“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. Maria Murray is the founder and academic director of a homeschooling community in Northern Virginia. 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.’ A press release from the Texas Homeschool Coalition reports that ‘interest in homeschooling is already outpacing the all-time records set by the enormous homeschool increase from 2020,’ before going on to note that ‘during the 2020 surge, THSC’s weekly call and email volume exploded from families interested in homeschooling’ and reached an all-time high, but then the organization’s call volume last week surpassed ‘the weekly record set in 2020 by nearly a factor of five.’ The president of the Texas Home School Coalition, Tim Lambert, said, ‘We are literally inundated with calls and emails from thousands upon thousands of families asking how they can begin homeschooling this fall.’”
“Homeschooling,” The Federalist, Aug. 19, 2021