A couple of weeks ago, I was at a church social and participated in a conversation about schools. I was impressed with the numbers of parents in North Texas looking for alternatives to public education. As I heard, this is a lot more than talk.
“With the public school year underway nationwide — or else delayed beyond its normal start by labor actions and fearful policymakers — families getting an eyeful of what classes mean this year aren’t impressed by what they see.
Even as school resumes, localities across the country report that parents are pulling their kids out to take a crack at one or another approach to home-based education.
Nationally, the percentage of children being homeschooled may double, to 10 percent, from the figure reported in 2019.”
This “alternative” education is more than just fear of the pandemic. It is more important than that. It is parents taking over their kids’ education from many public school districts promoting values that they don’t share.
For example, a schoolteacher in New York passed out an image comparing modern-day cops to slave owners and the Ku Klux Klan. How does that happen? Why is this teacher still on the payroll? How ignorant is this teacher?
There are other problems, including fights about bathrooms or boys playing on girls’ teams.
The pandemic is obviously a factor. However, this movement has been growing for years and we may have reached the tipping point.
