San Antonio Standard

COVID-19 has driven significant growth in parents choosing homeschooling for their children, with numbers particularly high in Texas, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Education Daily Wire reported that over a roughly 20-year period, withdrawals from Texas public schools in favor of home schooling rose approximately 228%, while at the same time public school enrollment increased only 41%.

In the San Antonio area, there was a 222% increase in home schooling for grades seven through 12 between 1997 and 2019, according to Texas Education Agency data. This is a 5.7% year-over-year increase.

“COVID-19 has contributed a lot, probably not just in Texas but nationwide, to home-schooling numbers in general,” Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) spokesman Stephen Howsley told Education Daily Wire. “We did see a lot of parents who just decided it would be better, whether that be for their child's safety or health or for the flexibility, to instead move to home school.”

In the 2018-2019 school year alone, the number of students that left Texas public schools to be home-schooled stood at nearly 23,000, according to the Texas Education Agency (TEA). THSC predicts the 2020 numbers will show that withdrawals from the public system to homeschooling will continue at a record-breaking pace, reports The Texan.

“Texas, compared to other states, is probably one of the [most free] states to actually home school in,” Howsley told Education Daily Wire. “There are very few regulations and that allows parents to customize education for each child. A lot of people have realized over the years that a one-size-fits-all solution is not great when it comes to education.”

Ione McGinty, a long-time homeschool mom, told the San Antonio Standard that she has noticed an "explosion" in home schooling the past few years and said that the number of San Antonio home school Facebook page members is double that of a few years ago.

"I'm in a Facebook group of San Antonio home-schoolers and I've seen that there is just bigger community connection," McGinty told San Antonio Standard. "And I've also seen lately, especially with the the changes in the schools, people unhappy with the local school district, turning to home schooling--unhappy with the rules, the regulations at school and the lack of common education. People are turning to home schooling."

According to the U.S. Census report, average national home schooling rates held steady at approximately 3.3% since 2012. In 2020, COVID-19 led to a massive spike in home schooling interest.

The percentage of Texas school-aged children being home schooled almost tripled in 2020, from 4.5% last spring, to 12.3% by fall 2020.

The U.S. Census Bureau ensured responses indicated true home schooling rather than virtual learning through a public or private school.

State Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio), who represents House District 123 and sits on the House Public Education Committee, did not respond to San Antonio Standard's requests for comment on the topic.