News Update

Home schooling has gone from fringe to fastest-growing in education

The practice of home schooling has been thoroughly transformed, experts say, from a fringe movement, once often associated with religious factions, to one of America’s fastest-growing forms of education, as the Washington Post reports.

The Post analysis, steeped in data collected from thousands of districts across the nation, confirms a widely-held observation that the dramatic boost in home schooling triggered by pandemic-era fears and school closures, has indeed held. 

Contrary to the contention that most families would inevitably return to their conventional schools once Covid-19 restrictions had been waived, many families are opting to stick with their alternative schooling choices. Other education choices that also got a pandemic bump, experts say, include outdoor schools, school pods and private schools. 

“This is a fundamental change of life, and it’s astonishing that it’s so persistent,” said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, as the Washington Post reports.