Home schooling is increasing

In New York City, some 1,800 children are being schooled at home. At least 850,000 children in the U.S. are schooled at home, up from 360,000 a decade ago, according to the Education Department.

Many come to home schooling because of frustration with the shortcomings of public education and the cost of private schools. The new nationwide standards of uniform curriculum and more testing, which may penalise children with special needs, are also driving parents to home schooling.

A 1999 survey by the National Centre for Education Statistics, considered the only authoritative snapshot of home schooling found:

Nationwide, a majority of home-schooled children come from white, two-parent, one-income families with three or more children.

The top three motivations for home schooling were the prospect of a better education (49 percent), religious beliefs (38 percent) and a poor learning environment in the schools (26 percent).

Home schooling is legal in all 50 U.S. states, although there are widely different regulations. New Jersey requires virtually no oversight while New York requires that parents notify their school district, file an instructional plan and quarterly reports and submit to annual assessments, alternating between standardised tests and portfolios.

Source: Jane Gross, Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home, New York Times, November 10, 2003.

For text http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/nyregion/10SCHO.html

For more on Education http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/

FMF Policy Bulletin\18 November 2003