Homeschooling Trend Is More Than Passing Fad

The spike in homeschooling was understandable during the COVID-19 pandemic. With many public schools closed in 2020 and 2021, what other choice did parents have?

But even with schools open again, the number of families opting to homeschool has remained stable. 

According to analysis from The Washington Post, the homeschooling trend has defied predictions. 

The Post collected data from 32 states and the District of Columbia and found that there has been a significant rise in homeschooling in recent years in communities across the country.

“In states with comparable enrollment figures, the number of homeschooled students increased 51 percent over the past six school years, far outpacing the 7 percent growth in private school enrollment,” according to The Post. “Public school enrollment dropped 4 percent in those states over the same period, a decline partly attributable to homeschooling.”

The increase in homeschooling is not limited to one section of the country, or to cities or rural areas, it’s happening everywhere. 

The small city of Anderson, S.C., with a population of about 30,000, has experienced a 373% increase over the past six years, and in the Bronx, N.Y., with a population of more than 1.4 million, the New York City borough has witnessed a 358% increase in homeschoolers, The Post found. 

The sustained increase in homeschooling is indicative of parents’ dissatisfaction with public education’s one-size-fits-all approach and the political agenda that has seeped into many classrooms and curriculums. 

On today’s edition of the “Problematic Women” podcast, we discuss the reasons for the growing homeschool trend, and welcome to the show a 7-year-old homeschool student and her mom to share their homeschool experience.

Also on today’s show, we share a little bit about who the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is and how he’s expected to lead. Plus, the Biden administration is trying to make artificial intelligence (AI) safe. Is it possible? We discuss. 

Listen to the podcast below:

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email [email protected], and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.