Posted on 07/02/2021 8:03:28 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Speculation abounds over whether or not the pandemic-induced growth in homeschooling is temporary. While there are several signs indicating that parents won’t be sending their children back to public schools this fall, and homeschooling continues to be a popular choice, the question remains: for how long and to what extent?
According to remarks by one prominent investor, this is just the beginning of a widespread shift away from conventional schooling models toward disruptive innovation in education–with homeschooling leading the way. “It certainly feels like we’re on the front end of a pretty dramatic homeschooling boom,” said Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the original Mosaic web browser, co-founder of Netscape, and co-founder and general partner of the leading venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz.
Speaking on the “Invest Like the Best” podcast this week, Andreessen said the pandemic has been a catalyst for parent-driven, technology-enabled educational change that will have a large and lasting impact on the education sector. For one thing, the pandemic gave parents a close-up opportunity to view what was happening in their children’s classrooms.
Black homeschoolers led the surge, with a five-fold increase in homeschooling rates from the spring of 2020.
“I think it's the first time parents saw what their kids are getting in the classroom at the K through 12 level, in many, many years,” said Andreessen. “Most parents, if you're in your thirties or forties and your kids are in sixth grade or eighth grade, you were taught in the classroom 30 years ago, it turns out some things have changed. So the current curricula is quite a bit different at a lot of schools. I know a lot of parents were just shocked, absolutely shocked at the stuff that was coming across.” He added that “some set of parents are like, I'm not sending my kids back to that.”
Andreessen explained that his investment firm is eagerly backing online learning startups that can accelerate disruption in the slow-to-change, regulatory-laden education space. An article on the firm’s website provides more details on the forward-looking changes they expect to see in education technology startups as a result of COVID-19’s impact, as well as their investment strategy. In particular, the firm expects to move away from investing in founders who are focused on selling products and services directly to schools in favor of those founders who are selling directly to parents. “Many parents are taking an increasingly pronounced role in the academic experience, and we’ve seen the emergence of new platforms for supplemental education and homeschooling,” the article states.
Abetted by school closures and related pandemic policies, the education sector is ripe for “creative destruction,” the term used by economist Joseph Schumpeter in his 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, to describe the dynamic process of new business models and enterprises replacing legacy organizations and industries. He explained that capitalism is “the perennial gale of creative destruction,” fueled by entrepreneurship and innovation. Schumpeter writes: “The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrated the same process of industrial mutation—if I may use that biological term—that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.”
Parents want more choices and entrepreneurs will provide them.
As parents demand more education options beyond an assigned district school, the opportunity for creative destruction grows. New federal data reveal that overall K-12 public school enrollment fell three percent during the 2020/2021 academic year, while preschool and kindergarten enrollment dropped by an astonishing 13 percent. Many parents opted out of district schooling for homeschooling, which tripled from pre-pandemic rates to over 11 percent of the US K-12 school-age population. Black homeschoolers led the surge, with a five-fold increase in homeschooling rates from the spring of 2020. Moreover, voter support for school choice policies that allow education funding to follow students instead of school systems has just reached an all-time high this month.
Parents want more choices and entrepreneurs will provide them. Legacy schooling models are on borrowed time, as new educational prototypes gain popularity and support. But Marc Andreessen warns that the process of disrupting the educational status quo won’t be easy.
He explains that “new education startups should be ready to come under just withering assault from Washington or from Sacramento because all of the teacher unions, and all of the universities, and all of the people who are basically wired into those systems are going to just try to kill it.”
With the enthusiasm of millions of parents and learners, and the support of prominent investors, there’s never been a better time for entrepreneurs to battle the entrenched education bureaucracy–and win.
I think a smaller and more intimate America, where children work alongside their parents, could be a good thing.
Democrats aren’t going to allow that to happen
They find a way to force kids into these schools by denying accreditation to a homeschooling child that seeks a college degree or even future employment
We weren’t among the earliest of homeschooling parents, but as Boomers we believed that it was foolish to trust the education of our children to “professionals”. Membership in Home School Legal Defense Fund was crucial in certain states and situations.
The teachers unions will continue to oppose homeschooling. The fight never ends.
No double income.
Single income families would result in higher singular income.
Also, this wouldn’t necessarily result in all kids staying home. How many jobs could be adapted so your children work beside you as you worked?
In NJ - not exactly a basket of Deplorables - there is very minimal state intervention in homeschooling. About 15 years ago, a few Dem politicians tried to weaponize a child abuse tragedy into heavy regulation of homeschooling. The families of homeschoolers launched a virtual Shock & Awe on the legislature and they backed off. Then State Sen. Loretta Weinberg tried it again and got destroyed: “a small group of homeschooling parents began following Weinberg around the capitol. The barrage of phone calls from homeschooling advocates so jammed her office phone lines that staffers had to use their private cell phones to conduct business. “You would have thought I’d recommended the end of the world as we know it,” Weinberg says. “Our office was besieged.”
The Homeschoolers may rival the NRA in stopping power.
And their children turned out incredibly better educated than their public school counterparts.
Parents don't have to be knowledgeable in all curriculum areas, they just need to be dedicated to their children's future.
There are lots of home-based business options now - whether Etsy or Shopify or (👎🏻Amazon)...it does takes some work and marketing skill, but it can supplement a single income, and also give a creative/personal satisfaction outlet to a parent who decides to give up a job to home school.
NO MENTION OF THE OPPORTUNITIES for the GOP. The key is black parents. You know- vouchers/choice. Will the GOP ‘get it’? You tell me.
In many ways, you hit it on the head.
Many people point to the test scores and other quantitative measures of homeschooling excellence, as a quasi-justification for homeschooling. These are good points to have. But...that utilitarian argument is a lot like resting the right to Keep and Bear Arms on John Lott, Jr and other researchers' quantifying the benefits of firearms ownership.
In both cases, the individuals' right to KABA and the parent's right to homeschool does not hinge on a cost/benefit analyses, nor is it subject to legal debate. They simply ARE.
I know of homeschooled children that won't become rocket scientists, or may be of average intelligence. But these kids know right from wrong, and can withstand 4 years of college indoctrination and come out as stronger Americans.
What IS of inestimable value in homeschooling, is the love and care and support from the parents (or guardians). Many homeschooling families aren't one-percenters and they may not have parents/guardians that are upper bell-curve inhabitants. But we will fight to the death to ensure our children aren't chewed up by the system, that they get as good an education as they can deliver, and (on some level) NEVER stop the dedication to our kids.
Black violence over-all is near the breaking point too.
Not to mention that parents can pool their expertise and act as teachers for a pod of kids.
In some states you don't even have to be certified in a subject to teach it...in a public school.
Accreditation probably matters for Doctors and lawyers but for technology no one cares. I suspect tech is t the only sector that doesn’t care
Or, you can always hire a tutor or send Johnny or Mary to the music teacher or tennis coach.
It always makes me chuckle, when most people oppose Homeschooling they automatically go to 'socialization' but NOT academics.
Germany has banned homeschooling since 1919.
Sensible people will educate their own children and get them out of the indoctrination centers now that everybody knows what they are.
IMO, a public school could be converted to Abeka with a facilitator in every class to keep them from climbing out of the window or going to sleep, eliminate the teachers union, and graduate a vast majority of students with higher grades and education level, using less public money almost overnight.
This is one place liberals really screwed up with covid lockdowns. Parents got to see exactly what was going on and realized there was no way they could do worse. Add job loss and an incentive to move and Bingo! You start to break the back of big education!
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