Why are Parents Choosing to Home School? — Transcript

When COVID hit last year, public schools like other institutions were forced to shut down. Many students and families struggled with remote learning, but now that classrooms are reopened, some kids are still home with parents turning into teachers.

Krystle Lynch recently turned her Apopka, Florida home into a classroom for her boys, that also means teaching three grade levels.

Third, fifth, and high school.

I didn't like what I was seeing, um, with the numbers in Florida, of course, with the virus, um, I felt that there was too much back and forth with, you know, the mask wearing and no mask wearing, um, and things that were just happening with that that I didn't really like in particular.

When schools went virtual, Lynch, a former teacher, helped her kids with their lessons.

She soon discovered it was easier to teach them at home, while also protecting them from COVID and the debate surrounding it.

According to US Census Bureau data, the pandemic has sparked new interest in homeschooling. In 2019, about 2.5 million students learned at home.

Today, that number has doubled to nearly 5 million.

In California, applications to homeschool tripled from 2020 to 2021.

And black households saw the largest boost, the rate rising from 3.3% in the spring of 2020 to 16.1% in the fall.

Virginia is part of this growing trend.

We have gone from 44,000 homeschoolers to over 65,000 homeschoolers just in the state of Virginia alone.

Yvonne Bunn of the state's Home Educators Association says while COVID plays a role in the increase, other factors are also having an impact.

For example, more schools are adopting critical race theory, an academic concept teaching racism exists everywhere in America.

We have certainly seen a tremendous outcry from the community, uh, they are not happy with this and many minority homeschoolers are not, uh, parents are not happy with this either.

Many want to shield their kids from other hot button issues, such as transgender policies in public schools.

A common theme for a number of parents is that their kids performed well while homeschooling and they don't want to change that.

And the results are undeniable.

Homeschool students score above 83 percentile in language arts and mathematics on standardized achievement tests, whereas public school students in a good year, not a COVID year, but in a good year, only score 50 percentile on these same tests.

Something Lynch says proves worthwhile. I can actually find out where they actually need help because there were some areas that I found out they hadn't made the gains that they should have, even if, even though they were in private school. Um, there's certain areas I could work with on with them on. I would definitely probably continue this, um, going forward, moving forward because, uh, the kids love it, I love it, um, and we're seeing great gains from it.

Charlene Aaron, CBN News.

Well, clearly there's a revolt going on in our country where people are sick and tired of being sick and tired of of hearing what's happening in our public schools.

And and and they're literally, you know, saying, well, I can do a much better job at home. So Terry, uh, who I admire greatly and we are completely unworthy of her, she had her own children, then she adopted children, and then she had grandchildren, and now she's raising an adopted grandchild. So, you've been doing all of this at the same time holding down a full-time job that I find very difficult to do and I don't have to care for kids. So, how do you do it?

Well, first of all, um, my granddaughter is in school in a private school, but so is this lady that we just saw in this piece, her children were in private school too.

So, private school isn't always the only option, we have her in a Christian school because we, during the time she's away, we want her to be reinforced by the people who are spending time with her in this areas of faith that are important to our family.

I am a huge proponent of homeschooling, I mean, for one thing, the statistics that we just saw, but also, um, I I just think there's an opportunity in that to invest yourself in your children.

I think you have to be home to do that well, but there are other options, there are homeschool co-ops and and, you know, it it's just so creative what's happening out there, I love seeing how parents are finding answers for themselves and their children in the midst of all of this. She's plenty of resources and plenty of help from people that have been through it and understand how hard it is to do it.

You know, I don't think it's just the time constraint that makes people hesitate, I think they feel unqualified, but I'm here to tell you, you are right, the information that's out there to reinforce you, to help you through the process is unbelievable. So if you're unhappy with what your children are getting, I would highly recommend homeschooling.

I I am a believer in Christian education for Christian kids, I I know it's a good thing for Christian kids to be in public school as well, but nowadays, I I don't know, I'm changing my mind. Well, I think the argument used to be go and be salt and light. Um, but increasingly the darkness has gotten so dark and now you have politicians saying parents have should have no input on their child's education. You have school boards who are actively promoting agendas that have nothing to do with American values and and um, you know, just being a Christian is now becoming uh, strange in our culture and uh, so uh, it's it's a good thing.

Let's let's encourage the good thing. Absolutely. If you want more information, we've got plenty of it for you on the CBN news.com, um, and on the app, uh, we'll refer you out to some of the homeschool associations.

Again, there's plenty of information online if you want to get started in this and and say, I'm I'm I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, I'm I want to make a difference and I want to make sure my children get a good education.

Amen.

Hello, I'm Gordon Robertson. Thanks for watching the video. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more encouraging videos like this one. Welcome to the 700 Club Interactive family and God bless you.