Homeschooling

A Christian home-school family that was granted asylum in the United States 15 years ago after facing persecution in Germany, will be deported to their home country on orders from the Biden administration.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled Germany in 2008 after facing criminal prosecution for homeschooling their five children. Now, after 15 years, the family of nine must uproot their lives, move back to Germany, and face possible prosecution. 

Opponents of school choice have been touting a poll that they claim shows enthusiasm for homeschooling waning as pandemic-forced experiments in DIY education drag on. But a closer look at the numbers reveals nothing of the sort. Instead, it appears that even after months of an unplanned plunge into kitchen-counter education, the proportion of people saying they feel more positive about the practice has remained a majority, while opposition shrinks.

Hidden behind the carefully designed hybrid plans and distance learning classrooms across the country is a truth we all must face: School, as we know it, is over.

We've entered a new era. And as some parents, teachers, and school districts work to return to some semblance of normalcy, others are eyeing an alternative path. This wave of homeschoolers, "unschoolers," and families forming learning pods is more than an innovative response to a pandemic. They're also becoming the unexpected collaborators of an education reform that's way past due.

President Donald Trump got a lot of pushback for his criticism of school reopening guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—including from the CDC itself. But even many people who share the CDC's goal of minimizing health risks in the midst of a pandemic agree that the guidelines aren't especially practical. Keeping kids masked and separated in a learning environment intended for groups makes sense only to those who have little experience with schools—or children.

Since March, the Internet has been ablaze with articles and resources for parents forced into homeschooling their children because of the COVID-19 crisis. Some education experts—like Kevin Huffman in The Washington Post—are terrified of what long breaks and virtual learning will do to American children.

Until recently, Pennsylvania had one of the strictest home-school laws in the nation.

Despite the (at times) acrimonious debate surrounding Common Core, the federal government’s national solution to improving education outcomes, it’s worth noting that the controversial program is drawing some level of bipartisan support.

The home-schooling boom is getting a new push due to opposition to Common Core, the controversial national education standard that some parents claim is using their children’s public school lessons to push a political agenda, according to critics of the Washington-backed curriculum.

North Carolina, already a home-schooling hotbed, saw a 14 percent rise last year in the number of students being educated at home, according to a report from Heartlander Magazine. Similar increases have been seen in Virginia, California and New York, according to education activists.

Connecticut exploits school shooting to go after parents who educate their own children

The religious right touts homeschooling as a viable educational alternative. Parents, grads tell a different story.