“This is a great victory for homeschoolers everywhere.“

They came by the hundreds, one newspaper said — “perhaps thousands.” Some traveled hours, others waited hours, all for the opportunity to protest one of the most outrageous homeschooling bills ever introduced: California’s AB 2756. Spilling out into crammed hallways and overflow rooms, families poured into the Statehouse just for the opportunity to spend a few minutes speaking out on a measure that would give the government more power over parents who educate at home. Continue reading →

Will Parents Defend Them?

Homeschoolers today have it easy. Many of us were in diapers when, in 1977, educator John Holt created Growing Without Schooling, the first newsletter to connect and encourage homeschooling families. Holt and other social reformers provided the support and facilitated the networks that would ultimately lead to homeschooling becoming legally recognized in all U.S. states by 1993.

I sometimes wonder about the courage it took those earlier homeschooling parents to remove their children from school before it was fully legal, to chart an alternative education path for their children when they were often the only ones on that road. Continue reading →

Homeschooling sounds great in theory: Personalized education for your kids, tons of one-on-one time with your little ones, and days full of of field trips, playdates, music lessons, and reading together. But will it work for your family? We’ve pulled together ten of the most common concerns new homeschoolers face — from teaching subjects you know nothing about to living on one income — for you to consider before taking the homeschool plunge. Continue reading →

As the dissatisfaction among parents with the U.S. education system grows, so too does the number of homeschoolers in America. Since 1999, the number of children who are being homeschooled has increased by 75%. Although currently the percentage of homeschooled children is only 4% of all school children nationwide, the number of primary school kids whose parents choose to forgo traditional education is growing seven times faster than the number of kids enrolling in K-12 every year. Continue reading →

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Though there’s some debate about the exact figure, one thing is certain: Homeschooling families nationwide are saving taxpayers a ton of money.

The Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank in Boston, estimates the savings are roughly $22 billion annually.

“The homeschool families are paying their taxes, their property taxes, their local taxes, of course, their state and local taxes, and a small percentage of those go to the state and federal departments of education, and an even smaller percentage back to the local schools,” explains Will Estrada, director of Federal Relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association. “But then the homeschooling families are not using services from the public schools.” Continue reading →

Part 1: When I Think Back on All the Cr*p I Learned in High School

In free education, you get what you pay for.

At one point, in the six long years of infertility before the birth of number one son, we were going to homeschool. In fact, I collected books and all, planning on using them to teach the child.

And then the child arrived. At some point when Robert Anson (Yes, when you name your child that, you get exactly what you deserve) was three, a friend gave me a book called “Raising the self-willed child.” Don’t bother finding it, or at least not that particular one (I imagine there’s more than one book of that name). It was based on the idea that if your child had sufficient self-esteem he would be miraculously docile. Continue reading →

New data compiled by a Boston-based a public policy group reveals that homeschooling has gained in popularity and reach in recent decades.

A report issued this week by The Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based a public policy think tank, sheds light on the rapid growth and diversity of the U.S. homeschooling population.

Co-authored by William Heuer and William Donovan, the comprehensive white paper explains that despite a paucity of support from government officials–and outright opposition by the nation’s largest teachers’ union–homeschooling has gained in both popularity and reach over the past several decades. Continue reading →

It is said that when you write a commentary or column, you should write in such a manner that ALL can understand the point(s) you are endeavoring to make. Well…I am not a journalist, nor have I slept at a Holiday Inn recently so as to play one. I am certain that what follows will not be understood by any reader under the age of 58. For readers from 60 years and above, not only will you immediately grasp the following language, but you will also have come flooding back to memories the place and situation most likely you heard the following prose. Smiles will ensue, maybe some tears of sweet memory, maybe even some contemplation after all these years when such profound statements of life were first uttered, and probably not in a moment of intellectual insight, but rather a moment of life as you knew it at that moment being at a crossroads! Continue reading →

“…he understands alternative methods of education.”

CONCORD, N.H. ~ A businessman who homeschooled his children is officially New Hampshire’s next education commissioner.

The Republican-led Executive Council voted along party lines Wednesday to confirm Frank Edelblut, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s pick to oversee the state’s public schools. Edelblut’s nomination sparked fierce public debate, mirroring the outcry over President Donald Trump’s nomination of school choice advocate and wealthy GOP donor Betsy DeVos to lead the federal education department. Continue reading →

New York City mother Tanya Acevedo received a home visit from Child Protective Services at 7 p.m. this winter. They were investigating her for “educational neglect” because she had legally withdrawn her child from the public system to homeschool.

After Tanya let them in, a CPS investigator insisted that they interview her child in private, and inspected their apartment, including a look inside Tanya’s refrigerator—standard practice for a home under investigation for “neglect.” The officer left Tanya with stern instructions to produce documents and her child the next day at the CPS office. Continue reading →

‘We intend to show the real harm … is being done by state officials’

In its defense of an Ohio mother convicted over homeschooling, the Home School Legal Defense Association is charging a state “bureaucracy gone awry” is responsible for the hell she suffered.

Last September a common pleas judge in Warren County, Ohio, imposed a guilty verdict on Valerie Bradley for being “criminally reckless” in her son’s education, according to Jim Mason, vice president of litigation for the world’s premiere homeschooling advocates.

She was convicted even as a state official praised her for her success, evidenced by her son’s high academic achievement. Continue reading →