Homeschool days
Timothy P. Carney
We have entered the age of homeschooling. What this signifies is something of a Rorschach test, but there’s no debating that it’s happening.
The number of homeschoolers in the current school year is up more than 50% compared to five years ago, according to estimates by the Washington Post, and the vast majority of pandemic-era homeschoolers seem to have stuck with it. That means more than 2 million, and possibly more than 2.5 million, children are being homeschooled now — more than are enrolled in Catholic schools nationwide.
In some places, the numbers are skyrocketing. New York state’s homeschool population doubled from 2017 to 2022, with the greatest growth coming in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
So what does this mean?
That depends on whom you ask.
It’s a scary resurgence of religious fundamentalism, according to much of our commentariat. Harvard Magazine ran a feature during the pandemic on a self-described “child welfare advocate” named Elizabeth Bartholet who argued for outlawing homeschooling. The article was illustrated with an image of a child locked in a prison of books, notably the Bible, peering out at the presumably public-schooled children running free.
It’s a rebellion against public schools to teach our children, some advocates of school choice declare.
It’s a reaction to the intrusion of politics into our schools, parents and politicians on the Right and Left declare. Whether it’s the transgender flag on the classroom wall or the PragerU curriculum on the syllabus, public schools are increasingly the battleground where the culture wars are fought. Ideological or religious minorities on both sides are seceding.
A quarter of all homeschoolers cited that their local public schools were too conservative in ideology or too liberal on COVID rules, while a modestly higher portion said schools were too liberal or secular in values or too restrictive on COVID.
To the editors at the Washington Post, whose love language is regulation, this is another dangerous, unregulated sector of society. “There is little to no regulation of homeschooling in much of the country,” was how the Washington Post framed its series on the rise of homeschooling.
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Whatever the causes, and surely there are many, it will have an impact down the road.
Perhaps the exodus to homeschooling will chasten public school systems such as New York City’s and help whip them into shape. Perhaps it will weaken communities by drawing life out of the public and parochial schools. Perhaps it will further divide us ideologically, or maybe it will lower the temperature and make room for social peace.