Post-COVID-19 Homeschooling Surge Led by Increase in Minority Students: Report

Elementary aged students work on their math homework in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on May 12, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The unprecedented surge in homeschooling, believed to have been driven by the pandemic-induced shift to the remote learning model, continues to gather momentum post-COVID-19, and students of color are leading the way, according to a report.

Two years after schools reopened their doors, most experts expected the sharp rise in homeschooling experienced during the pandemic to recede to the pre-COVID-19 norms. However, a National Home Education Research Institute report found that the nationwide trend toward homeschooling has continued to accelerate, with 41 percent of all homeschooled students now identifying as non-white.

Jen Garrison Stuber, advocacy chair for the Washington Homeschool Organization, told The Epoch Times that many minority parents who have been leading the exodus out of public education believe that the system has failed their children.

“It has been becoming increasingly evident that we have a school-to-prison pipeline, especially in some of our most vulnerable communities, and what we are witnessing is a lot of [non-white] students beginning to understand that it doesn’t have to be that way,” said Ms. Stuber.

“Parents see that they don’t have to be condemned to a public education system that in too many ways has failed them, that they do have alternatives,” she added.

The COVID-19 pandemic, when students nationwide were forced to learn from home, facilitated a shift in perceptions and ended many long-held stereotypes about homeschooling, according to Ms. Stuber.

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“The beauty of the pandemic is that, in many cases, it took away the last remaining fears of homeschooling, and once parents got a taste of what it was like, many thought, ‘Oh, this isn’t as hard as I thought it would be,’” she said.

Further amplifying the growing number of homeschooled students are parents who, post-COVID-19, decided to send their children back to public school, only to return to at-home learning soon after, according to Ms. Stuber.

“We found a lot of parents who did go back to public education becoming desperate to get their kids out,” she said. “That was the great gift of the pandemic. People aren’t scared anymore.”

‘Growing Homeschooling Coalition’

The number of American children exiting the public school system has been growing for years. In 2019, prior to remote learning, approximately 2.5 million students were homeschooled in the United States. This number has surged, with recent data from the National Home Education Research Institute indicating that 3.1 million students are being homeschooled nationwide. Conversely, public school enrollment fell by 3 percent between 2019 and 2020, with many families withdrawing children from public education and signing them up for educational alternatives. 

As schools reopened post-pandemic, public school enrollment did not rebound, remaining flat in the fall of the 2021–22 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

While other factors have led to the decrease in public education, according to a 2023 study by Thomas S. Dee of Stanford, the switch to homeschooling accounted for 26 percent of the decline of 1.2 million students enrolled at public schools nationwide for the 2021–22 school year.

State-level statistics for the 2022–23 school year showed the downward trend continuing, as the drop in public school attendance led many districts to cut staff or even close schools.

In several major cities, empty public school buildings have led to calls to have the unused space converted into homeless shelters.

A 142-page leaked set of demands by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) revealed a plan to use public school facilities for homeless families, a move traditionally outside the purview of bargaining.

“The board, union, city of Chicago and partner community organizations shall identify functioning schools with separate entrances to be used as non-congregate temporary sheltering places for Chicago Public school families facing homelessness,” CTU contract demands stated.

Teacher unions in Boston, Los Angeles, and Oakland have made similar demands. The Oakland Education Association’s contract included a memorandum instructing the city’s school district and the union to identify “possible locations that could be developed into housing for unhoused and housing insecure” students.

The flight from public schools can be expected only to increase as homeschooling grows in popularity, according to Ms. Stuber, who added that past stereotypes that home education was the exclusive domain of the religious right have become antiquated and that the modern movement has found its growth from a diverse range of political ideologies.

“It isn’t just those on the religious right anymore, not at all,” said Ms. Stuber. “Today, we are seeing people on both sides of the cultural divide, and this growing homeschooling coalition has become a force to be reckoned with.”