U.S. Department of
Education: Higher Educated Parents More Likely to Homeschool
by Dr. Susan Berry 23 May 2015
New data released by the U.S.
Department of Education shows that the more educated parents are, the
more likely they are to homeschool their children.
According to information from the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES), the number of homeschooled students between the
ages of 5 and 17 has increased dramatically over
the last decade, soaring 61.8 percent. The data also indicates that
the more educated the parents, the more likely they are to homeschool their
children.
According to the newly released data, an estimated 1.6
percent of students whose parents earned a high school diploma or less are
homeschooled, while 2.2 percent of students whose parents have received
vocational/technical training or “some college education” are homeschooled.
Additionally, 2.4 percent of students whose parents have earned a bachelor’s
degree or received some graduate education are homeschooled, and 2.5 percent of
students whose parents earned a graduate or professional degree are
homeschooled.
Though homeschool support organizations emphasize that
parental motivation to offer their children the best education – and not higher
level education degrees – is most important factor in determining whether to
homeschool, the data trend suggests that higher educated parents are perhaps
seeing the value and high quality of a homeschool education.
However, as Breitbart News’ political editor Rich Tucker noted Saturday,
philosopher Daniel Dennett recently voiced his view at The Atlantic
that “unsupervised homeschooling” is a “contemporary habit that will be
most unthinkable 100 years from now.”
Despite the federal government’s recent data suggesting
that higher educated parents are more likely to homeschool their children,
Dennett asserts the common gross misperception of narrow-minded parents
choosing homeschooling as a means to brow-beat their children into accepting
only one set of ideas:
When we come to recognize that willfully misinforming a
child—or keeping a child illiterate, innumerate, and uninformed—is as evil as
sexual abuse, we will forbid parents to treat their children as possessions
whom they may indoctrinate as they please. They may teach their children any
religious creed they like, but only if they also teach the uncontroversial
facts about the world’s religions so their children can make an informed choice
when they grow up.
Summing up what he terms the “silliness” of Dennett’s
position, Tucker writes, “Homeschooling is taking off because it works, and
because it empowers parents. The bigger question isn’t whether it’ll be banned
in 100 years; it’s ‘what will government schools look like in 100 years, with
dwindling student populations?'”
Mike Smith, president of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA),
agrees in a statement to Breitbart News:
This growth confirms what we are seeing at HSLDA as well. Homeschooling
will continue to grow as more parents are being exposed to the possibility and
benefits of homeschooling. The major reasons people are choosing home schooling
is that the primary competition to home schooling – public schools – is continuing
to look less desirable. Violence at schools, bullying, academic
digression, and social activism is increasing rather than decreasing, and more
and more parents have come to the resolve that they simply can’t subject their
children to this environment. Until these issues are addressed and get
reversed, home schooling will continue to grow.
Echoing Smith, William Estrada, director of federal
relations at HSLDA, tells Breitbart News the federal government’s newly
released data on the tremendous growth of homeschooling is “what we have seen
on the ground in all 50 states.”
“More and more parents are choosing to homeschool their
children as they see the successful social and academic outcomes of homeschool
graduates,” he said.
Michael Farris, Jr., at HSLDA media relations, added his
observation that many younger parents “are choosing homeschooling because of
the flexibility it offers in tailoring an education that meets their child’s
individual needs. The public school method is one-size-fits-all, and people are
realizing that there are better alternatives out there.”
Homeschooling veteran Ellen Gerwitz of Florida tells
Breitbart News that she and her husband graduated all three of their children
from homeschooling, and found results much different from Dennett’s
characterization.
“The benefits from homeschooling have been numerous,”
Gerwitz said. “Among the top ones are children who are independent thinkers and
have not been indoctrinated by the concept of institutional education; close
family ties; individualized instruction; self-motivation; time management
skills; and more free time for hobbies and part-time jobs as well as
community/church service.”
In advising new homeschooling parents, Gerwitz recommends
avoiding re-creating the model of institutionalized education in the home,
since the reason why parents homeschool is to provide a more individualized
education for their children.
“Homeschooling has continued to grow more and more popular
because the socialist agenda in schools to dumb down our society for the
purposes of control has become more and more visible to parents,” Gerwitz adds.
“They may not know why the schools are not working for their children, but
parents can recognize failure when they see it.”
Attorney Deborah Stevenson, executive director of National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD), agrees there
are numerous reasons why more parents are choosing to homeschool their
children.
“Quite simply, it works,” she tells Breitbart News.
“Homeschooling allows true parental choice, the freedom to learn in a way that
makes sense for each child, and to allow students to advance at their own
pace.”
