Posted on 07/09/2021 1:24:48 PM PDT by blam
The number of home school applications submitted to the California Department of Education (DOE) soared during the 2020-2021 school year, state data indicates.
There were 34,715 private school affidavits (PSAs) for five children or less submitted during the most recent curricular year. In California, homeschools are recognized as private schools, and homeschooling families are required to submit an affidavit to the DOE annually.
The most recent homeschool figures are more than twice as high as they were during the 2018-2019 school year, when 14,548 PSAs were filed. There were 22,433 PSAs filed during the 2019-2020 school year.
“People are just really dissatisfied with the performance of the regular public schools during the COVID crisis,” Lance Izumi, a senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute and author of the upcoming book on homeschooling, “Voices from Home,” told The Epoch Times.
Izumi said California’s increase in homeschooling is part of a nationwide trend.
Between spring and fall of 2020, the percentage of homeschoolers nationwide more than doubled, jumping from 5.4 percent to 11.1 percent in less than four months.
The numbers are classified as true homeschooling and do not include distance learning at a public or private school.
The largest increase in homeschoolers was especially notable among minority groups, including black and Hispanic learners.
In African American households, the proportion of homeschooling quintupled from 3.3 percent in spring 2020, to 16.1 percent in fall 2020.
In Hispanic households, the number of households that opted for homeschooling doubled in the same time, from 6.2 percent to 12.1 percent.
Izumi said many black and Hispanic kids were reportedly performing the poorest academically prior to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus pandemic.
Once the CCP virus pandemic occurred, those students fell behind even further, Izumi said.
“A lot of minority parents—African American, Hispanic parents—who weren’t very satisfied with the public schools before COVID, are now especially dissatisfied with the public schools because their kids are just not doing well in this distance learning situation that the regular public schools have tried to force on everybody,” he said.
Many parents are unhappy with the quality of the distance learning their children received during the past year’s school closures, Izumi said, causing them to opt instead for homeschooling.
“Remote learning has not worked for a lot of parents,” Izumi said.
“I think that they feel that their kids are not getting the type of education and learning that they should be getting, and a lot of their kids are really suffering because of huge learning losses.”
Izumi said another reason parents are opting to home school is because they worry about “indoctrination in the classroom.”
Due to distance learning, many parents had the chance to “look over the shoulder” of their children and have been “alarmed” to find out they were learning about critical race theory (CRT), a Marxist ideology that divides society into oppressors and the oppressed based on characteristics such as race, sex, class, or sexual proclivities.
“Parents see that as causing division … that is causing social and emotional harm to those kids,” Izumi said.
“One way that parents can control what their children are learning is to homeschool.”
Izumi said parents choose homeschooling over private schools because it’s cheaper; and homeschooling over charters due to convenience, as charters only make up about one in 10 public schools in the state.
“If you don’t have the money for private school, and there isn’t a charter school nearby that may provide a better alternative for your child, then really the only thing left for you is homeschooling,” he said.
Izumi wanted to assure parents that homeschooling is “more feasible than people think,” since there are many different types of homeschooling that can accommodate different families.
Despite the state’s emergency restrictions easing, and schools announcing a return to in-person learning in the fall, Izumi said this may be the beginning of a new era for homeschooling.
“My prediction is that this increase [in homeschooling] is something that you’re going to see continue in the future … When parents find out that actually they can do it, and that they do have greater control [over their children’s education] other parents are going to see that, and you’re going to have a snowball effect.”
So, does California’s government find a way to regulate the end of homeschooling in that state, or at least make it nearly impossible?
I see many public colleges soon not accepting homeschool high school graduates. You know, to ensure the integrity of the education or some such or other.
Note to taxpayers: Audit your districts and check for ghost students, padded enrollment.
Hint, hint...
(And not just in CA.)
“So, does California’s government find a way to regulate the end of homeschooling in that state, or at least make it nearly impossible?”
For decades, so called retired teachers have tried to discourage home schooling.
That tempo has probably increased after this past year and Covid.
You need to apply to the government to home school?
Its their CHILDREN and the parents are pi$$ed. Down with the Communists.
If you send your children to Caesar’s schools, don’t be surprised when they come back as Roamans.
Not the easiest thing to do entering a public/private school system for the first time as a high school freshman, but these kids seemed well-adjusted and prepared.
& now throw CRT in the mix, parents are pissed!
Never let a crisis go to waste right?
COVID a crisis but gave parents a rude awakening on how horrible public schools are & can be.
Especially the boards & unions..that’s where the true evil is.
I heard here in CA, the unions own the board members & have them do their dirty work
Here is info on Cali from the HSLDA.
https://hslda.org/post/how-to-comply-with-californias-homeschool-law
Wondering WHY people think they need the permission of Big Gov’t to do their God Mandated Comission....why is the people who have the authority asking permission from people they elected who are lesser for some kind of permit?
Can you really send your children to a school where the Democrats in government sided with Communists, arsonists, rioters, and looters, while also de-funding the police who now drive by and wave?
In California we home schoolers file an affidavit declaring ourselves a private school.
The public colleges get applications from private schools kids thusly. Not home schooled so called.
My kids went through UC and State colleges via community colleges. Homeschooled k-12
Weingarten: Teachers’ Union Is Going To Court Against Anti-CRT Laws Trying To Erase History
Our youngest was homeschooled. We opted to have her join an “academy” thst documents her work and gets her an official state high school diploma, just in case.
We have “Cover Schools” in AL.
Some states require an application.
Some states even require reports and paperwork.
And some states do not interfere at all.
People might be surprised about which states do what.
For example, CA is less regulated than PA.
Map showing state regulations: https://hslda.org/legal/
No. They require that you submit a private school affidavit if you choose to enroll your students in your private school. It is not “approved”. You just tell them that you are now a private school. That is one option for homeschooling. Another is to register at an already established private homeschool.
We graduated our kids from registered California private school. And had absolutely no admission issues.
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