For years, the American educational system has been scrutinized, berated, belittled, and criticized when it comes to the education of America’s children. For some families, private schools, while expensive, are a tuition-guaranteed, well-rounded education. Charter schools, which are privately operated public schools sanctioned by the state departments of public instruction, are an alternative as well. A growing type of education, home schooling, is becoming ever increasingly popular. In studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, in 2003 there were approximately 1.1 million students who were home- schooled. According to a brief written by the U.S. Department of Education, the definition of “home schooled” encompassed “students whose parents reported them as being schooled at home instead of at a public or private school for at least part of their education and if their part-time enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a week. Students who were schooled at home only because of a temporary illness were not included as home schoolers.”

In addition to the statistics on the number of students enrolled, the U.S. Dept. of Education also surveyed those parents who home schooled their children to find the reason why parents chose this educational option. The reason given most often (by 31% of parents surveyed) was that parents were concerned about the “makeup” of the school population. Another top reason parents chose to home school their children was to provide religious or moral instruction, which they would not receive in a public school. Interestingly enough, only 16% of parents were dissatisfied with the academic instruction available at other schools. Read the rest of this entry »