Homeschooling has become America’s fastest-growing form of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education">education</a> and continues to explode in popularity long after pandemic-era remote learning has ended, a new Washington Post analysis shows.
The dramatic rise in homeschooling that began during the pandemic continued through the school year that ended this past spring, according to the Post&#8217;s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/homeschooling-growth-data-by-district/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f003?utm_campaign=wp_main&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a>, which looked at data from nearly 7,000 school districts across the country.
Homeschooling&#8217;s continued popularity flies in the face of predictions that most families would go back to in-person classes at schools once controversial pandemic restrictions like mask mandates ended. Another concern parents had after the pandemic is learning loss in public schools, which may also be driving some families to homeschool.
&#8220;Home schooling’s surging popularity crosses every measurable line of politics, geography and demographics,&#8221; the Post&#8217;s analysis stated.
The analysis looked at data from 32 states and the District of Columbia, which represent more than 60% of school-age children. The data is incomplete because some states do not have reliable tallies of homeschoolers, and 11 states, including Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, and Illinois, do not require families to notify the state when they decide to homeschool.
Nevertheless, the numbers that are available indicate that homeschooling has become a &#8220;mainstay of the American educational system,&#8221; the Post said.
Before the pandemic, there were 1.5 million homeschoolers in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Now, there are between 1.9 million and 2.7 million homeschoolers in the country, the Post&#8217;s analysis estimated.
Only two states, Georgia and Maryland, have seen homeschooling return to pre-pandemic levels.
With more than 154,000 homeschoolers, Florida has the largest homeschool population among the states with available data.
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However, the state with the fastest growth is blue New York, where the homeschool population has more than doubled since 2017 to almost 52,000 kids. Perhaps surprisingly, the trend is moving fastest in deep blue New York City, according to the analysis.
In 24 of New York City&#8217;s 33 school districts, the number of homeschooled children rose by at least 200% over six years. Brooklyn and the Bronx saw the highest growth rate — some of those boroughs&#8217; districts saw more than 300% growth.
Homeschooling&#8217;s popularity is also not confined to poorly performing public school districts, the analysis found.
Last fall, more than 60,000 students were homeschooled in districts that rank in the top fifth for academic achievement in the country.
Despite homeschoolers often <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/study-of-the-day-home-schooled-children-score-higher-on-tests/245036/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outperforming</a> their public school peers, critics continue to push for more government oversight.
&#8220;Many of America’s new home-schooled children have entered a world where no government official will ever check on what, or how well, they are being taught,&#8221; the Post noted.

Symbol image – Mothers in the pandemic

Homeschooling Continues To Rise Dramatically, WaPo Analysis Shows

COVID

Education

Homeschool

Homeschooling

Pandemic

Public Schools

U.S.

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/god-will-make-a-way-christian-homeschool-family-holds-out-hope-after-biden-admin-moves-to-deport-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christian family</a> of nine, who fled persecution in Germany and moved to the United States back in 2008, have been facing deportation pressure from the Biden administration, but have reportedly been given a one-year stay of removal.
The Romeike family, who now reside in Tennessee, left Germany after they were being fined for choosing to homeschool their children. The Christians were abruptly notified in September that their family should prepare to self-deport, and return in four weeks with their German passports, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/god-will-make-a-way-christian-homeschool-family-holds-out-hope-after-biden-admin-moves-to-deport-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> reported. The family fears persecution if they are forced to return to Germany, where homeschooling is rarely permitted and only for medical reasons.
A source <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/tennessee-family-facing-deportation-15-years-fleeing-germany-homeschool-kids-granted-1-year-reprieve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News on Tuesday that the family has a one-year reprieve from deportation. The move follows a public outcry over the case, which included GOP lawmakers petitioning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to halt the deportation.
&#8220;We are asking you and your office to give this family a chance to continue building their lives in Tennessee,&#8221; a letter from numerous Tennessee lawmakers asked ICE Deputy Director Patrick J. Lechleitner, Fox noted. &#8220;It is our understanding a court has ruled they are allowed to stay indefinitely, as long as they fulfill their obligation of checking in as ordered by ICE. To our knowledge they have been faithful in doing so.&#8221;
During an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/god-will-make-a-way-christian-homeschool-family-holds-out-hope-after-biden-admin-moves-to-deport-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with The Daily Wire, the patriarch of the family, Uwe Romeike, said he was surprised when an immigration agent told them about their potential deportation.
&#8220;We did not expect anything like this,” he said, adding, “We still trust God to make a way for us to stay here. I know it’s kind of impossible, but that’s where we know God can still do the impossible.&#8221;
The family was hit with major fines when they decided to pull their then-five children from German public schools and begin homeschooling, back in 2006. The government <a href="https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/morristown-family-faces-deportation-homeschooling/51-2d3dd498-b8b0-4b4e-86af-e8c33dae0dbb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> levied fines that amounted to around $9,000 and threatened to remove the Romeike children from the care of their parents.
The couple, who had two more children after moving to the United States, were granted permission by an immigration judge to live in the country. After the Obama administration’s Department of Justice fought the decision, the family took the fight to the courts, which ultimately ruled against them in 2013, arguing that the Romeikes did not prove that they faced persecution in Germany.
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While the appeals court judge ruled against the Romeikes’ asylum claims, the family was allowed to remain in the United States indefinitely, and they checked in annually with an immigration agent. September 2023 was the first time the family was threatened with deportation at one of the check-ins.
Zach Jewell contributed to this report 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/god-will-make-a-way-christian-homeschool-family-holds-out-hope-after-biden-admin-moves-to-deport-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘God Will Make A Way’: Christian Homeschool Family Holds Out Hope After Biden Admin Moves To Deport It</a>

Romeike family

German Homeschool Family Facing Deportation By Biden Admin Receives Good News: Report

