When I wrote the article Homeschooling Growth is Directly in Proportion to Bad Schools I was referring to the stereotype that all homeschoolers are “all religious or socially maladjusted.” My point was to point out that many homeschoolers public school converts, and so if homeschoolers were maladjusted, the kids in public schools were also maladjusted. In part 2 I would like to be more specific about homeschool growth in relation to bad schools.
It should be no surprise after the testing fiasco a couple of weeks ago in GA that the state has among the lowest graduation rate in the nation. After all, how can such a huge population of kids fail a test that is designed to test what they have been learned? There are a couple of counties in my state with decent graduation rates, but in my county, the rate is below the national graduation average of 71% as only 68.4% of students are graduating on time. In all the graduation rate in my state is 69.4%.
These results have a strong correlation to the increase in the amount of Georgia Homeschoolers over the last half decade. When I started homeschooling my kids about five years ago we couldn’t go out of the house without being accosted and questioned as to why the children were not in school. Now, people take one glance at us and say, “Are you homeschooling?” Homeschooling has become commonplace here in Georgia.
According to A-Z’s homeschool page there were 31,752 homeschoolers in GA in 2002. There are no solid numbers that tell us how many homeschoolers are in Georgia right now but the Anniston Star reports that Georgia has seen similar growth to what is going in Florida which reports a grown from 37,196 in 2000 to 51,613 in 2006. Georgia has seen similar.” I can tell you for sure that you will not find a parent in Georgia who is not aware of homeschooling and homeschoolers.
On a national level, the No Child Left Behind legislation has been famously popular at one thing… pointing out how woefully inadequate schools are. Before No Child Left Behind was introduced, it was estimated that there were approximately 900,000 homeschoolers in the nation. In 2003, there were approximately, 1,100,000 homeschooled. In 2007, the number has grown to 1,300,000.(nces.ed.gov) children in the United States. (2000 and 2007 numbers provided by homeschooling.golimpitas.com from census and survey information).
As the news from public schools become more and more frightening, I am expecting that more people will be venturing fourth to homeschool on their own. Some will feel forced into homeschooling like in the case of the accrediting issue in Clayton County GA. Others will ask themselves the question, “can I mess up my kid any worse than schools have/” and they will answer a resounding “No”.
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?