I shared this one on facebook yesterday. Notice how only 36% say they are homeschooling for religious reasons. You would think that the government would take note that it used to be almost 100%. That means, in recent years, not only have the number of homeschoolers increased dramatically, but the number of people just plain dissatisfied with the government run schools has increased many more times that. Feel like walking outside and yelling at the top of my lungs, "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!!!!!"
It's good to see the media putting a positive spin on homeschooling. Just two years ago when I started it seemed that the only reports out there were set to discourage parents from trying.
I also liked that they immediately showed the homeschoolers can still participate in sports and activities with other kids.
What I don't understand is, they say that about 1.5 million are homeschoolers, and that the number has increased by 75% in the last few years, but EVERY time I hear an estimate of the number, it's 1.5 million... It's been the same number in the estimates since I started HSing about 18 years ago!
It reminds me of rain forests, Lindina. They are always disappearing and their annihilation is right around the corner and has been since I was a child.
The government's own statistics indicate the number was about 2 million a decade ago and growing at a fair old pace. This would imply the number is double that quoted by the news report.
I was thinking the exact same thing . . . And the same about the numbers. We started homeschooling 14 years ago, and the number was an "estimate" of 1.5 to 2 million. I know for a fact that homeschooling has grown significantly, especially in states like CA where things like ISPs and homeschool charters have really popped up, so that number MUST be way off.