Biden Administration

Christian

Department of Homeland Security

Deportations

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a scathing letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Wednesday, asking the Biden administration to reverse course on its pending <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/god-will-make-a-way-christian-homeschool-family-holds-out-hope-after-biden-admin-moves-to-deport-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deportation of a German homeschool family</a> that has lived in the U.S. for 15 years. 
The Romeike family was caught off guard earlier this month when they were ordered to meet with an immigration agent and were told to prepare to self-deport. Uwe Romeike told The Daily Wire in an interview on Wednesday that the orders “came as a surprise,” but said that his family is &#8220;trust[ing] God to make a way for us to stay here.&#8221;
Blackburn blasted the Biden administration for applying “two standards of justice” in a letter to Mayorkas shared with The Daily Wire. Blackburn pointed to how the Biden administration has targeted the Romeike family while illegal immigrants flood across the southern border at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-border-numbers-near-all-time-high" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record levels</a>. 
“I write today to express my disappointment with this administration’s misplaced priorities regarding the enforcement of our laws, as well as your blatant application of two standards of justice,” Blackburn wrote. “As millions of illegal immigrants flood across our southern border and disappear into our country, your immigration authorities have chosen to punish a family who has built their lives in Tennessee within the legal parameters of our immigration system.” 
Uwe Romeike and his wife moved their five children at the time to the United States after facing fines from the German government for pulling their children out of the public school system. Homeschooling is rarely permitted in Germany and only for medical reasons. When the Romeikes began homeschooling in 2006, the German government levied fines that amounted to around $9,000 and threatened to remove the Romeike children from the care of their parents, WBIR <a href="https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/morristown-family-faces-deportation-homeschooling/51-2d3dd498-b8b0-4b4e-86af-e8c33dae0dbb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. 
The couple, who had two more children after moving to the United States, were granted permission by an immigration judge to live in the country. After the Obama administration’s Department of Justice fought the decision, the family took the fight to the courts, which ultimately ruled against them in 2013, arguing that the Romeikes did not prove that they faced persecution in Germany.
While the appeals court judge ruled against the Romeikes’ asylum claims, the family was allowed to remain in the United States indefinitely, and they checked in annually with an immigration agent, but that all changed earlier this month when the family was told to prepare for deportation even as the Biden administration continues to oversee record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border into the United States. 
“This enforcement action highlights the two standards of justice that have been a constant theme of President Biden’s first two and a half years in office,” Blackburn continued. “You are targeting a family who fled Germany in search of basic parental rights and has legally resided in the United States for years.” 
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“Simultaneously, you have allowed millions of illegal immigrants — some of whom have been identified as terrorists — to enter the country with abandon,” the Republican senator added. “I urge this administration to reverse course and allow the Romeike family to continue their lives in Morristown, Tennessee.”

Marsha Blackburn

‘Two Standards Of Justice’: Sen. Blackburn Calls For Biden Admin To Allow Christian Homeschool Family To Remain In U.S.

Sen. Blackburn Stands Up For Christian Homeschool Family, Asks Biden Admin To Allow It To Remain In U.S.

Illegal Immigration

Tennessee

A Christian family of nine who fled persecution in Germany and moved to the United States in 2008 was stunned when immigration agents told it to prepare for deportation after 15 years of life in America, but remains hopeful that &#8220;God will make a way&#8221; for them to remain in the country they have come to love. 
In a phone interview with The Daily Wire on Wednesday, Uwe Romeike said he and his family, who settled in a small town in Tennessee, were caught off guard when they were told to come in for a meeting with an immigration agent after they just had their annual check-in a few months ago. During that check-in earlier this month, Uwe, his wife Hannelore, and their five oldest children were told to prepare to self-deport, and return in four weeks with their German passports. 
“This came as a surprise. We did not expect anything like this,” Uwe said, adding that the feds have not given them any explanation for the sudden move to deport him and his family. But Uwe, a piano accompanist at Carson-Newman University, said he is trusting God with what happens next.
“We still trust God to make a way for us to stay here. I know it’s kind of impossible, but that’s where we know God can still do the impossible,” Uwe said, adding that if they are forced to go back to Germany, they will face the same type of persecution they fled as they continue to homeschool their two youngest children, such as being fined around $300 a day. 
The attorney representing the Romeikes, Kevin Boden of the <a href="https://hslda.org/post/romeike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Home School Legal Defense Association</a>, told The Daily Wire that it appears Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received new orders on handling the Romeikes, but said it’s unclear where the “change of orders” came from.
“It’s tough to know — is it a new official who came into ICE and is looking at this? Is it the Biden administration? Is it just the individual ICE officer who doesn’t understand this or was there some superior in the bureaucratic process somewhere who just decided they wanted to affect the deportation? I don’t know,” Boden said. “I don’t want to speculate, but there appears to be some change of orders at some point in the chain there.” 
Romeike and his wife moved their five children at the time to the United States after facing fines from the German government for pulling their children out of the public school system. Homeschooling is rarely permitted in Germany and only for medical reasons. When the Romeikes began homeschooling in 2006, the German government levied fines that amounted to around $9,000 and threatened to remove the Romeike children from the care of their parents, WBIR <a href="https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/morristown-family-faces-deportation-homeschooling/51-2d3dd498-b8b0-4b4e-86af-e8c33dae0dbb">reported</a>. 
The couple, who had two more children after moving to the United States, were granted permission by an immigration judge to live in the country. After the Obama administration&#8217;s Department of Justice fought the decision, the family took the fight to the courts, which ultimately ruled against them in 2013, arguing that the Romeikes did not prove that they faced persecution in Germany.
While the appeals court judge ruled against the Romeikes’ asylum claims, the family was allowed to remain in the United States indefinitely, and they checked in annually with an immigration agent. 
&#8220;They&#8217;re here with the approval of the United States government, but without permanent residency or citizenship status,&#8221; Boden told WBIR.
The Romeikes were told to prepare for deportation as the Biden administration continues to oversee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-border-numbers-near-all-time-high">record-breaking numbers</a> of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border into the United States. Many of the migrants who enter the country illegally are housed near the border or bused to cities throughout the United States, where they are fed and given rooms at the expense of the taxpayer while they await an immigration hearing. An ICE agent <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/01/27/migrants-with-criminal-records-among-those-being-released-in-the-us-ice-agent/">told</a> Fox News last year that some of the illegal immigrants being released into the country have criminal records for misdemeanors such as assault, drunken driving, and drug possession. 
When asked about the sudden decision to deport the Romeike family, an ICE spokesperson told The Daily Wire that each case is appropriately reviewed by the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). ERO reviews each case as appropriate,” ICE said. 
The father of seven also said his children who have already received their high school diplomas in the United States would be forced to undergo schooling again in Germany since the country wouldn’t recognize their homeschool education, but he remains resolute in keeping his children out of the public school system. Uwe told The Daily Wire that he knows of homeschooling families in Germany who have also had their homes and businesses taken away by the state. 
The Romeike’s attorney said the sudden decision from the federal government to deport the Christian homeschooling family is mind-boggling on multiple levels, but his organization is going to fight for the Romeikes to remain in America and continue living the life they built in rural Tennessee. 
“If you had to think about all the people that you would have to be concerned about in the United States, this is the type of family that you would absolutely welcome into your community,” Boden said.

