San Antonio Standard

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and many schools switching to remote learning, one parent said she knew home schooling suited her family long before it was forced upon the nation. 

According to a report by the nonprofit policy group Texas 2036, approximately 242,000 fewer students were enrolled in public schools throughout Texas this year, both in-person and remotely. 

An Education Daily Wire article said the Texas Home School Coalition supports this by showing a trend of more families home schooling nationally and throughout the state. 

"I knew before I even met my husband that if I ever had children they would be home schooled. It all started when I was in high school and I would babysit for a family I knew from church. Their kids were so different: They were articulate, they could defend their ideas via debate, they were critical thinkers and were involved in a plethora of extra-curricular activities…and they were in elementary school," home school parent Linda Whiten told the San Antonio Standard.

Whiten said she also sees a trend of more families choosing to home school over traditional brick-and-mortar establishments. 

"The home school options for co-ops have increased. The home school kids are accepted into 4-H, robotics, sports and many other clubs. If the opportunities are not available, home-schoolers have figured out that they can create their own groups to accomplish their goals," Whiten said. 

Whiten said that despite her children being home schooled, they are still very involved in extracurricular activities and community events. 

She said her children participate in "piano and guitar lessons, choir, baseball, basketball, football, PE, student council, art classes, enrichment classes, cooking classes, engineering and STEM classes, drama and volunteering for nonprofits, nursing homes, food bank, Soldier’s Angels, Collection of Samaritan’s Purse-Operation Christmas Child and food drive for food baskets for those less fortunate."

One of the largest benefits of home schooling, Whiten said, is the ability to do things on the family's time and with the children's interests coming first. 

"Being home-schooled, my children were able to make choices about what they wanted to do in their spare time. Since we could focus on our studies around our schedule, that afforded us time to be involved in many social events and activities," she said. 

A Gallup Poll referenced on the Texas Home School Coalition website said that the number of families schooling went from 5% in 2019 to 10% in 2020. This equals approximately 670,000 home school students. 

Not all students pulled from public schools are being home-schooled, though. Some have been enrolled in private or charter schools, North East ISD spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor told KSAT. The trend of less students enrolled in public schools, however, is taking a financial toll on the education system. 

"The fiscal crisis is looming at a time when families fed up with pandemic-era education have increasingly turned to private and charter schools or chosen to educate their children at home," the The New York Times reported. "That is potentially a major drain on public school budgets because most states base school funding at least in part on enrollment numbers."

Though it remains unclear how this trend will fair when the pandemic is "officially" over, many believe parents will continue to look for non-traditional education solutions for students that does not include public school.