Editorial Staff

Study: After Years of Steady Increases, Homeschooling Enrollment Rose Dramatically During COVID

/in , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Policy makers should acknowledge homeschooling as a viable option, offer support to families considering it

BOSTON – After steadily increasing for years, the number of parents choosing to homeschool their children skyrocketed during the pandemic, and policy makers should do more to acknowledge homeschooling as a viable option, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of households with children being homeschooled has doubled, from 5.4 percent during the 2019-20 school year to 11 percent in 2020-21.  Among Black households, it increased nearly five-fold, from 3.3 percent to 16.1 percent in a year.

“You didn’t have to be an expert to see the negative impact remote and hybrid classes had on learning in more traditional schools last year,” said William Heuer, who co-authored Homeschooling in Uncertain Times: COVID Prompts a Surge, with William Donovan.  “For a lot of people who had been thinking about homeschooling, the pandemic made it a good time to make the change.”

The sharp drop in just-released MCAS results makes clear the depth of pandemic learning loss.

Some argue that homeschooling enables child abuse and limits exposure to alternative points of view, but at least one study has found that homeschoolers exhibit more political tolerance than their public-school peers.

Homeschooling is legal in every state, but each promulgates its own regulations on the topic.  In Massachusetts, the program parents use must be approved in advance by the local school committee or district superintendent.

The authors note that homeschooling saves a significant amount of money.  They calculate that if the more than five million students in the U.S. who are homeschooled were to attend public schools, the cost would be about $1 trillion over 13 years of schooling.  Heuer and Donovan also calculate that it would require building 4,000 to 10,000 new schools.

“It’s unclear how many families view homeschooling as a temporary solution during the pandemic and how many will continue to do it,” said Jamie Gass, director of education policy at Pioneer Institute.  “But after years of steady increases, it is clear that the practice is common enough to be treated as a viable educational choice.”

The authors’ recommendations include state education agencies providing direction and information for those considering homeschooling by putting information about it on their websites with links to statewide homeschooling support groups.  They also urge districts to offer parents some “professional development” classes/courses and to allow students to participate in district extra-curricular activities.

The study includes a foreword by Kerry McDonald, a senior education fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and author of “Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom.”

About the Authors

William Heuer and his wife Loretta homeschooled their two sons from birth through high school. He has been a presenter and panel participant at statewide and national homeschooling conferences and has given numerous media interviews about homeschooling. He is on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Home Learning Association (MHLA), the Commonwealth’s oldest statewide homeschooling advocacy organization.

William Donovan is a former staff writer with the Providence Journal in Rhode Island where he wrote about business and government. He has taught business journalism in the graduate programs at Boston University and Northeastern University. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his master’s degree in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C.

About Pioneer

Pioneer’s mission is to develop and communicate dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant civic life in Massachusetts and beyond. Pioneer’s vision of success is a state and nation where our people can prosper and our society thrive because we enjoy world-class options in education, healthcare, transportation and economic opportunity, and where our government is limited, accountable and transparent. Pioneer values an America where our citizenry is well-educated and willing to test our beliefs based on facts and the free exchange of ideas, and committed to liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise.

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related Posts:

Key Madison Park Program Lags Other State Voc-Techs, but Shows Signs of Improvement

The co-operative education program at Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, which places students in paid positions with local employers, lags far behind other Massachusetts vocational-technical schools in terms of both placements and number of employer contacts.  But with the school as a whole beginning to improve after years of turmoil, the co-op is also showing promising signs, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

New Book Offers Roadmap to Sustainability for Massachusetts Catholic Schools

Catholic schools in Massachusetts must focus on the characteristics that make them academically successful and distinguish them from traditional public schools, but must also seek new models and governance structures that will help them achieve financial sustainability, according to a new book published by Pioneer Institute. The book, "A Vision of Hope: Catholic Schooling in Massachusetts," will be the topic of a webinar co-sponsored by Pioneer and the Catholic Schools Foundation to be held on Wednesday, January 27 at 2:00 pm. 

New Study Provides Toolkit for Crafting Education Tax-Credit Scholarship Programs

In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key impediment to private school choice, Pioneer Institute has published a toolkit for designing tax-credit scholarship programs. Now available in 18 states, nearly 300,000 students nationwide use tax-credit scholarships to attend the school of their family’s choice. TCS policies create an incentive for taxpayers to contribute to nonprofit scholarship organizations that aid families with tuition and, in some states, other K–12 educational expenses. This paper explores the central design features of TCS policies—such as eligibility, the tax credit value, credit caps, and academic accountability provisions—and outlines the different approaches taken by the TCS policies in each state.

Study: Signs of Progress at Madison Park, but Still a Long Way to Go

Four years after it began to implement a turnaround plan, Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School is showing clear signs of progress, but its performance continues to lag behind that of other vocational-technical schools in Massachusetts, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

MA’s Remote Learning Regs Should Specify Consistent District Grading Policies, Return of MCAS in 2020-21

The COVID-19 pandemic-related revisions to Massachusetts’ remote learning regulations should restore state and local accountability by specifying that any remote academic work shall, to the same extent as in-person education, prepare students to take MCAS tests, and that grading criteria should be the same across in-person, remote, and hybrid learning environments, according to a new policy brief published by Pioneer Institute.

New Pioneer Study Looks to International Examples to Inform Massachusetts K-12 Schools Reopening

With the fall semester fast approaching, Massachusetts should provide more specific COVID-19-related guidance for school districts about ramping up remote learning infrastructure; rotating in-person cohort schedules; diversifying methods of communication between students, parents, and teachers; and investigating physical distancing capabilities.  Districts must determine whether to adopt in-person, remote, or hybrid schooling options, and they will not be ready for the fall unless the state provides clear direction, according to new analysis from Pioneer Institute.