850,000 home-schooled
Parents well-educated, survey says

Associated Press
Aug. 03, 2001


WASHINGTON - About 850,000 of the nation's 50 million children are being taught at home rather than in schools, mostly by parents who are well-educated and live in cities, a new government study estimates.


The report, released this week by the Education Department, calculates that 1.7 percent of American children were home-schooled in 1999, resulting in a total estimate higher than in the past.

"The number of parents taking direct responsibility for teaching their children through home schooling is approaching a million, and we expect the next report on home schooling will reflect growth in the population and new home-schooling opportunities," Education Secretary Rod Paige said.

The new figures come from an Education Department telephone survey of 57,278 households conducted from January through May 1999.

Previous attempts to count the number of home-schoolers, both by the Education Department and the Census Bureau, have produced widely different results.

In 1994, the Census Bureau estimated that 360,000 children were home-schooled, while in 1996 the Education Department put the number at 640,000 home schoolers.

The new report says the number of home-schoolers could be as high as 992,000 or as low as 709,000. The 850,000 is the approximate average of the two.

It also paints a clear portrait of the average home-schooled student, stating that he is more likely than other students to live with two or more siblings in a two-parent family, with only one parent working outside the home.

Parents of home-schoolers are, on average, better-educated than other parents - a greater percentage have college degrees - though their income is about the same. Like most parents, the vast majority of those who home-school their children earn less than $50,000, and many earn less than $25,000.

[b]"These are families that have one income and have sacrificed to live on one income,"[/b] said Laura Derrick, of Austin, the parent of two home-schoolers and president of the Home Education Network.

[b]Most say they home-school their children to give them a better education and not necessarily out of religious beliefs,[/b] although religion was second on a list of reasons.