Home-schooling is definitely not just another fad, if Calvert School is any indicator.
The Baltimore nonprofit that has been providing curriculum for home-schooled children for a century has seen its enrollment double over the last five years from 12,000 to 23,000.
“We are more in the mainstream now,” said Jan Halle, president of Calvert Education Services.
Halle attributes the mainstreaming of home schooling to the general acceptance of online distance learning and the growing number of parents who have embraced it.
Safety Issues
Concern about the safety of classrooms plus a general dissatisfaction with public school results is motivating many parents to home school, said Halle.
“Many parents grow tired of spending all night working on their children’s homework and re-teaching them every day,” she said.
However, for children such as Tahira Wyche, a 13-year-old actress and singer, who recently performed Disney’s “The Lion King,” home schooling is essential to her career.
“We decided to home school so she could have the flexibility to act and continue to go on auditions,” said Eleanor Wyche, Tahira?s mother.
Tax Break Overdue?
While Calvert?s home schooling programs, that range from $600 to $3,500 per year, are affordable for many families, they are not tax deductible.
The Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. libertarian think tank, believes this is unfair.
“Parents who home school their children should be given a tax credit,” said Neal McCluskey, policy analyst for Cato?s Center for Educational Freedom.
However, the 62,000-member Maryland State Teachers Association disagrees and opposes tax breaks for home schoolers.
“We believe that such tax credits would take away from the public schools, which are already under-funded,” said Debra Williams-Garner, a spokeswoman for the association.
Williams-Garner also said that public schools are held accountable to a “higher standard” than homeschoolers.
