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Home schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education: A district-by-district look at home schooling’s explosive growth, which has far outpaced the rate at private and public schools
Washington Post ^ | 11/02/23

Posted on 11/02/2023 10:23:13 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

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Examination of the data reveals:

* In states with comparable enrollment figures, the number of home-schooled students increased 51 percent over the past six school years, far outpacing the 7 percent growth in private school enrollment. Public school enrollment dropped 4 percent in those states over the same period, a decline partly attributable to home schooling.

* Home schooling’s surging popularity crosses every measurable line of politics, geography and demographics. The number of home-schooled kids has increased 373 percent over the past six years in the small city of Anderson, S.C.; it also increased 358 percent in a school district in the Bronx.

* In 390 districts included in The Post’s analysis, there was at least one home-schooled child for every 10 in public schools during the 2021-2022 academic year, the most recent for which district-level federal enrollment data are available. That’s roughly quadruple the number of districts that had rates that high in 2017-2018, signifying a sea change in how many communities educate their children and an urgent challenge for a public education system that faced dwindling enrollment even before the pandemic.

* Despite claims that the home-schooling boom is a result of failing public schools, The Post found no correlation between school district quality, as measured by standardized test scores, and home-schooling growth. In fact, high-scoring districts had some of the biggest spikes in home schooling early in the pandemic, though by the fall of 2022 increases were similar regardless of school performance.

1 posted on 11/02/2023 10:23:13 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ve been wondering when the state &/or progressive school industry, in all it’s various forms, will begin to fabricate “reasons” why and petition for laws mandating that home-schooling be monitored, regulated, standardized with “acceptable” curriculum and oversight, etc.

The left siimply can’t allow for future adults to continue to be fairly and sensibly educated.


2 posted on 11/02/2023 10:54:58 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: SeekAndFind

Btw, I don’t see how they can fully stop home-schooling until when/if the gov’t. goes full totalitarian.

But they can try.


3 posted on 11/02/2023 11:07:41 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: SeekAndFind
...embrace a largely unregulated practice ...
...officials do not require notification when families decide to educate their children at home or monitor how those students are faring....

Leftists are terrified that parents will actually teach their kids something outside of their bubble. I see this independence as a strength, not a weakness.

4 posted on 11/03/2023 12:29:13 AM PDT by Nateman (If Mohammad was not the Anti Christ Mad Moe definitely comes in as a Strong second.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Deportation delayed for German homeschooling family living in East Tennessee

Only public pressure prevented these thought criminals from being returned to a place where Home Schooling is state controlled.

5 posted on 11/03/2023 12:37:37 AM PDT by Nateman (If Mohammad was not the Anti Christ Mad Moe definitely comes in as a Strong second.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Washington D.C. 108% increase in homeboy schooling. Subjects today are ,Gang thievery, Car Jacking, Drug identification and retail. Rape and learning how to be a Dead beat Dad. These are high on the curriculum.


6 posted on 11/03/2023 3:17:02 AM PDT by spincaster
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To: citizen

I can tell you how Deep State will do it: It will fine/tax parents who homeschool into poverty.

Unless we restore pur republic.


7 posted on 11/03/2023 3:20:32 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: mewzilla

...our republic...


8 posted on 11/03/2023 3:21:41 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: SeekAndFind

The further left the left moves the more “ideologically fringe” the right seems to be. It’s a matter of perspective.


9 posted on 11/03/2023 3:41:49 AM PDT by sonofagun (Some think my cynicism grows with age. I like to think of it as wisdom!)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Teacher’s union and the Left in general will be terrified of this. This both removes kids from their attempts at indoctrination and removes them entirely from Leftist control. As Public School enrollment falls it threatens the taxpayer money going to one of their key constituencies - public school teachers/administrators.


10 posted on 11/03/2023 3:58:29 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: spincaster

Home schooling in Washington D.C. went from 10 to 28 students.


11 posted on 11/03/2023 4:23:41 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: SeekAndFind; metmom

Ping!.....


12 posted on 11/03/2023 4:24:50 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: SeekAndFind
The author uses the term "form of education", grouping home schooling with public schooling, but publik skool is indoctrination and very much NOT education.
13 posted on 11/03/2023 4:51:41 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: FLT-bird

This is a real-world indictment against the schools, teachers unions and woke administrators. How many more parents would homeschool, if they could? I suspect, a lot.

When you see school districts in areas like Baltimore which don’t have a single student doing reading or math at their level, homeschooling is one answer.


14 posted on 11/03/2023 4:54:36 AM PDT by JohnEBoy (I voted for Trump to be my president, not my pastor.)
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To: citizen
Until the 1980s, home schooling was highly restricted in a number of states. At one point in the late 1970s, a county in Nebraska actually sent police to shut down an unaccredited private school. If some family were home schooling, they could expect visits from truant officers and child protective services. During the last 20 years of the last century, home school groups fought successfully to expand the rights of home schoolers. Home schoolers tended to be evangelical or fundamentalist Protestants, but traditionalist and conservative Catholics set up their own networks, observing the legal successes. With the COVID situation, many parents not necessarily conservative Christians joined the ranks.

Regulation of schooling is almost entirely a state matter. A majority of states have Republican run legislatures and even RINOs are not willing to oppose home schoolers. Deep blue states are a different matter. Most Democrats in public office are beholden to thwart teachers' unions. When home schoolers threaten the viability of public school funding, you can expect a crackdown.

15 posted on 11/03/2023 4:59:46 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: SeekAndFind

Public schools are more accurately called Government Schools


16 posted on 11/03/2023 5:18:21 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything)
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To: Bookshelf
Likely a bit more than that, for DC...

Public School Enrollment Over Time

Keep in mind two things: They're likely low-balling the decline. And that there are probably a bleepload of ghost students padding the enrollment.

17 posted on 11/03/2023 5:24:31 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: Wallace T.

We were in the second wave. In Michigan home schooling was outlawed until the early 1990’s. We began in 1995. At first, my wife made sure to keep the curtains closed but generally loosened up.

Time for a proud home school dad moment. One of our sons decided to become a trucker. He decided the Over the Road thing wasn’t for him so he recently took a job for a large landscape supply. He normally drives a semi but the other day, he was running a fully laden dump truck.

He sacrificed his truck and potentially his life to save the lives of a busload of school children. The bus drive apparently thought it was OK to pull out in front of a 40,000 lb dump truck. My son swerved hard and witnesses said had the truck on two wheels for what seemed like a long time before he finally rolled it over. The passenger side of the cab hit a bridge rail, absolutely crushing it. He survived with just a few bumps and bruises. Of course, the government school bus driver just kept going.

He didn’t get a good look into the bus to see how many children’s lives he saved.


18 posted on 11/03/2023 5:28:32 AM PDT by cyclotic (It's a great time to live in America. It's like the collapse of the Roman Empire except with wi-fi)
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To: SeekAndFind

There are two things to keep in mind when looking at this (and not having read more than the excerpt, so I don’t know if they cover this).

Some states had looser homeschooling rules to start with, so had higher rates to start with. So a giant increase really might be from 100 to 200, versus 10,000 to 11,000.

Second, I wonder how much correlational there is between Covid school shutdowns and rate increases. The stricter the lockdown (which varied by state) the larger the increase.


19 posted on 11/03/2023 5:35:25 AM PDT by T. P. Pole
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To: citizen

In Alabama, if one can’t produce their school records the community colleges, colleges, and universities have placement test that one can take to determine their qualifications for further education.


20 posted on 11/03/2023 5:56:13 AM PDT by political1 (Love your neighbors)
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