Basic Statistics of Homeschooling in the USA

Homeschooling in the USA has grown considerably from its once obscure beginnings to its present status as a justifiable alternative over the regular academic environment.

In 2007, it was estimated that 1.5 million school aged students are being educated in their homes. This number has an estimated growth of 2.9% from the last survey made on 2003. Presently, the statistics of homeschooling in the USA continues to grow.

The parents' decision is the major factor of this increase. There are many reasons considered why they have decided to pull their children out from their corresponding schools.

According to a study done by the National Household Education Survey (NHES), there are three major reasons why parents have decided to put their children in homeschool.

The biggest factor is the parents' growing concern about the country's worsening school environment. These parents felt that they can do a better job in teaching their children from the safety of their homes, away from the poorly controlled environment that most American state schools have today.

The second factor is their religious and moral obligations to teach their children the lessons that are acceptable to their chosen faith. Religion in the USA is widely diversified making it hard to tailor fit the lessons that will be acceptable to each student's religious orientation.

Lastly, the third influence would be the poor perception of parents about the school curriculum. They believe that their children are not being challenged enough which results to a lower performance as compared to the standards set by other first world nations. This greatly affects their children's competitiveness and proficiency.

Another American school, Trinity, did a survey which greatly reflected the same sentiments of the parents. These are the same sentiments that drove them to put their children into homeschool. The factors are as follows:

• 48.9% of parents are confident that they can provide a better education to their children with a better curricula, social programs, and moral developments.

• 38.4% of parents are compelled to give their children secular education because their religious beliefs are not being tackled by the available schools in their area

• 25.6% of the schools in the US today are perceived to have a poor learning environment; therefore they tend to stunt the growth of the attending students. The school is trying to accommodate everybody making it crowded for all the students. This in return results to an unfocused learning environment

• Family reasons are cited by 16.8%of the parents.

• 15.1% of parents are also concerned that the school is not developing their children's moral being

• 12.1% of parents strongly object the school teachers method of teaching

• 11.6% of parents believe that the school is not challenging enough for the student making them intellectually inferior if compared to the students of other nations.

• 11.5% say that there are problems left unidentified by the parents with the schools available in their area.

• 9.0% of the parents have observed that the students attending the existing school in their area have different behavioral problems uncontrolled by the school's disciplinary committee

• 8.2% of those have kids have special needs or disability that cannot be addressed by regular schools.

In conclusion, homeschooling in the USA have grown much because of these factors. Currently, this matter is still being debated whether if it's really beneficial for the homeschooled children while not being able to experience the social interaction that is being promoted by the state schools. Meanwhile, the parents who decided to teach their kids at home must be greatly committed in order to give the quality education that their children deserve.