Four Key Barriers Affecting the Choice to Homeschool: Evidence from a Fragile Community

Abstract

ABSTRACT Homeschooling has witnessed an upsurge in the United States since the movement for school choice gained momentum in the 1990s. Most research on homeschooling has been on non-representative samples of median-income white Americans, making it difficult for policymakers to accept its reliability. In addition, homeschoolers now include other ethnic groups and families with low socio-economic status, who existing research has largely ignored. We also know little about the families’ perceptions of barriers to homeschooling. In this paper, we address these gaps in homeschooling research by analyzing a state-representative sample of homeschooling families in Georgia belonging to a fragile community (e.g., household income $40,000 or less, disproportionately African American, children ages 2–18) recruited to the panel through randomized double-blind methods. Cross-sectional findings suggest that demographic variables do not explain much of the variation in homeschooling. Four perceived barriers stand out as significant negative predictors of both outcomes (i.e., now homeschooling and desire to homeschool). These barriers are parents not understanding homeschool laws, having various concerns about their children (e.g., concern social services agency may bother them if they homeschool), apprehensions about the socialization of their children, and unease about their own knowledge to homeschool. Findings suggest that policymakers should differentiate between the barriers to homeschooling faced by fragile families that do not already homeschool their children versus those that currently homeschool.