‘God Will Make A Way’: Christian Homeschool Family Holds Out Hope After Biden Admin Moves To Deport It

The following is an excerpt from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mediocrity-Government-Schools-Failing-Students/dp/B0BSZBSP8Q/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y542HRZJVC04&amp;keywords=connor+boyack&amp;qid=1680817671&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=connor+boyack%2Cstripbooks%2C91&amp;sr=1-1">Mediocrity: 40 Ways Government Schools Are Failing Today&#8217;s Students</a>,&#8221; by Connor Boyack and Corey DeAngelis.
<h2>Stunting The Gifted</h2>
When Caitlyn Singam was in kindergarten, her teacher suggested to her parents that she be labeled as a special-needs student because she was intellectually backward. This was a shock to her father, who noted that the young girl was already reading, including advanced material, at that young age. The teacher informed Singam’s father that she “was finishing her reading assignments ‘too fast’ to have any understanding of the material.” When the dad suggested that his daughter might simply be an advanced reader, the teacher said, “she did not think it possible the girl could be so far ahead of her peers.” Although gifted, she was being branded as deficient. 
As Singam got older, she faced significant resistance from school administrators when her parents inquired about moving her up a grade or two. According to the spokesman for the school district, they decided to rigidly follow established protocols and “simply wanted to ensure all of her needs were met.” Never mind the fact that her needs were not being met by being held back to sit in a desk next to children who were similar in age but not ability. Singam recalled what his daughter’s kindergarten teacher had warned him years before: “Public schools simply didn’t have the means to support my daughter.”
When politicians and pundits discuss education reform, they typically highlight the perceived need for more funding and programs. Their attention focuses almost exclusively on children at the bottom of the pack — the underachievers and disadvantaged children struggling to keep up with teachers’ lessons. And while this is a laudable goal when providing education broadly to millions of children, there is a lack of attention on the high achievers — a result of the “teaching -to-the-middle” tendency of most government schools. David Lubinsky led a study at Vanderbilt University analyzing the relationship between top-performing children and future achievement. “Gifted children are a precious human-capital resource,” he points out — and a severely underutilized one, since the government school system does not adequately support and challenge the students. The study focused on students scoring in the top 0.01 percentile on the SAT at a young age (or, in other words, those who ranked higher than 99.99 percent of their peers). And there was a problem they discovered: the students’ early academic excellence was “belied by years of educational setbacks and systemic pitfalls.”
Another researcher on the project further highlighted the problem:
<blockquote>“There’s this idea that gifted students don’t really need any help. This study shows that’s not the case. These people with very high IQs — what some have called the “scary smart” — will do well in regular classrooms, but they still won’t meet their full potential unless they’re given access to accelerated coursework, AP classes, and educational programs that place talented students with their intellectual peers.”</blockquote>
Singam’s experience is not unique; many gifted students are not provided challenging, intellectual opportunities in government schools. Nearly 80 percent of teachers surveyed in 2008 agreed that “Getting underachieving students to reach proficiency has become so important that the needs of advanced students take a back seat.” The system forces gifted students to remain in a holding pattern while teachers perpetually focus on underachievers hoping they will catch up. It is a cruel punishment — a boring waiting game — that never ends for those who can excel if adequately challenged. Indeed, the Vanderbilt study found that “13-year-olds in the top 3 percent of math ability who took the project’s fast-paced math class were twice as likely to go into math or science careers than a similar group that didn’t take the classes.” But if a gifted child’s spark isn’t maintained, they look for stimulation elsewhere. Of the approximately one million school dropouts every year, nearly one out of ten earned mostly As. The biggest reason for quitting, cited by those top-performing students, is boredom. And worse, gifted children sometimes develop coping strategies to better fit in with peers, intentionally hiding their intellectual gifts and stifling their strengths since they are not praised and cultivated by the system they are in. This can produce feelings of alienation, anxiety, and a sense of shame that is completely counterproductive to helping them pursue their potential, which is ostensibly the entire goal of the education system.
Yes, there’s an achievement gap in schools, but administrators and teachers are only focusing on the bottom, thus ignoring — and weakening — the top. One researcher remarked, “You could make an argument that [these neglected high-achievers] merit the greatest investment, because they’re going to be the greatest producers, based on their early academic achievement.” But that is increasingly at odds with the school system’s priorities. 
Consider California, the pedagogical petri dish whose educational experiments often trickle down to (or are forced upon) other states. In 2021, the state’s Department of Education announced a new framework for math in K-12 government schools that would structurally discourage gifted students from pursuing accelerated classes to study advanced concepts. With supposed inequity as the driving concern, the department’s lengthy framework fretted, as summarized by one commentator: 
<blockquote>“Too many students are sorted into different math tracks based on their natural abilities, which leads some to take calculus by their senior year of high school while others don’t make it past basic algebra. The department’s solution is to prohibit any sorting until high school, keeping gifted kids in the same classrooms as their less mathematically inclined peers until at least grade nine.” </blockquote>
One is reminded of Winston Churchill telling the House of Commons in 1945, “The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” Like in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” the moochers and government administrators despise those who excel and, thus, throw roadblocks in their path to retard their progress. Parents of gifted children should look to this school system with extreme suspicion, for it treats such students as an academic afterthought. 
This is an excerpt from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mediocrity-Government-Schools-Failing-Students/dp/B0BSZBSP8Q/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y542HRZJVC04&amp;keywords=connor+boyack&amp;qid=1680817671&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=connor+boyack%2Cstripbooks%2C91&amp;sr=1-1">Mediocrity</a>&#8221; by Connor Boyack and Corey DeAngelis, set to release on April 26, 2023.
Connor Boyack is the author of the Tuttle Twins children’s book series, which teaches the ideas of a free society to the rising generation. He is also president of <a href="https://libertas.org/">Libertas Institute</a>, a free market think tank.
Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/">American Federation for Children</a>. He is also the executive director at Educational Freedom Institute, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a senior fellow at Reason Foundation, and a board member at Liberty Justice Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rear view of pupils rushing down school corridor

