Some very good news from Spencer Lindquist at The Federalist:
COVID-19 restrictions, changing curricula, and declining academic standards are some of the reasons many families have decided to start homeschooling.
The last year and a half hasn’t been easy on American school children. Between COVID-19 restrictions and fierce battles over curriculum, schools have become embroiled in political conflict as the future of education has been thrust into uncertainty.
It should come as no surprise that homeschooling has dramatically spiked since the onset of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed. Census data reveals that by the fall of the 2020-2021 school year, 11.1 percent of households with school-aged children reported homeschooling, double the amount of the previous year. Then, by May 2021, the percentage was 19.5.
While some reasons for this sudden uptick are self-evident, The Federalist reached out to homeschooling individuals and organizations to understand what’s motivating parents to switch. While reasons for homeschooling of course vary, some of the biggest concerns include overbearing COVID restrictions, politically motivated curriculum, and what some perceive as the overall decline in the quality of education their children are receiving in government-run schools.
Maria Murray is the founder and academic director of a homeschooling community in Northern Virginia. She told The Federalist the community surged from 8 to 50 students in the last calendar year alone.
When asked some of the main concerns she’s hearing from parents, she responded, “The concerns I hear from inquiring families are things like requiring masks all day, the redefining of morality, and mostly wanting to be a part of a homeschooling community that primarily focuses on what education used to mean, which is reading, writing, arithmetic, a homeschooling environment where families can work together to focus on the basics.”
Read more: The Federalist
Image credit: www.thefederalist.com.
