Rise in Home School Population Affects Public School Attendance
By Mimi Rothschild
The decision by an increasing number of parents to home school their children has begun to have an affect on the attendance at public schools. In some areas, the number of children now attending home school has more than doubled in recent years. Public schools receive federal funds for each enrolled student. Since the amount lost per capita is more than five thousand dollars, many districts are losing several hundred thousand dollars per year due to home school.
Some school districts are using innovative methods to lure home school families back to the public school fold. Setting up learning centers for home school students is one means traditional schools are using to restore ties with students who have left the public school system. Home school students who attend these learning centers are counted as part-time public school participants. However, learning centers do not allow religious education to be part of a student’s studies while on campus nor can center money be spent on religious resources. For these reasons, many parents who choose to home school their children on religious grounds object to the learning center approach.
The choice to home school does not always center on religion. Some families decide to home school because of inordinate peer pressure in the public school atmosphere. Parents may also feel that while one of their children does well in public school, another child will thrive in a home school environment. Other parents select home school education because they feel that the values of their families are not represented in the public school system. Many traditional schools no longer provide the discipline that many parents believe children need. Additionally, families may feel cut off from the decision making process within their local schools. Parents who opt to home school are generally independent thinkers who like to have a hand in both disciplinary policies and curriculum choices.
The decision to home school is not an easy one, and families do not come to it lightly. It is not the intent of home school families to financially undermine their public school districts. Parents who have chosen to educate their children in home school are quite often willing to scrutinize programs designed to reinitiate their families into traditional schooling. In the final analysis, though, parents will continue to choose home school over public school if they believe that the decision is in the best interest of their children.
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