Gifted Students Suffer When Public Schools Focus On Underachievers And ‘Teaching To The Middle’

Gifted Students Suffer When Public Schools Focus On Underachievers And 'Teaching To The Middle'

Readers Pass

Teachers

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/heritage-foundation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heritage Foundation</a> released its inaugural ranking of the states with respect to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school choice</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">educational</a> outcomes on Friday.
The <a href="https://www.heritage.org/educationreportcard/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Education Freedom Report Card</a> evaluates categories such as school choice policy, availability of alternative teacher certification, efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and access to curricula among parents. As a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservative-think-tank-reveals-which-state-has-the-most-free-education-system-in-the-country" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Wall Street Journal revealed yesterday, <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> earned first place in the conservative think tank’s index.
“If sunlight is the best disinfectant, it’s no wonder why the Sunshine State is one of the freest states for teachers and children to pursue an education that is largely devoid of red tape,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “Florida has led the way in expanding education choice, cutting red tape, and holding schools accountable to parents with academic transparency.”
In second place was Arizona, which recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arizona-to-become-the-nations-gold-standard-for-school-choice-passing-universal-bill-for-one-million-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> tuition vouchers worth $6,500 per child that parents can apply to private schools, homeschools, or learning pods. Idaho, Indiana, and South Dakota rounded out the top five.
States that fell at the bottom of the ranking included New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, with Washington, D.C., placing last overall.
“As a fifth-generation educator, I know firsthand the importance of giving parents more choice in their children’s education, and how much of an advantage a quality education gives to those fortunate enough to receive it,” Roberts continued. “Lawmakers in every state capital — and here in D.C. — should be focused on empowering families and making sure that every child in this country has access to the highest-quality education, one that works best for them.”
The Education Freedom Report Card was unveiled shortly after the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> average reading scores for nine-year-olds plummeting five points and average mathematics scores dropping seven points. “This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics,” according to a <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The dismal scores occurred after school lockdowns disrupted learning in the spring of 2020. In reaction to the subsequent spread of radical gender theory and other left-wing ideologies through government schools, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">home education rates</a> soared as parents began to seek alternative educational opportunities for their children.
Particularly in urban school districts, teachers unions <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/five-cities-where-teachers-unions-are-keeping-schools-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">played a salient role</a> in extending virtual instruction well into 2021 — a reality that the White House recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-claims-schools-reopened-in-spite-of-republicans-here-are-several-videos-of-democrats-defending-closed-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denied</a>. “As record numbers of parents flip school boards and stand up to woke teachers’ unions, it is clear the parental rights and school choice movement is not slowing down,” Heritage Action Director Jessica Anderson said in remarks provided to The Daily Wire.
Despite lackluster outcomes, funding for government schools has continually risen throughout modern history. One <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_236.55.asp?current=yes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics indicated that the inflation-adjusted yearly expenditure per American pupil rose from $4,060 to $15,424 between 1960 and 2017.
Meanwhile, school systems have grown their administrative staff at a far greater rate than their teaching staff — a metric that the Heritage Foundation scrutinized in their index. A <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543118.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Department of Education revealed that non-teaching staff rose 702% between 1950 to 2009, even as districts hired 252% more teachers over the same period.

Empty desk in elementary school classroom

Think Tank Releases First-Ever ‘Education Freedom Report Card.’ Where Does Your State Rank?

