I don't have kids in public school any longer so I don't care how it ends. And home schooling will continue to grow, mostly for religious reasons.
On the subject of why people homeschool...Yes, homeschooling is on the rise, but I dont know that I would agree, that it is mostly for religious reasons...as has been pointed out on this thread, others chose homeschooling, to provide a more quality education...I know several families who are homeschooling, and none of them are doing it for religious reasons...again, they feel the education they provide for their children is of higher quality than what is out there in the public schools...
I believe that people homeschool for a variety of reasons, religion being one among many...it may be that the religious reasons top the list, but there are way too many others out there who homeschool, just to provide a more quality education...
My son once had to hire someone for his company, and he interviewed many different applicants...The one he settled on, was homeschooled...for the particular job to be filled, he felt that this applicant was the most qualified...once hired this person lived up to expectation, and was a valuable employee...
One day, a bunch of the employees were just sitting around at lunch, and talking on various subjects...now, my son had assumed that the person he hired, was a Christian, because of being homeschooled(my son assumed he was homeschooled for religious reasons)...to my sons surprise, this person was rather shocked that my son thought such a thing...far from being a Christian, this person had no belief in any God, or Creator...his parents had homeschooled to provide a better quality education...it had nothing at all to do with religion...
As I said, I do know that many parents homeschool for religious reasons....but there are way too many parents out there, who provide homeschooling for many other reasons...
Tho, I could be wrong...could you please post reliable statistics that show that most people homeschool for religious reasons...I am sure for every family you show me that homeschools for religious reasons, I can show you a family who homeschools for purely educational quality reasons, so anecdotal stories really do not count...
I would really like to see some good statistical studies on this...Do you have some that you could post?