by Ron Paul, Ron Paul Institute:
The covid lockdowns caused many Americans to stop trusting the government’s propaganda and led to a 39 percent increase in homeschooling in the 2020-21 school year. While the number of homeschoolers did decline some after this jump, homeschooling has continued growing in popularity over the last several years. Today, approximately six percent of American school children are homeschooled.
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Parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons, including objections to certain political and social agendas promoted by some government schools. Many parents became aware of how many government schools were sacrificing education for indoctrination while observing their children’s covid-era “virtual” classrooms.
Some parents started homeschooling as a temporary measure but discovered they could teach their children as well, or better, than the so-called experts. This makes sense. No one knows a child’s skills, interests, strengths, and weaknesses better than the child’s parents.
Two recent developments are going to increase homeschooling’s popularity.
First is the troubling results of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP is commonly referred to as “the nation’s report card.” In NAEP’s latest assessment the average eighth grade science score was significantly lower than the pre-lockdown 2019 score. Other scores including for twelfth grade mathematics and reading are lower than they were ten or more years ago. To put this in perspective, consider that in 1992 spending per pupil was an inflation-adjusted 12,000 dollars, whereas the average per pupil spending in 2021 (the most recent year for which figures are available) was 17,500 dollars — a nearly 50 percent increase. The decline in scores also follows a series of federal education “reforms” that were supposed to “fix” American education by giving more power to the federal government.
The second reason homeschooling will grow even more popular is two provisions of the “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB). These provisions provide tax benefits for parents who choose alternatives to government schools, including homeschooling. First, the BBB expands the use of tax-free 529 Education Savings Accounts. Money in these accounts can be used for a variety of expenses such as curriculum materials, online education, and tutoring.
The BBB also provides tax-credits for donations to Scholarship-Granting Organizations (SGO) SGOs provide scholarships to families, including homeschooling families to cover a variety of educational expenses. Giving Americans more control over the education dollar will do more to improve education than any centralized “reform.”
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