Arizona

Florida

Heritage Foundation

School Choice

Actor and outspoken Christian Kirk Cameron recently blasted America&#8217;s public school system in an interview with Fox News.
Cameron — whose new documentary &#8220;The Homeschool Awakening&#8221; premieres Monday, June 13 — <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/kirk-cameron-public-schools-grooming-kids-critical-race-theory-sexual-chaos-racial-confusion?cmpid=prn_newsstand">told</a> Fox News, &#8220;The problem is that public school systems have become so bad. It&#8217;s sad to say they&#8217;re doing more for grooming, for sexual chaos and the progressive Left than any real educating about the things that most of us want to teach our kids.&#8221;
Thus, as Cameron explained in the interview and in his movie, the solution to the poor quality of public education is to homeschool your kids. He also took issue with those who say only experts, or the government, should be responsible for American school children&#8217;s education.
&#8220;And that&#8217;s just a fundamental difference in the way that we look at who has been entrusted with the sacred responsibility of raising our children. … Is it the parents or is it the government?&#8221; he said to Fox.
Cameron also blasted public education for &#8220;destroying&#8221; certain institutions and patriotism in America.
&#8220;And you can take your pick. Just go down the list. The things that are destroying the family, destroying the church, destroying a love for our great country: Critical Race Theory, teaching kids to pick their pronouns and decide whether or not they want to be a boy or a girl, the 1619 Project,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;If we send our children to Rome to be educated … we shouldn&#8217;t be surprised if they come back Romans,&#8221; he added. &#8220;If we want them to love God and love their neighbor and feel gratitude and thankful that they live in the United States of America, the freest country on earth, then you&#8217;ve got to teach them those things. … I realized that there was no better way for our family to do that … than to bring them home and join in with this rich, robust community, with tons of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/education/curriculum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">curriculum</a> to be able to have the flexibility and freedom to raise our kids the way we wanted them to be raised.&#8221;
The father of six admitted some days are more difficult than others, but said that it was worth it.
&#8220;Yes, there are hard days,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;Yes, there are times when you just feel like pulling your hair out. But it&#8217;s nothing compared to wanting to go back and do it all over again. If you see that your children went down a road and you can&#8217;t pull them back, [asking] … how did they lose their faith? How did they get pulled into an ideology that undermines everything that is going to lead to their success?&#8221;
&#8220;They learn to reject God … they learn to reject our country. And how did that happen? Well, that&#8217;s the kind of regret that we don&#8217;t want as parents,&#8221; Cameron added. &#8220;And so, if we&#8217;re willing to put in some extra effort and time now, we will be so glad that we did and we’ll lift our hands in gratitude and say, ‘Thank you that I woke up and I saw the light.’ And millions of parents are.&#8221;
Leftist critics of Cameron have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/add-homeschooling-to-list-of-things-the-left-says-is-racist">suggested</a> that he is allegedly taking part in a racist plot to segregate society — even if unwitting.

Kirk Cameron

Kirk Cameron: Public School Is ‘Destroying The Family, Destroying The Church, Destroying Love For Our Great Country’

Actor And Christian Kirk Cameron Blasts Public Education In Interview With Fox News, Advocates Homeschooling

Over the course of the pandemic, alternative schooling options have become more attractive to parents in the midst of COVID-19 regulations and constant school closures. 
The U.S. Census Bureau <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html">released</a> data in March of last year, noting that the coronavirus pandemic pushed a renewed desire for many to homeschool their children. According to the bureau, “national homeschooling rates grew rapidly from 1999 to 2012 but had since remained steady at around 3.3%.”
In the spring of 2020, around 5.4% of households in the United States with school-age kids said they were homeschooling. By the time fall hit, 11.1% of households with the same age kids said they were homeschooling. 
“That change represents an increase of 5.6 percentage points and a doubling of U.S. households that were homeschooling at the start of the 2020-2021 school year compared to the prior year,” the Census Bureau added. 
The report also noted that race seemed to be somewhat of a factor in the schooling choices. It stated, “[i]n households where respondents identified as Black or African American […], the proportion homeschooling increased by five times, from 3.3% (April 23-May 5) to 16.1% in the fall (Sept. 30-Oct. 12). The size of the increases for the other Race/Hispanic origin groups were not statistically different from one another.”
The jump was also seen more in certain states, such as Massachusetts, which saw an increase from 1.5% to 12.1% in homeschooling rates. 
The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-21/the-pandemic-pushed-more-families-to-homeschool-many-are-sticking-with-it">reported</a> that in California, almost 35,000 families filed an affidavit with California to start a private home school for five or fewer kids during the 2020-2021 school year. That number was more than double the amount of affidavits filed in 2018-2019.
Homeschooling numbers also differed in certain cities. 
“Among the 15 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), for example, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MSA, went from 0.9% in the spring of 2020 to 8.9% by the fall,” the report noted. “In contrast, the rate in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA, MSA was not significantly different (4.2% and 5.2%) for the same period.”
Parents in America are more and more interested in alternative forms of schooling as many schools continue to threaten closures or force students to wear masks in the midst of the highly contagious Omicron variant.  
“There is dissatisfaction with how folks were being taught and treated in schools,” said Martin Whitehead, spokesman for the Homeschool Association of California.
California policies might lead more parents to make similar decisions about schooling for their children, as they have already. 
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/all-california-school-students-must-be-vaccinated-for-covid-19-under-new-bill">reported</a>, Democratic state Senator Richard Pan “proposed a bill on Monday that would add COVID-19 vaccinations to the state’s list of inoculations for grades K-12 in a move that would require all students to be fully vaccinated starting in 2023.”
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom (CA) “has also announced an executive order that will require students 12 and over to be vaccinated for COVID-19 once the vaccine is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).&#8221;
“Newsom’s executive order allows for medical and religious exemptions. Pan’s new bill, however, does not currently include a religious exemption,” The Daily Wire added. 
Another piece of legislation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/proposed-california-bill-would-allow-kids-12-to-be-vaccinated-without-parental-consent">introduced</a> in the state last week would permit students 12 years of age and up to get the COVID-19 vaccine without parental permission.
“Giving young people the autonomy to receive life-saving vaccines, regardless of their parents’ beliefs or work schedules, is essential for their physical and mental health,” California Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener said, per an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-scott-wiener-san-francisco-1878f7be2355e82c1885754fc53514c0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> report.
“It’s unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine because a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site,” he added.
Voters are also responding to school measures and policies by electing new leadership. Newly-elected Republican Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order allowing parents to opt out of school mask mandates if they do not want their children to wear a face covering in school.
However, Youngkin has been met with resistance from school officials who have defied his order.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-superintendent-says-students-who-dont-wear-masks-will-be-suspended-in-violation-of-governors-opt-out-order">reported</a>, &#8220;Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Dr. Scott Brabrand on Friday issued a 34-page &#8216;Principal Briefing&#8217; PowerPoint presentation at a meeting with school administrators that ordered them to suspend students who refuse to wear a mask.&#8221;

