Since the onset of the pandemic, more families have stuck with home-schooling. According to a new poll from The Washington Post, fewer parents said they home-school due to religious beliefs compared to previous years.
The survey found that the landscape of home-schooling in the U.S. is shifting from one that conservative Christians heavily dominated to a much more diverse landscape.
Experts say this shift began largely thanks to the pandemic boom in home-schooling as virtual learning became the new norm in American public schools.
While public schools reverted to in-person learning once the pandemic subsided, some parents decided to continue to home-school their children. Those parents cited concerns about school shootings, bullying, and anger toward the encroachment of politics into curriculum.
According to The Washington Post poll, nearly 7 in 10 parents responded that they home-school their children to provide “moral instruction.”
While some parents see home-schooling as a better option for their families, the increase in the number of families home-schooling is contributing to school districts’ struggle with enrollment, budgeting shortfalls and budget cuts.
In Washington state, school districts reported that nearly half of the home-schooled students during the pandemic have continued home-schooling rather than enrolling back into in-person schooling.
According to a 2023 study by the Urban Institute, home-schooling is responsible for a 1.2 million decline in student enrollment in public schools across the country.
“The data reveal that two of the primary explanations for the public school pandemic exodus are an increase in homeschooling and a decrease in the school-age population,” the report read.
Home-schooling is not regulated in much of the country, meaning there is little oversight in what home-schooled children are taught. Some have gone on to attend Ivy League schools, while others have been the victims of child abuse.
According to the survey, about half of parents who home-school said that this year, their children would get at least some instruction from a teacher or tutor. Calls for stricter curriculum requirements in some states have grown.
