Why Homeschooling is important…

I’ve been watching the homeschooling space for years. About 2 million children in the U.S. (3%) are home-schooled. Historically, that has been about 50% for religious reasons and 50% for students that didn’t fit or enjoy the public system.

An idea dawned on me listening to home school parents talk about their kids a few months ago. Home schooling is important because it’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of people who don’t believe that their local public school is right for their kids. But they are the tip because to home-school, you have to have the time and capability to be with your children full time and teach them. That’s a huge responsibility that most parents aren’t willing to take on.

Likewise, about 10% of U.S. families opt out of public schools and send their children to private schools. The bar here is money not time. As private school costs have risen in step with higher education, almost everyone is priced out of these schools. Religious schools used to be priced affordably, but no more.

So the idea that dawned on me is that what we are actually seeing is this 13% of parents who figured out a way to build something better for their kids, but if time and money weren’t a challenge, there are probably five times that many that would like a different option for their kids. This plays out with charter schools in urban areas, where a large number of families opt out of the government schools for often smaller and more focused charters.

But what if there were small (like really small, one or two classroom) private schools that cost maybe $8k per year? I bet a lot of people who aren’t currently private or home schoolers would consider these schools if they were good. One reason for small is that you can create a great culture with a single teacher. Another is that real estate is the biggest barrier to growing many schools, so having a single classroom lets you fit a school in many places. Perhaps this would work better for elementary school or middle school than high school?

In general, folks who have opted out of the system or want to opt out of the system are a huge opportunity, because they are likely looking for more innovative approaches to education that honor their children as individuals instead of the factory system our public schools have become.