7E18BC81-7EFF-40AF-8CF1-18E8BAB6EFD8_1_201_a

Homeschooling Rates Doubled During 2020

A new report uncovered that public schools in Indiana are losing students to private schools and homeschooling options for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year. 
<a href="https://thechalkboardreview.com/latest/indiana-education-exodus">Chalkboard Review</a> reported that public schools are seeing an “exodus” of students who are fleeing failing public schools across the state. The report found that of the 319 private schools in Indiana, 288 have seen some growth, and 154 have seen a significant enrollment increase between the 2020-2021 and the 2021-2022 school year. According to new enrollment data, 49 private schools saw at least a 150 percent increase from the previous year’s roster. 
Between 2000 and 2015, private and Christian schools with approximately 500 students or less saw their numbers fluctuate by about 10 students per year. According to Chalkboard Review, private and Christian schools are seeing their communities grow by 30 students. Some have created a waitlist as their maximum capacity has been reached. 
“In the last year, a large portion of these schools under 500 students have seen gains from 25 to 50 students,” Chalkboard Review reporter Anthony Kinnett writes. “In conversations with admissions staff, I discovered that some of these schools have begun placing new student candidates on ‘waitlists,’ as their maximum capacities have been exceeded.”
Examples of schools that are seeing significant growth include Suburban Christian School in Greenwood, Indiana. The school had 320 students during the 2020-2021 school year and has registered 551 students for the 2021-2022 school year. 
Colonial Christian School in Indianapolis recorded 177 students in September of 2020 and has registered 205 as of July 2021. 
The decrease in public school enrollment is a nationwide trend. According to a report from <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/more-than-1-million-students-didnt-enroll-during-the-pandemic-will-they-come-back/2021/06">Education Week</a>, more than a million students disappeared from public school rolls during the 2020-2021 school year. 
“America’s public school system lost almost 1.3 million students this year, according to an Education Week analysis of state data,” the outlet reported. “The loss was spread out across the nation, touching almost every demographic group and concentrated in lower grades. It will likely have academic, financial, and staffing repercussions for years to come.”
Chalkboard Review attributes the exodus to three factors — lack of academic rigor, mask mandates, and Critical Race Theory. In conversations with parents, most cited “educational mediocrity” as the top reason for pulling their students from public schools. 
The second concern is the ongoing debate around mask mandates in the classroom. Indiana is <a href="https://www.wthitv.com/content/news/Masks-not-mandated-for-Indiana-Schools--575044861.html">not</a> requiring students to wear masks, though many districts are encouraging students over the age of 12 to get vaccinated. 
The third most common reason parents are removing their children from public school are concerns about Critical Race Theory and “sexually explicit content” being taught in the classroom. 
Indiana school boards — like most across the country — have done little to calm parents and teachers who are worried about Critical Race Theory ideology and virtual learning. Examples include a Knightstown Intermediate School teacher being called “nuts” by the superintendent for suggesting that students should return to classroom learning. Another school district passed a resolution banning parents from speaking at school board meetings unless the topic was pre-approved by the board and the district’s superintendent. 
Corey DeAngelis, the National Director of Research at the American Federation for Children, told The Daily Wire that one-size-fits-all mandates, such as mandatory masking, are failing students. He encouraged state lawmakers to fund students instead of public school systems.
“The arguments about mandatory masking and CRT curriculum are just a symptom of the one-size-fits-all problem that&#8217;s inherent in the government school system. Funding students directly is the only way out of forcing one-size-fits-all mandates or bans on other people&#8217;s children,” DeAngelis said. “Frustrated families have had enough with bureaucrats controlling every aspect of their children&#8217;s educational settings and they&#8217;re now freeing their kids from the clutches of the teachers&#8217; unions.”

