Homeschooling Is On The Rise, Thanks Largely To Common Core

North Carolina parent Lynne Taylor has been homeschooling her children for 10 years – long before anybody was talking about Common Core. Lately, she tells Breitbart, she’s been seeing a sharp increase in the number of families joining the homeschooling movement, and she believes Common Core is to blame.

“I have met people almost on a daily basis who are escaping Common Core Standards via home education because the traditional system is failing their families.”

According to a report by Fox News, the numbers bear out Ms. Taylor’s claim: in North Carolina alone, the number of homeschooling families has risen 14 percent in the past year, and Glyn Wright, executive director of the conservative think tank Eagle Forum, says Common Core is to blame.

“The uptick in homeschooling has become a trend across the nation over the past couple of years, even in states like New York and California. Americans have rejected the Common Core initiative because they are tired of unaccountable federal bureaucracy, especially when it comes to their child’s education, and because they are seeing first-hand the poor quality and content of the Standards that are meant to prepare children for the workforce instead of giving them a well-rounded, superior education.”

William Estrada, of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), also believes that Common Core is the reason for the increase in homeschooling.

“It’s not surprising that we are seeing a lot of this as of late. When it comes to Common Core, we see a hastening by parents. For them, it’s the final straw after many concerns about the education of their children. There’s been a battle for a long time, where parents feel that they do not have enough of a say when it comes to their child’s education.”

Common Core, according to the initiative’s website, is a set of standards designed to ensure that all children in public (and many private) schools are proficient in certain areas at the end of each grade. The standards have been met with resistance — and sometimes outrage — by many parents, teachers, and school boards, for a variety of reasons, including a perceived left-wing agenda and complicating simple mathematical concepts, among others.

Still, Town Hall writer Daniel Doherty downplays the role that Common Core plays in the rise in the popularity of homeschooling.

“So while it seems evident that Common Core is, in some instances, the final straw for some parents, let’s also not forget that home schooling has been popular for many, many years. And thus, one assumes, it will only continue to be, especially as concerns about Common Core grow and become more visible over time.”

Has Common Core been a factor in your decision to home school?

[Image courtesy of: Daily Signal]