and 101 level classes?

-PJ

[Mouton]

All four are dumb as rocks.

Actually probably the mom too.

[Mouton]

All four are dumb as rocks.

Actually probably the mom too.

[ChessExpert]

What does a high school degree from a public (government) school guarantee? It does not guarantee literacy or basic math skills.

Grok:
“In 2024 testing, over 30% of 12th-graders lacked basic reading skills—the lowest performance in more than three decades.”
In math, “45% scored below NAEP Basic”

[lurk]

We’ve got one college Valedictorian and two graduated With Honors. Home school is what you make it.

[copaliscrossing]

The colleges love homeschooling students. They manage their time better

That is exactly correct. We homeschooled all 4 of our kids and they are all successful with a college degree. One of them is on a bank executive team, another is a Senior Program manager at Microsoft, another changed careers in mid-life and became a BSN (nurse), and the other is a Freight Logistics coordinator.

The son at Microsoft graduated Summa Cum Laude from his University business school with a 4.0 and 3 of his 4 CPA exams passed. All 4 kids found most employers and college professors to be VERY positive when interviewing or dialoging with them when they discussed their homeschool background. They liked homeschool kids because, for the most part, they know how to organize their days and tasks and how to interact with adults better. Most employers and profs are aware of the quality they can get from most of the well homeschooled kids.

[NorthMountain]

Credentialism is the bastard child of “affirmative action” and the misnamed “civil rights movement”.

[NorthMountain]

Credentialism is the bastard child of “affirmative action” and the misnamed “civil rights movement”.

[Labyrinthos]

There should be basic comprehension tests for these types of things.

There is. To become a professional firefighter in Nebraska the applicant must score high on a competitive civil service exam. Home schooling should be irrelevant to the hiring process.

[Hojczyk]

The problem public schools have is what the teachers have to teach

My wife was a first grade teacher….she had the smartest kids doing third and fourth grade work….

[LilFarmer]

Many colleges seek homeschoolers because they are typically independent learners with good work ethic. My boys (now mid 20s-early 30s) had no issue getting into schools. My older son chose a trade instead of college, got certified in many areas, and is now a project mgr with his own crew. My younger so got a degree in accounting and currently manages a team of 50+ people in the hospitality