Once considered the exception rather than the rule, more parents are choosing a homeschooling education over public schools as the best path for their children. A recent Illinois initiative, however, would compel registration of parents who teach their children outside the government’s oversight, revealing the popularity of what has become a parietal movement across the US and in the world’s most developed countries.
Homeschooling Revolt
The Illinois “Homeschool Act” (HB2827) has encountered fierce opposition, with a ratio of some 4,000 filings against the measure to merely 38 in favor. The Coalition for Responsible Home Educators, which bills itself as “ the only national nonprofit founded and run by homeschooled adults advocating for homeschooled children,” initiated the legislation. The organization claims its motive is to “promote child safety and education access,” yet the effort’s sweeping statist usurpation of parental rights and furious backlash suggests Illinois voters are unpersuaded.
The proposed Homeschool Act would compel all parents to register with the state and file “an educational portfolio.” Those who don’t comply could be criminally prosecuted for a Class C misdemeanor and incur a $500 fine. The bill goes further still, requiring parents to have a high-school degree and proof of immunization for their children to participate in public school sports or after-school programs. It also directs the Department of Children and Family Services to “alert the relevant regional office of education … if a child whom the Department has had contact with is being homeschooled” to ensure the proper forms have been filed.
Homeschooling rates were already rising pre-pandemic but spiked during COVID-19. Merely 13,000 children were homeschooled in the US in 1973. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, there were between 106,752 and 130,475 homeschooled students in Illinois alone as of spring 2022. And the trend is rising rapidly in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom as well.
A Global Phenomenon
Homeschooling in the UK increased 40% between 2015 and 2018. Local authorities reported 111,700 children in “elective home education” (EHE) in autumn 2024, up from 92,000 the previous autumn term. The BBC reported 50,000 new EHE applications in the last academic year:
“The census suggested that while the biggest known reason for moving to home education was still philosophical beliefs, mental health was the biggest factor in the recent rise.
“The number of families choosing home education because of mental health rose by 64%, from around 7,281 in 2022, to 11,960 in 2023.
“Wendy Charles-Warner, who chairs the home education charity Education Otherwise, said the UK’s children were going through a ‘mental health crisis.’”
The Coalition for Responsible Home Educators that proposed the Illinois homeschooling registration law may be having its own mental health crisis: It is saturated with trans-identifying leadership and social justice nonsense. The board chair speaks at webinars about the purported dangers of parents who raise their own kids and spouts Marxist propaganda.
Illinois Soccer Moms?
Illinois parents appear to have perceived the group’s true Big Brother motives, and the statistics support moms and dads over those who cannot tell the difference between the sexes. The sketchy Coalition for Responsible Home Educators claims it seeks to “Protect children from convicted sex offenders” using bill provisions banning parents convicted of such crimes from homeschooling their own kids. Yet when it comes to protecting children from predators, public schools have an abysmal record.
Psychology Today, in an article titled “Educator Sexual Misconduct Remains Prevalent in Schools,” cited a study that found 11.7% of recent public-school graduates reported educator sexual misconduct. The Florida Action Committee in 2017 stated: “Parents should know that there’s a greater chance of their child getting sexually abused by a teacher or coach than a stranger on the sex offender registry.” In Illinois, soccer coach Christina Formella was recently charged with molesting a 15-year-old special education student – and that’s just one example of many.
Truly responsible home educators are pulling their children from schools at record rates to protect them from these government-employed predators, as well as bullying, drugs, and a variety of objectionable moral teachings. As reported by Go2tutors in an article tellingly titled “Public School Teachers 100 Times More Likely To Abuse Kids Than Catholic Priests”:
“As sexual abuse by teachers continues to rise, parents and students grow more concerned about the health and well-being of their families. The public education system has embraced grooming techniques that normalize sexual behavior and sexuality in children as young as pre-school. Middle schoolers are now avidly taught about masturbation in class, while pornographic books remain in some public schools for the sake of ‘diversity & inclusion.
“Knowing that public school teachers are far more likely to sexually abuse students, parents must ask themselves, once again, if the public education system is really worth the risk?”
According to the National Home Education Research Institute, US taxpayers spend an average of $16,446 per pupil annually in public schools plus capital expenditures, and “The roughly 3.1 million homeschool students of 2021-22 represented a savings of over $51 billion for taxpayers.” The current estimate of five million US homeschoolers means even more savings for taxpayers – at the expense of government domination of its out-of-control schools and rising incidence of perverted teachers.
Data show homeschooling yields harder-working, less depressed children who fare better on average than public school students on standardized tests – especially “children of color.” The Illinois homeschooling community does not appear to want or need government rescue. Many parents do not want their young children inculcated with harmful far-left ideological rhetoric and secular values that promote sexualization, encourage abortion and promiscuity, and debase traditional marriage. Concurrently, test scores have plummeted in core subjects. This is why parents are fleeing public schools. The Illinois registration law isn’t a defense of parents seeking to teach their children well – it’s an attack.