Student raising hand

Report: Indiana Students Are Flocking To Private Schools, Homeschooling

School Lockdowns

The most frequent question people pose to me is: What can I/we do to fight back against the nihilistic anti-American destruction of virtually all the country&#8217;s major institutions?
There is an answer.
The single best thing Americans can do to counter the left-wing attack on America — against its freedoms, its schools, its families, its children, its governmental institutions, its sports, its news and entertainment media, its medical establishment, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the military — is to take their children out of America&#8217;s schools.
Other than in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), the vast majority of America&#8217;s elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities teach your child or grandchild almost nothing important; prematurely sexualize them, thereby robbing them of their innocence; and harm them intellectually and morally. They rarely teach them, for example, art or music because they are too busy teaching them race-centered hatred of whites, of America and of America&#8217;s values. Sending your child(ren) to most American schools is playing Russian roulette with their values — but unlike the gun in Russian roulette, which has a bullet in only one of its six chambers, the schools&#8217; guns hold four or five bullets.
In many elementary schools, your child is taught that gender is chosen and that there is no difference between boys and girls (in a growing number of schools, the teachers are told not to call their students &#8220;boys and girls&#8221;); they are taught about masturbation; and many children from first grade on attend &#8220;Drag Queen Story Hour,&#8221; wherein an obvious man wearing women&#8217;s clothing, garish makeup, and a wig entertains them.
Given that all this is well-known, why do any nonleft — meaning, liberal or conservative — parents send their children to an American school?
One reason is they are in denial. Many parents do not want to know what their children are being taught and the consequent damage done to them. They don&#8217;t really believe school(s) will ruin their child, let alone their child&#8217;s relationship with them.
These parents should speak to any of the millions — yes, millions — of Americans whose children have contempt for America, for free speech and for their parents as a result of attending an American college or even high school. I meet such people at every speech I give, and I speak to them regularly on my radio show. Ask these parents, if they could redo their lives, whether they would keep their child in school.
A second reason is they feel they have no choice. If they remove their child from the local public or private school (most private schools are just as committed to anti-American indoctrination over education as public schools), what will they do with their child? They often cannot find a local school that does not harm their child. They cannot necessarily even rely on Christian or Jewish schools. Most of them are as &#8220;woke&#8221; as most secular schools. And if they do find a school that teaches rather than poisons, they may not be able to afford the tuition.
The only other option, then, is to home-school one&#8217;s child. The problem is that many parents assume this is essentially impossible. For one thing, they assume that one of the parents would have to leave his or her work, which would mean a serious reduction in the family&#8217;s income. In addition, home-schooling strikes most people as simply too daunting a task, even if they could afford to take it on.
Neither fear is entirely justified. It is true that, at least at the outset, a working parent may have to cut back from full-time work, and it is true that no matter what the family&#8217;s financial condition, there are challenges to taking one&#8217;s children out of school and home-schooling them.
But given the low intellectual state of most American schools, the damage they do to young children&#8217;s innocence and the anti-American, anti-white, anti-Western indoctrination in most schools, if you are a parent of school-age children, what is your choice?
Other than a) finding a good school that b) you can afford, you have no other choice. You are fooling yourself if you think the odds are that after attending American schools from kindergarten through college (not to mention through graduate school), your child will turn out well-educated, intellectually alive, rational, kind, happy, well-adjusted, grateful to be American, and respectful of you and your values.
While there are some wonderful young Americans who recently attended American schools, and there are some lost souls who were home-schooled, American schools are largely producing the following:
Poorly educated students. Ask your college son or daughter to diagram a sentence; identify Joseph Stalin, &#8220;The Gulag Archipelago&#8221; or the Soviet Union; name the branches of the American government; identify — or just spell — Beethoven; date the Civil War; identify the Holocaust; and name which sentence is correct — &#8220;He gave the book to my friend and me&#8221; or, &#8220;He gave the book to my friend and I.&#8221;
Angry young people. Why wouldn&#8217;t they be? First, they graduate college with a huge load of debt, having received almost nothing useful for their money. Second, if they are anything other than a white heterosexual Christian male, they have been taught to regard themselves as victims of oppression. Third, their future is so bleak they may not even have one: They are threatened with extinction by climate change.
The single best thing Americans can do to fight the left-wing destruction of the country is to withdraw from the &#8220;educational&#8221; system that is actively, deliberately miseducating them by the tens of millions. If millions of American parents did so, the country would turn around as fast as you could say &#8220;teachers unions.&#8221; If they don&#8217;t, their children will continue being used as guinea pigs in the Left’s sick and dystopian experiment.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

Kids

PRAGER: The Single Best Thing Americans Can Do To Retake America

In one of the creepiest yet most revealing Twitter threads ever to be posted on the platform, a teacher recently fretted out loud that virtual classes might allow parents to hear him brainwashing their kids. Matthew R. Kay, an educator and author of a book on “how to lead meaningful race conversations in the classroom,” worried that “conservative parents” would be able to interfere with the “messy work” of indoctrinating children into critical race theory, gender theory, and other left-wing dogmas.
Here’s the entire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/philly-teacher-parents-with-access-to-virtual-classrooms-would-do-damage-to-honest-conversations-about-gender-sexuality">thread</a>, which has since been set to private:
<blockquote>So, this fall, virtual class discussion will have many potential spectators — parents, siblings, etc. — in the same room. We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work? 
How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability? How many of us have installed some version of “what happens here stays here” to help this? 
While conversation about race are in my wheelhouse, and remain a concern in this no-walls environment — I am most intrigued by the damage that “helicopter/snowplow” parents can do in the host conversations about gender/sexuality. And while “conservative” parents are my chief concern — I know that the damage can come from the left too. If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kid’s racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?</blockquote>
It’s important to note that while some teachers responded to Kay’s comments with the appropriate level of horror and disgust, many others chimed in to share their own strategies for brainwashing during a pandemic. One teacher said she’d also been “thinking about” the problem Kay described, and had decided that she’d ask students about their preferred pronouns via survey — though she still worries that “caregivers” might see it and learn something about their children that they weren’t supposed to know. 
Another teacher said that students last semester would sometimes “type secrets into the chat” whenever the discussion turned to “anti-racism and gender inclusive content.” Another complained that a white parent— she made sure to specify “white” — in her district recorded a Zoom class and “filed a complaint against the teacher for an anti-racist read aloud (saying the teacher’s commentary was inappropriate and biased).” This, the teacher says, “is going to be an issue.”
A ninth grade teacher shared in the commiseration, saying that her class required students to “read and respond to a news article,” but that participation in this exercise is stunted now because “outsiders” are “listening.” The “outsiders,” to be clear, are the children’s parents. A teacher with pronouns listed in her Twitter handle said that she plans to use the chat function more than voice lectures because she wants children to share &#8220;information” with her in a “parentless way.” A science teacher agreed with all of the sentiments expressed here and summarized it bluntly: “Parents are dangerous.&#8221; 
And these are just the comments that were captured in screenshots before the tweets were all made private. Presumably, there is more where this came from. A lot more.
Several points must be made in response. 
First, classrooms are certainly not “safe places” for children to be “vulnerable.” Students may say and do things when they are with their peers in school that they would not say and do at home, but only a fool who doesn’t understand the first thing about child psychology and the effects of peer pressure would assume that the child’s at-school version of himself is the most authentic, much less the most healthy. The pressure to conform to the values and opinions of your peers in the classroom is immense, and often suffocating. There is a reason why rejection and alienation by peers has contributed to a true epidemic of suicide among young people.
The very same people who extol the classroom as a “safe place” for vulnerability will also tell us, on different days and in different contexts, that bullying is a major problem for today’s youth and many of them are driven to self-destruction because of it. So, which is it? Is the classroom a place for open and genuine dialogue, where children can safely express their truest feelings and beliefs, or is it a place rife with bullying and mockery, where rigid conformity is demanded and those who fail to meet the demands are severely punished? It certainly can’t be both.
Second, an adult keeping a secret with a child, and helping the child conceal that secret from his parent — especially when the secret has anything to do with sexuality — is acting in a way that is nothing short of predatory. If you heard a strange man on the playground whisper to your child, “this will just be our little secret,” you would assume that the man is some kind of sex offender. Does this behavior suddenly transform from disturbing to admirable if the strange man is a teacher? No, it doesn’t. But this is the sort of license society has given to teachers, on the the theory that they cannot do the work of educating unless they have more power over, and intimate knowledge of, their students than the students’ own parents. 
That brings us, finally, to point three, which is that a public school teacher is not supposed to be, and should not try to be, educator, parent, shaman, spiritual guide, therapist, friend, confidant, and sex counselor, all rolled into one. He or she is meant to fill only the first role on that list, and only in the subject the teacher has been assigned to teach. A child’s actual parents only come to be viewed as “dangerous” interlopers and intrusive “outsiders” when teachers begin to view themselves and the school system as the true guardians and conservators of the children that are temporarily in their care. And that, ultimately, is the problem with the modern education system.
Children are not old enough to be emancipated. They cannot yet go out and live their own lives. They cannot make every decision for themselves. They must belong to someone — not owned like objects but cared for and protected like the vulnerable human beings they are. The fundamental question is who do they belong to. Different cultures in different times and places have had different answers to this question.
Here, in contemporary American society, there are generally two ways of looking at it: children belong to their parents, or they belong to the school system (which is to say, the government). In one vision, a child is a son or daughter, in the other, the child is a ward of the state.
Only one of these visions is healthy, natural, and humanizing. Only one can properly facilitate a child’s emotional, mental, intellectual, and spiritual growth. The school system doesn’t just have a wrong and harmful idea of what education is — it has a wrong and harmful idea of what a child is, and what its fundamental role in a child’s life is supposed to be. And that is why I will not send my kids into its clutches. Neither should you. 
More from Matt Walsh: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-floyd-body-cam-footage-is-out">George Floyd Body Cam Footage Is Out. The Story Is Far More Complicated Than Media Led Us To Believe.</a>

