Home Schooling

North Carolinians want an educational system that will adequately educate their children, and more than 40,000  families in our state have made the choice to home school. It seems that an increasing number of parents believe that greater results come from greater freedom.

It’s true that parents have few educational options for their children in North Carolina. In an ideal world, parents here would have a free hand at choosing the location and model of their children’s education. Although not ideal by any means, there are glimmers of hope for families across the state.

School enrollment is down in many of North Carolina’s larger school systems.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Pitt County, and other systems are surprised to see their enrollment numbers dip.

When parents don’t get choices, they create them.  The N.C. Division of Non-Public Education released its annual home school report on Monday. In short, nearly 5,500 more students were home schooled in 2008-09 as compared to the prior school year.

According to a recent survey by the good folks at Public Policy Polling, more North Carolinians consider education to be the state's top issue. Despite all the talk about the economy, the percentage of voters naming education as their top issue has more than doubled since last year. Increased public awareness of educational issues could be one explanation for North Carolina's recent spike in private school enrollment.

The U.S. Education Department has released figures indicating that home schooling is on the rise across America. USA Today reports:

"As of the spring of 2007, an estimated 1.5 million, or 2.9% of all school-age children in the USA, were homeschooled, up from 850,000 (or 1.7%) in 1999.