Homeschooling: the highly unregulated parallel education system in the US

Homeschooling and other alternatives to the public education system are having a moment in the US. After the pandemic, many children never returned to public schools when they reopened.

According to data from the US Census Bureau, the percentage of children under homeschooling doubled in the 2021 school year to 11%.

However, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), an organization formed by homeschooling alumni, says it is impossible to know precisely how many kids are taught at home.

According to a survey by the the National Center for Education Statistics, 73% of the parents that chose homeschooling do so because they lost their faith in the public education system.

That is especially true when looking specifically at black families. The number of black homeschooled children grew by five times in 2021, much more than the general average.

According to The Guardian, many black parents had a first-row seat to watch how the public education system operated around their children, and they were not happy.

So homeschooling became a good alternative in many cases, with most parents making essential efforts to guarantee their children's education and values.

However, the lack of regulation has also turned homeschooling, in the worst scenarios, into the ideal hideout for abusive parents or a poor educational alternative.

Rules vary, but most states have a lax regulation of homeschooling. Eleven states don't even require parents to notify anyone when they choose to educate their children at home.

Harvard child welfare expert Elizabeth Bartholet said, in two op-ed pieces, that many parents chose to homeschool to guarantee ultra-religious or gender-biased education to their children.

Data by the National Center for Education Statistics backs her claims: more than two-thirds of parents say they chose it for religious reasons. Anecdotal information from the CRHE: many girls don't learn advanced math or are expected to care for their siblings.

Pro-homeschooling associations claim homeschooled children have better SAT scores. However, according to the CRHE, only 10% of home-taught students take the SAT, against more than half of traditional education students.

In some cases, homeschooling has also served parents as the perfect hideout for their abusive behavior, as, in many cases, they don't need to do constant reports of their activities or receive visits from any authority.

Teachers, social workers, and counselors are mandated by law to report any indication that a child is suffering from abuse in their home. Isolating the kids from them allows these parents to operate freely.

According to a study of six Connecticut school districts by the Office of the Child Advocate, one in every three children pulled from school between 2013 and 2016 lived with an abusive adult.

The cracks in the system have led to horrifying cases, like the murder of 11-year-old Roman Lopez by his stepmom in January 2020, after years of abuse hidden behind a homeschooling facade.

According to The Washington Post, Roman Lopez was invisible to his state, Michigan (one of the eleven with no homeschooling regulation), to homeschool associations, and child protective services. Homeschooling claims hid him.

The growth in homeschooling and the reports of cases like Roman's have rekindled the discussion of how Michigan handles homeschooling and a broader conversation about national regulations.

However, pro-homeschooling associations, like the Home School Legal Defense Association, fiercely fight against any regulation by pressuring lawmakers, so the future is still uncertain.