Public School

WALSH: Teachers Openly Fret That Parents Might Hear Them Brainwashing Children, Call Parents ‘Dangerous’

Gender

According to an attorney for the largest U.S. legal organization for homeschool families, schools across the country are making it difficult for parents to withdraw their children and homeschool them, a burgeoning trend since the lockdowns instituted nationwide took effect.
T.J. Schmidt, a lawyer for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavirus-school-online-kids-covid">Fox News</a>, &#8220;We see this across the country. I&#8217;ve had school officials attempt to prevent or dissuade parents from pulling their kids out.&#8221; Schmidt theorized two possible reasons for the difficulty in processing the necessary paperwork: the schools have been understaffed because of the effects of the coronavirus, or the schools are simply afraid of losing students.
Schmidt stated, &#8220;There&#8217;s two main reasons &#8230; school officials are fearful of losing too many students to homeschooling, and the second reason is perhaps a staffing issue, just a lacking staffing issue to process these withdrawals. Not always an issue of trying to stop parents from homeschooling but there is a significant part of that involved.&#8221;
Another salient fact: some of the funds public schools receive depend on how many students are enrolled. As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/21/how-some-school-funding-formulas-hurt-learning-and-make-schools-more-dangerous/">The Washington Post</a> noted in 2015, &#8220;Traditionally, public schools are funded based on their total student enrollment.&#8221;
“A RealClear Opinion Research survey shows that 40 percent of families are more likely to homeschool when lockdown restrictions lift, a significant increase from the 2.5 million parents who were educating their kids at home before stay-at-home orders were put in place,” Fox News noted.
Schmidt, who homeschools his seven children, continued, &#8220;The most egregious situations I&#8217;ve had have been in Florida,&#8221; although he pointed out Florida has traditionally been quite hospitable for homeschooling. He said, &#8220;But I&#8217;ve had numerous parents in a couple of different counties told &#8216;we&#8217;re not allowed to withdraw students right now&#8217; &#8230; They&#8217;re trying to hold onto these students.&#8221;
Schmidt stated:
<blockquote>There are a variety of reasons parents are choosing homeschooling now. Some of these families were already contemplating homeschooling and COVID-19 pushed them over the edge. Other families are concerned about how the districts have addressed the situation. Whether it&#8217;s a basic miscommunication or something more nefarious where they&#8217;re actively working to prohibit parents from educating their children at home, HSLDA steps in making sure we&#8217;re defending the family, providing assistance and support. Our goal is to make sure they understand the legal requirements, the responsibilities, and even the joys of homeschooling.</blockquote>
In <a href="https://harvardmagazine.com/2020/05/right-now-risks-homeschooling">Harvard Magazine</a>&#8216;s May-June issue, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Bartholet urged a &#8220;presumptive ban&#8221; on homeschooling, calling it &#8220;dangerous.&#8221; She wrote: &#8220;The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18? I think that&#8217;s dangerous. I think it&#8217;s always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless, and to give the powerful ones total authority.&#8221;
Michael Donnelly, director of global outreach and senior counsel for HSLDA, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/harvard-homeschool-article-dangerous-parents-risk">fired back</a>:
<blockquote>Bartholet’s dystopian recommendations are tone-deaf and have provoked a firestorm of response from political and religious perspectives – as well they should have. Her obvious distrust of average Americans is loud and clear … Bartholet&#8217;s call for a presumptive ban on homeschooling because she considers American homeschooling parents too ignorant or too religious goes against the weight of decades of scholarly research on homeschooling which demonstrates positive academic, civic and social outcomes.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

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