No moment was more eye-opening for parents of public school children than COVID. By forcing children into remote learning, parents saw firsthand the kind of insanity taking place in our classrooms. From Critical Race Theory to the LGBTQ agenda to the disaster that is Common Core math, parents did not like what they learned about their local schools.
Homeschooling rose from 4.5 percent in February 2020 to 7.3 percent by the fall of that year. Some reports had homeschooling rates even higher, at 11 percent. Johns Hopkins said the share of households homeschooling children rose from 2.8 percent before COVID to 5.4 percent at the start of the pandemic. In 2020-2021, homeschool participation rose about 39 percent.
In New York, that surge is even bigger, with a 200 percent rise in the last 15 years, with over 14,000 children being taught at home.
JUST IN: Homeschooling in New York City has reportedly surged more than 200% over the past 15 years, with over 14,000 children now being educated at home.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) September 14, 2026
Homeschooling — which I do with my youngest — isn't for everyone. There are scheduling and economic considerations and I'm fortunate enough that I can manage it. But given what New York just did in ending the Regents exam and saying some kids (read: black students) just cannot be expected to learn how to read and do math, I only expect homeschooling to become even more popular.
That, of course, leads to my next question: what will Democrats do in response to families dumping the public school system?
I fear I know the answer, too.
They've already waged war on school choice. Here in Wisconsin, the Left is suing to end the state's school choice program – which put my older boys through private Catholic high school — and elsewhere, Democrats have railed against voucher programs. Most often, they do this while they send their children to private schools. Looking at you, Roy Cooper.
And the anti-homeschooling seeds are already being sown and cultivated. The arguments range from the nefarious (abusers use homeschooling to avoid accountability) to the absurd (a teaching degree magically means you're smarter than parents like me, who has a Masters) to the downright laughable:
Creating a generation of weirdos .
— emini tic (@TicTocTick) September 15, 2026
Send kid to public school.
It doesn’t matter who his classmates are . It’s a valuable experience of growing up. https://t.co/d1WSJdkDQZ
By "weirdos" he means kids who haven't been indoctrinated into thinking there are 57 genders. It absolutely matters who one's classmates are. In Colorado, the Cherry Creek School District has said black students who misbehave and disrupt learning cannot be punished because acting like wild animals in a classroom is "culturally appropriate" (sit with the inherent racism of that, for a second). This means other students are deprived of a safe, functional classroom environment in which to learn.
And in 47 of 50 states, literacy test scores have dropped in recent years. Only Mississippi and Louisiana have bucked that trend, proving that blue states and teachers' unions — coupled with massive education spending — doesn't yield results.
Homeschoolers routinely outperform their public-school peers on academic tests, too. As for the "socialization" nonsense, every homeschool child I've known (including my own) socializes with more people than just their peer group. This includes adults at the store, his grandma who helps with math, and the neighbors. Some homeschoolers take day trips to museums, farms, and historical sites. They're not stuck in a classroom with kids who are largely the same age and developmental level as they are.
But Democrats are as petty and power-hungry as they are short-sighted. Instead of trying to improve public schools (they can't, because the teachers' unions won't allow it), they have to attack the programs that give families choice. First, it's school vouchers; next, it'll be homeschooling.
We'll definitely see a strong push in blue states to effectively ban homeschooling over the next decade.
— Keith Williams (@northernpresbyy) September 15, 2026
And I know exactly how they'll do it. They'll find the one case out of thousands where some sick, abusive parent pulls their child out of school to hide the abuse, elevate that as representative of all homeschoolers, and push legislation to end the practice. They'll lie about a lack of oversight, claim parents aren't intelligent enough to homeschool their children, and fear-monger about the dangers of not letting the government indoctrinate your child.
So that's a fight all homeschooling parents should be prepared for, because it's coming. And as the popularity of homeschooling continues to rise, Democrats will become even more desperate to put an end to it.