“More parents understand they have the right to instruct
their own children and more now know of the many success stories of
homeschooled students entering college, earning degrees, and moving on to
successful careers,” Stevenson continued, observing as well the benefits of
homeschooling to students with special needs.
“Parents understand that providing individual instruction to
children who have special needs is easier to obtain in a homeschool setting
that it is to obtain from a public school, especially if the public school is
inflexible about the kind of special needs instruction it is willing to
provide, to pay for, or to make available.”
In addition, Stevenson notes the technology of the
Internet has only increased homeschooling families’ access to many resources
and supports.
“The rise of the Internet, social media, and homeschool
support groups makes obtaining assistance and support for parental choices
easier,” she explains. “There are more group academics and activities available
for homeschooled children today than in the past.”
As the U.S. Department of Education observes the higher
education levels of parents who are homeschooling their children, Stevenson
also points out that institutions of higher learning are actively recruiting
homeschooled children.
“Homeschooled students bring to the institution a varied
background and a willingness to learn on their own,” she says.
“Parents may no longer be content to allow the public school
system to compel their children to meet the needs of an inflexible curriculum,”
she observes. “Providing an individualized curriculum allows a child the
freedom to learn in a way that is specific to his or her needs, and is what
fosters the best interest of that child.”
U.S.
Department of Education
Race to the Top
is a grant program for the U.S.
Department of Education, and encourages adoption for the Common Core educational standards.
Note: Jeb
Bush is a Common Core educational
standards supporter, an advisory committee member for the Hispanic Leadership Network, a member
of the Alfalfa Club, George H.W. Bush’s son, and was a board
member for the American Action Forum.
Hispanic
Leadership Network is an offshoot of the American Action Network.
Frederic V. Malek
is the founder & board member for the American
Action Network, a member of the Alfalfa
Club, the chairman for the American
Action Forum, and a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Lauren
Maddox is a board member for the American
Action Forum, and was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank),
the International Rescue Committee, the
Brookings Institution (think tank), the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational
Fund, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, is a member
of the Bretton Woods Committee, and a
board member for the International
Crisis Group.
Shirley M.
Hufstedler was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the secretary at the U.S. Department of Education.
Achieve
Inc. helped develop the Common Core
educational standards.
Michael
Cohen is the president of the Achieve
Inc., and was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for Achieve Inc.
Richard
W. Riley was a trustee at the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.
Newton
N. Minow is an honorary trustee at the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of
Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a trustee
at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a lifetime
trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Mortimer B.
Zuckerman was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the
owner of The Atlantic, and is a
member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
Samantha
Power was a contributor for The
Atlantic, a board member for the International
Crisis Group, Barack Obama’s
aide, a director at the International
Rescue Committee, and is married to Cass
R. Sunstein.
Cass R. Sunstein
is married to Samantha Power, and senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
Diane
S. Ravitch was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, and a Common Core educational standards critic.
Race to the Top
is a grant program for the U.S.
Department of Education, and encourages adoption for the Common Core educational standards.
Achieve
Inc. helped develop the Common Core
educational standards.
Joyce Foundation
was a funder for Achieve Inc.
Valerie B. Jarrett
was a director at the Joyce Foundation,
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Vernon E. Jordan
Jr. is Valerie B.
Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), a senior director at
the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, a director
at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg
conference participant (think tank).
James
Cole Jr. was a director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational
Fund, and is the general
counsel nominee for the U.S. Department
of Education.
Michael
Cohen was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, and is the president of the Achieve Inc.
Achieve
Inc. helped develop the Common Core
educational standards.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for Achieve Inc.
David A. Hamburg
is the president emeritus for the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think
tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United States in war. Also to take over American
history and take over the whole education system in America, so the children
can be indoctrinated into accepting a World Government)
George
H.W. Bush is Jeb Bush’s father, a
member of the Alfalfa Club, a member
of the Bohemian Club, and was the
president of the George H.W. Bush
administration.
George H.W. Bush New World
Order Speech
Jeb
Bush is George H.W. Bush’s son, a
Common Core educational standards
supporter, an advisory committee member for the Hispanic Leadership Network, a member of the Alfalfa Club, and was a board member for the American Action Forum.
Hispanic
Leadership Network is an offshoot of the American Action Network.
Frederic V. Malek
is the founder & board member for the American
Action Network, a member of the Alfalfa
Club, the chairman for the American
Action Forum, and a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Henry A. Kissinger was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), is a member of the Bohemian Club, an overseer at the International Rescue Committee,
a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a
2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Mortimer B.
Zuckerman was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the
owner of The Atlantic, and is a
member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
Samantha
Power was a contributor for The
Atlantic, a director at the International
Rescue Committee, a board member for the International Crisis Group, Barack
Obama’s aide, and is married to Cass
R. Sunstein.
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