Home schooling

 The Guardian - In 2020, the number of Black households home schooling went from 3.3% to 16.1%, a five-fold increase between April and October of that year. Preliminary data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2023 on home schooling showed that Black students and their families participated in virtual schooling at higher rates than other groups; future data collection on the state of home schooling and other education methods has now ended after the Trump administration gutted the NCES.

Home schooling is increasing in popularity among the general population.... and growing more diverse. The school choice movement, which encouraged parents to explore educational options for their children outside public school, has had a resurgence under Donald Trump, who has simultaneously escalated attacks on public education as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within classrooms. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that fail to eliminate their DEI planning. Last month, Trump also signed an executive order that instructs the dismantling of the Department of Education, a key campaign promise.

Home schooling laws vary from state to state, with a general lack of oversight, said Stewart. Only a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, require home-schooled children to participate in standardized testing for assessment. Other states don’t even mandate that parents notify state officials if they unenroll their children from formal schooling.

The lack of regulations on home schooling is a double-edged sword, said experts. With more lax rules, families are able to teach and learn Afrocentric culturally-specific material without state interference, said Baker. But, extremists have also taken advantage of limited regulation. Home school materials, particularly from Christian publishers, have been known for teaching creationism versus evolution. Some home schooling material has described slave masters as “caregivers” for enslaved people and the practice of slavery as “Black immigration”. Rightwing material remains a baseline throughout home schooling education, with some parents sharing even more hateful material with their children. In February 2023, the Ohio department of education investigated a group of home schooling parents who reportedly dispersed pro-Nazi material in a local home schooling group.