Government schools in America “have lost more than a million students since the start of the pandemic,” reports the Wall Street Journal, leading to school closures “across the country.” The article goes on to document dozens of those closings and lists “a rise in home schooling” as one of the causes for the drop in enrollment. In total government schools lost “1.4 million students from the fall of 2019 to the fall of 2020.”

3.7 million homeschooled children

Homeschooling numbers have swelled to 3.7 million children as government schools lose students, according to WhatToBecome in an article entitled, “Homeschooling Statistics You Shouldn’t Ignore".

Why?

Project Forever Free suggests COVID measures and frustration with poor education may be responsible for the move away from government schooling.

Maybe it’s the continued disruptions to learning in public schools — from poorly-devised remote classes to indoor mask mandates — that have forced many parents to search for schools teaching in person or meeting away from COVID risks. 

Or perhaps these pandemic problems were just an occasion for parents to act on frustrations they’ve had for years. Many public schools have been consistently incompetent when it comes to meeting children’s educational needs.

WhatToBecome also points to educational success as one of the reasons for the growing popularity of homeschooling.

15% to 30% higher scores on achievement tests [including] 72 points more (out of 1600) than the national average on the SAT. 

Higher scores are not the top reason parents choose to homeschool, though. Safety is. 

80% of parents choose to educate their children at home because of safety concerns…Parents in the States are becoming more worried about their children’s safety at school, primarily because of drugs, bullying, and negative peer pressure.

Teachers

Those safety concerns, limited as they are to the behavior of other students, may be outdated. Breitbart analyzed a report compiled by the Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools and found, “hundreds of Chicago teachers raped, sexually assaulted, and groomed students in 2022.” 

Breitbart details some of the attacks pointing out that the Inspector General “substantiated more than half of the allegations" in 600 “adult on student” cases in just the past year.

Twitter campaign

Homeschool advocates have taken to Twitter to press their argument for making the move. Libs of TikTok put up this warning about teachers in government schools, with a picture of what appears to be an adult and a child holding each other as part of a gay pride display:

Other Twitter users rely on statistics.

Others employ humor in their homeschool outreach efforts.

Homeschooling series

See our previous articles from our series on government education vs. homeschooling:

1. Homeschoolers top government-schooled children in … everything
2. Reagan's and Trump’s vows to defund government education . . .
3. Pay twice to escape government education?
4. 'Pay us to teach your children to hate freedom'