As states locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many kids were unable to attend school. Initially, there was an outcry by parents to re-open the schools; however, as people grew more comfortable teaching their kids at home, the number of homeschoolers surged. The increase was partly driven by concerns over Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mask and vaccination mandates in the schools.
Public Schools
(Photo By STORMI GREENER/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The public school system is a glaring contradiction in the U.S. It was imported in the mid-19th century from militaristic Prussia and implemented as a bastion of socialism and government interference in the land of liberty. The intentions were good – they always are. Due to waves of immigration, the U.S. was receiving hordes of Catholics from Europe. The predominantly protestant nation set about to prevent what they perceived as a gruesome relic from gaining ground in America. The solution was public schools.
The Catholics were able to start their own schools based on their faith, and to the chagrin of many protestants, the Constitution granted them this right. What was initially a scheme to integrate immigrants took on a life of its own. Today, it has been thoroughly taken over by special interest groups and political activists. According to Cato Institute, public spending per child has tripled since 1970 with zero educational improvements.
Worse, the schools are in many places filled with criminal and delinquent behavior. For many Americans, public schools are the first and only place they will be subject to violence during their lifetimes.
Homeschooling
In 1973, only 13,000 kids were homeschooled, according to National Home Education Research Institute. As government expenditure, activism, and incompetence steadily grew, ever more parents chose to abandon the failing public schools. In 2019, before the pandemic, the number of homeschoolers had grown to 2.5 million. In 2021, the number is now at a whopping five million. Â Some have labeled this surge as white supremacy, but the largest percentage growth has been among blacks, Asians, and Latinos.
Although the pandemic and the inept government response is the primary cause of the surge in homeschooling, do not be surprised if these numbers remain high and continue to increase, even as the pandemic subsides. Parents are discovering the dirty secret of education: Homeschooled children significantly outperform kids in public schools. It is not because the most resourceful parents are overrepresented. Kids who are taken out of public schools tend to improve their grades dramatically.
Abolitionists
Homeschooling communities are exploding all over America, and many parents find their way out of the public schools through YouTube channels such as Deborah Fillman’s “TheReasonWeLearn”. Her evolution has gone from wanting to fix the public schools to becoming an outright abolitionist.
She argues that public education is a gross violation of America’s founding principles and that the system is so damaged as to be unsalvageable. She says the only way to overcome the behemoth is to starve the beast by unenrolling. Unlike votes, which do little, money still follows the students. She argues that parents both save money by homeschooling and save their children from an academically and psychologically damaging public school. More and more parents hear her message and agree.
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Read more from Caroline Adana.
