|HSLDA||April 18, 2006|
One-Third of U.S. Adults Know Someone Who Homeschools
Almost everyone accepts that homeschooling is growing rapidly but the Harris findings reveal significant information about how people perceive homeschoolers and just how much progress has been made.
Of course, all polls are subject to error and the results cannot be truly be relied upon but HSLDA believes that the findings are credible because they are consistent with our experience.
Highlights from the poll:
- Among those households with children who are old enough to have attended school, 8% report that their child has been homeschooled at some point in their education.
This is a large number because only an estimated 3% of school-aged children are currently being homeschooled. However, it is credible because people move in and out of homeschooling very easily. Many families have tried homeschooling but have not continued.
- U.S. adults think that parents' main reasons, or say their own main reasons for homeschooling their children, are dissatisfaction with academic instruction (65%), to provide religious or moral instruction (60%), and concern about safety at school or on the school bus (53%).
- Half of adults (51%) say one of their main reasons for homeschooling or think that other parents homeschool their children is because of dissatisfaction with state or government regulations at school.
These figures are consistent with HSLDA's findings. The survey also found that one quarter of adults believed that homeschools provide an excellent education compared with an average of 15 % who thought that public schools provided an excellent education.
It's encouraging to see independent confirmation of our own observations of the homeschool movement. We look forward to more people discovering the benefits of a home education and changing their children's lives for the better in the process.
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