Homeschooling In America

On November 12, 2023 the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten tweeted on X (details),

“What’s behind the increase in homeschooling… homeschooling is now the fastest-growing form of education in the U.S.”

What are the Statistics on Homeschooling in America?

Homeschool data is hard to come by since in 11 states such as Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, and Illinois are not required to report this information. However, the Washington Post (see details) did an extensive research-based article in October of 2023, finding that transition from conventional educational to homeschooling has increased dramatically in the school districts who are reporting data. For example,

• Washington DC’s district “saw a 108% increase in homeschool enrollment since the 2017-2018 school year” and the NY Bronx a 373% increase over the past 6 years. 
• Overall homeschool from reporting U.S. districts has increased 51% over the past six school years.
• Homeschooling increases were NOT correlated with school district quality as measured by standardized test scores (“2022 increases were similar regardless of school performance”).
• NY Post “estimates that there are 1.9 to 2.7 million homeschooled children in the U.S., that compared to fewer than 1.7 million in private Catholic schools.
• “The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized academic achievement tests.” (see details)
• “Concerns about the school environment drove the choice to homeschool” was a reason cited by 34% of families, followed by dissatisfaction with instruction (17%) and a desire for religious instruction (16%) (details).

Comparing Homeschooling to Its Alternatives

According to the US National Center for Education Statisticts, between 2000 and 2016 U.S. education saw the following trends in enrollment among K-12 (details):

• Traditional public schools grew by 1% to 47.3 million.
• Charter school enrollment grew to 3 million from .4 million.
• Private schools fell 4% to 5.8 million students.
• Homeschool registrations nearly doubled to 1.7 million

What about Christian Homeschooling ?

• The best data available suggests that approximately 66% of homeschool-based education is taught from a Christian perspective (see detail). 

Summary and Conclusions

Homeschooling, and particularly Christian homeschooling, is growing rapidly in America as parents have become more and more dissatisfied with the deteriorating caliber of our public schools. For Randy Weingarten to ask the question why her public schools are suffering an exodus only serves to emphasize the lack of situational awareness, much less demonstrating a willingness to improve our educational system.