Posted on 05/21/2020 10:13:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
There are about 2.5 million homeschooling children in the United States today. But what if there were 8 million more kids homeschooling in the fall?
There is reason to believe this could happen.
An EdChoice public opinion poll suggests that more than half of parents with school-age kids have a more favorable view of homeschooling after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Reason Foundation Facebook poll conducted by Corey DeAngelis suggests that about 15 percent of all children could be making the switch to homeschooling in the fall. And a May 14, 2020, Real Clear Opinion poll of over 2,000 registered voters found that as many as 41% of parents are more likely to homeschool this fall.
It seems certain that parents and students will consider many different “new” options this year. This can only be more so as reports are making parents think twice about sending kids back to schools that will be mandating temperature checks, hand sanitizer, face masks/shield, social isolation, and staggered classes upon reopening. In France, some children are being told to draw their own 6 foot by 6 foot chalk squares where they can “enjoy” their recess. In England some teachers have suggested “spraying pupils with disinfectant”. All of this suggests that this coming school year will be anything but “back to school” as usual.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there are about 57 million school-aged children in the United States. Of these kids, about 50 million were enrolled in public schools, and 7 million were enrolled in private schools. In 2017, Education Week estimated that the number of children enrolled in public charter schools was 3 million.
If we use the lower percentage of possible “switchers” in the Reason poll, then about 7 million public school students, 420,000 public charter school and about 1 million private school students will be homeschooling later this year. That would be a whopping 8.5 million more homeschooled students. Adding the 2.5 millions of current homeschoolers gives us over 10 million students homeschooling this fall.
10 million kids homeschooling in the United States? Wow. That would be a jump of about 500 percent. If these polls are even remotely close, we are looking at major shifts that will have effects rippling all over in interesting and hard-to-predict ways.
For example, with fewer students in school, schools might have fewer teacher positions leading to possible staff reductions. Furloughed teachers might find work tutoring out-of-school kids or finding jobs with the new spate of start-ups taking advantage of the new demand of parents for out-of-school learning opportunities. Entrepreneurial start-up Outschool is looking to hire 5,000 teachers to meet the new demand. States seeing decreased revenue from taxes due to the economic impact of the shutdown measure might be glad to see less students showing up in the hallways so that their government budgets might be spared some of the per-pupil funding. Most of these costs would be borne by families which might put some pressure on policy makers. Tax credits would be one way to recognize this financial burden. Ten million homeschoolers equals a total “savings” of about $127 billion at the average per pupil funding rate of just over $12,000.
What might this mean for children?
For the 10 million plus kids who would be learning outside the four walls of the public, private, and charter schools there could be a lot more freedom and a lot less pressure. They and their parents will choose their own curriculum. They and their parents will choose their own flexible schedules. They will do education in a more life-integrated way, on their own timeline and on their own terms. Kids will have more time to play. To read. To explore things that interest them. To learn more at their own pace. To socialize in healthy ways, with less negative peer pressure and school-related issues like bullying.
Some have lamented this possible increase, worrying that more homeschooling will be bad for children. But the numbers show that the opposite is more likely true.
Vanderbilt University Dr. Joseph Murphy’s comprehensive literature shows that homeschooling produces individuals who are at least as well educated and well socialized as their public or private school counterparts—a lot of research shows even better results. Homeschooling grads are more politically tolerant than their public or private school counterparts, says Dr. Albert Cheng’s empirical study. Dr. Lindsey Burke found that a majority of research point to superior academic outcomes for homeschooling. Homeschooling is diverse contrary to the assertions of others that homeschooling is only done by “ white conservative Christians”.
Harvard Law School graduate, author, Supreme Court clerk, and homeschool graduate Alex Harris says, “education was woven into everything we did in my family. There was always something to read and talk about around the dinner table. My parents never seemed to miss an opportunity for instruction. They were particularly adept at identifying what I was most passionate about, and then using that as a tool for teaching . . . They wanted us to love learning.”
What’s not to like about that?
Who could have ever imagined that we would experience a global pandemic that would put 1.5 billion children in 190 countries out of school? Who would have imagined that entire countries and states would virtually shut down their economies?
If that can happen, why couldn’t there be 10 million kids happily homeschooling this fall?
Even if some or even many of the new homeschoolers transitioned back to regular schools when things calm down and return to some normalcy – 10 million homeschooled children would have a significant (positive) long-term impact on how America does school. Based on how homeschooling has stacked up so far, that would be just fine for the kids, their families, and their country.
Until the FASCISTS outlaw homeschooling.....
I’m hearing that a lot of parents are discovering Common Core math and they’re rebelling by teaching their kids rote memorization of multiplication and division tables and they also teaching their kids short division instead of the horribly complex CC division method.
Home schooling will be a predictable result.
One could only hope.
However, this event proved that my youngest would not survive homeschooling...
Educrats heads will explode over this!
I homeschooled my kids in the ‘90’s and will do some with the grand-kids when they are with us a few days each week.
And if homeschooling really increases, we had better see a decrease in our property tax bills.
I like your optimism, but I doubt that would happen.
I mean, it's a start, and better than getting up-close indoctrination at the brick-and-mortar school - but choosing curriculum and paying for it yourself, making out and executing your own learning plans - THAT'S real home-schooling.
Another piece of that would be choosing a co-op, and interacting and sharing with other home-school families. But it's a start.
“Until the FASCISTS outlaw homeschooling.....”
And they will.
It’s human nature to be intimidated by doing things differently. This episode of forced home schooling will open some eyes, and to many parents become not only a viable option, but a preferred option. These parents will already know the ropes, and they can teach their kids to think.
And that’s why the American left will race to outlaw this, or at the very least, make it much more complicated.
School districts are already making plans to mask up and socially control kids in the fall. There will be a huge move to homeschooling to combat this indoctrination.
“There will be a huge move to homeschooling to combat this indoctrination.”
My wife was a stay at home mom. A very good stay at home mom. With an introductory session like has been provided by the lockdown, I’m sure we would have home schooled.
bkmk
No because most of us parents have to work
If you’re religious or you got one pair and they can stay home and doesn’t have to work more power to you
good luck with that
As an engineer I’m more than happy to help my kids with any problem-solving or homework or math problems
It’ll turn Idiocracy into a documentary.
The US education system will never allow this as the kiddos might actually learn about American History.
I think that there will be a lot more homeschooling as a result of the current situation. People who had considered it before,but were not confident enough that they could pull it off, are discovering that they can do it and very successfully at that!! I’m pretty sure that it will be the new trend for a lot of families if at all possible. My daughter is a member of a co-op and the kids meet one day a week at a local church that has it set up just like a public school, gym class and all and that is working very well and the kids are very happy with it. I used to be astounded at what my kids were not learning in public school, mostly in history class. My granddaughters are learning a lot more than what their parents were taught in public school.
I also doubt it. Wishful thinking!!
This homeschool instructor sure hopes so.
www.wildworldofhistory.com
Another incentive to home school are finances. The old routine of both parents working then blowing a wad of dough each weekend on entertainment and eating out came to a screeching halt for many two months ago.
Many will find that they survived quite well in a hunker-down mode and will be pleasantly surprised at their ability to get by on just one income.
Years ago I proved to a friend that she really was making a little less than $2.00/hr working as a Dental Hygienist. Her base pay was About $20/hr but after taxes, child care for 2 kids, gas, clothes, wear & tear on the car, etc she was really working for pennies. I told her that they’d be far better off if she worked a part-time job for $10/hr at night so her husband could take care of the kids. Her attitude was that then she wouldn’t have a “career”. My comment was that maybe not, but her kids would have been raised by their mother rather than by strangers!
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