The 2026-27 school year is on the horizon as August is about to make its appearance. This is a time of great change and upheaval in the lives of the students, families, and communities who have enjoyed the freedom of summertime without having to attend school. Thoughts of the start of school also force many to consider what we are doing to provide the best possible education for each and every child.
The topic of homeschooling has to be in that conversation.
Not very long ago, homeschooling was viewed as something unusual.
Many assumed homeschooled children lived in isolated settings, lacked social interaction, or received an inferior education. In many rural communities, there might have been only one or two homeschooling families, and they often remained quietly in the background.
That picture has changed dramatically.
Today, homeschooling has become one of the fastest-growing forms of education in America. An estimated 3.4 million students are now educated primarily at home, nearly double the number from just before the COVID-19 pandemic. It now represents more than six percent of all school-age children in the United States, and the growth shows few signs of slowing.
Here in southeastern Colorado, we are witnessing that change firsthand.
School districts that once had only a handful of homeschool families now have dozens. Eads RE-1 is estimated to have roughly 30 homeschooled students. Cheyenne Wells has approximately 50. Other rural districts across the region report similar trends.
For districts already struggling with declining enrollment, these numbers matter.
Depending upon grade level and funding formulas, each student represents roughly $18,000 to $20,000 in annual educational funding. Losing 30 students can mean well over half a million dollars in revenue. Losing 50 students may approach one million dollars annually.
Those numbers naturally concern school boards and administrators.
But before asking how schools can bring those students back, perhaps we should first ask a different question:
Why did they leave?
The answer is much more complicated than many people realize.
Certainly, some families homeschool for religious reasons. Others want to teach particular values or philosophies.
But today’s homeschool movement is far broader than that.
Parents increasingly cite concerns about school safety, bullying, negative peer pressure, academic quality, flexibility, excessive testing, mental health, and the desire to customize education around the unique learning style of each child. National surveys consistently show that concerns over school environment and dissatisfaction with academic instruction rank among the leading reasons parents choose homeschooling.
Many rural parents simply believe they know their child better than anyone else.
Some children race ahead academically and become bored in a traditional classroom.
Others struggle with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, or medical conditions that make a conventional school day difficult.
Still others have extraordinary talents in agriculture, athletics, music, entrepreneurship, or the arts that require flexible schedules impossible to achieve in a traditional setting.
Homeschooling allows education to adapt to the student instead of asking the student to adapt to the system.
Technology has accelerated this movement.
Unlike homeschooling thirty years ago, today’s families have access to online curriculum providers, virtual academies, college courses, educational videos, artificial intelligence tutoring, interactive science labs, and homeschool cooperatives where parents share teaching responsibilities.
Learning no longer depends entirely upon one parent sitting at the kitchen table with a stack of textbooks.
Education has become portable.
Critics have long questioned whether homeschooled students receive the same quality of education as students attending public schools.
The research paints an interesting picture.
Many studies have found homeschooled students perform above average on standardized academic tests, often scoring higher than the national public-school average. Research has also found many homeschool graduates perform well in college, participate actively in community organizations, and become engaged citizens. At the same time, education researchers caution that these findings do not necessarily prove homeschooling itself causes better outcomes because homeschooling families often differ in motivation, educational involvement, and socioeconomic background.
Perhaps the better conclusion is this:
Homeschooling clearly works well for many families.
Public schools also work extremely well for many families.
Neither system is perfect.
Both have strengths.
Both have weaknesses.
As someone who spent decades in public education as a teacher and administrator, I admit my own perspective has changed.
Years ago, I viewed homeschooling with considerable skepticism.
Today, after watching hundreds of students and families, I understand why so many parents have made this choice.
For many children, homeschooling offers flexibility, individualized instruction, stronger family involvement, and educational opportunities that simply cannot be duplicated inside a classroom serving twenty or more students.
That does not mean public education has failed.
Far from it.
Our rural schools continue to provide outstanding teachers, caring staff members, extracurricular opportunities, athletics, music, FFA, FCCLA, FBLA, student leadership, career and technical education, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of community that is difficult to replace.
The real tragedy is that we have often acted as though parents must choose one system or the other.
Perhaps they shouldn’t have to.
Perhaps the future of rural education isn’t public schools competing against homeschool families.
Perhaps it is public schools partnering with them.
That is where this discussion becomes especially important for small communities like ours.
In next week’s column, I’ll explore what that partnership might look like—and why rural Colorado schools may have an opportunity to become stronger than ever by embracing flexibility instead of fighting it.
