The public school system is failing us

According to the National Homeschooling Education Research Institute, in the spring of 2019, there were only 2.5 million homeschooled children in the U.S. in grades K-12. Just a year later, in the 2020-2021 school year, that number jumped to 3.7 million. 

While some of this growth can be attributed to the development and spread of Covid-19, it is not an easy number to ignore. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the rate of homeschooling families jumped from 5.4% to 11% from March to September of 2020.

The demographic to make the most dramatic switch was the African American population. Having previously only homeschooled 3.3% of their children, black families were now keeping 16.1% of their children home to learn (U.S. Census Bureau).

Many parents, after having their children sent home to them during the pandemic were forced to come face-to-face with the reality of what many of their children were being taught in their school systems. And many who were able, took the opportunity to make the full switch to complete homeschool education. 

More fuel for the fire, many parents are becoming aware of just how fiercely schools are pushing the agenda of Critical Race Theory.

According to ABC, some of the anecdotal reasons consist of parents wanting to pursue faith-based education in light of flaws in the local school system and special education needs. 

However, one of the largest reasons that parents have been making the switch over the last few years is that families on both sides of the political aisle are not satisfied with how issues of sex education, gender-related topics and racial justice are being taught in public school, according to the NY Post.

More fuel for the fire, many parents are becoming aware of just how fiercely schools are pushing the agenda of Critical Race Theory. Parents of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds are enraged.

CriticalRace.org defines Critical Race Theory as an outgrowth of Marxist Critical Theory.

“Unlike the Civil Rights movement, which sought to work within the structures of American democracy, critical race theorists challenge the very foundations of the liberal order, such as rationalism, constitutional law and legal reasoning. Critical race theorists argue that American social life, political structures and economic systems are founded upon race, which (in their view) is a social construct.”

The website goes on to describe that the ideas fueling Critical Race Theory insist that the entire American system is founded on racism and deliberate “anti-racist” movements, such as affirmative action, need to be taken to combat it. Simply not being racist does not cut it. 

Many parents, and people in general, disagree with this line of thinking because it continues to objectify people on the basis of race rather than their whole person. It perpetuates the problem of not viewing each individual as capable and equal.

“Black kids are turning against white people of all ages, and white kids are hating their parents and their success and their heritage and calling them racist,” argued an African American mother when speaking to her child’s school board in Beachwood, Ohio after finding out about their implementation of CRT education. 

According to the Washington Examiner, she was then approached by several parents at the board meeting with gratitude. Many parents had seen the same issues arising from CRT education but feared that they would be labeled a racist if they tried to speak out on the issue. 

Another mother spoke out at her school board meeting in Loudoun County. She was a Chinese American immigrant.

“You are now training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history. Growing up in Mao’s China, all this seems very familiar. The communist theory used the same critical theory to divide people. The only difference is that they used class rather than race.”

Now, there is an uproar over the 54 math textbooks submitted to the Florida department of education being prohibited in the classroom. Rightfully so, the state has eliminated these textbooks for containing CRT, Common Core and Social-Emotional Learning in the subject of mathematics. 

I see what Florida has done as an appropriate response as the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics just called on public schools to alter their curriculum to service the agendas of social justice, privilege education and oppression — in mathematics. 

According to Blaze Media News, the NCSM wants to conduct annual audits on whether schools have implemented these education practices in their math classrooms. They claim that Republican attempts to erase CRT from schools are to erase all inconvenient lessons on the U.S. history of racism. 

Our country’s history is stained with blood, racism and classism, and it is important that it is taught. However, today, most everyone can agree that discrimination for an uncontrollable human trait is silly and disgusting.

America’s bloody, racist history is very much taught in school. I remember learning about the Underground Railroad, lynchings, the South’s disgusting Jim Crow Laws, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and many others who stood up for civil rights. I remember reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” and discussing the injustices of the times that the author was trying to bring to light.

What we are doing today is far past that, and it is dividing people rather than bringing them together and truly viewing one another as equal.

A poll conducted by the New York Post found that 56% of registered voters believed that the majority of Americans were still racist following the death of George Floyd. I find this a little bit ironic as they end up being the slight majority in this case. 

NPR has surveyed nearly every ethnic group, including white people, asking if they feel they are discriminated against in America today. Each came back with the majority of the group surveyed thinking so.

Teaching children that they will not make it in the world because of their skin color or that they are going to be the cause of pain because of their skin color does not seem to be doing any good. I see only harm.

I am on board with the 3.7 million or more Americans homeschooling their children. If the state of the school system does not improve, I see myself doing the same one day with my own children. 

There is a clear difference between teaching a child the horrors and evils of slavery and racism in the U.S. (and still very much occurring in other parts of the world) and teaching a child to apologize to or fear another person because of the color of their skin. 

An enraged father of African American children in the public school system in North Carolina said, ”We’re raising our kids to be dynamic in so many ways.” He owns his own business and is running for the N.C. General Assembly.

“Then here comes the left telling them that they’re not dynamic. They can’t be. You’re black. You can’t do it, and I think we’re all just tired of it.”

When have we ever decided that the way to achieve equality was to teach young people that, because of the way that they were born, they won’t amount to anything unless they are helped? The state must help you achieve your dreams by re-educating everyone else. 

You cannot do it on your own.

The public school system is politicizing education and teaching an entire generation of young people to be confused, to hate themselves and to hate one another. It’s no wonder that 3.7 million Americans have made the switch to homeschooling. 

They have lost their focus on education, and there are numbers to show that homeschooled children are outperforming their public school counterparts. Parents are now paving the way for innovative education because they are actually focusing on the math part of mathematics.

According to Admissionly.com, a website dedicated to educational statistics and admissions information, homeschooled children have been scoring, on average, in the 87th percentile of standardized testing compared to the 50th percentile range public schools live in. They also graduate high school at a rate that is 10% higher than their public school counterparts. 

Crazier still, 15% of the families surveyed by Admissionly, did not have a diploma or a GED, and 16% did not have a diploma but had a GED. Additionally, 21% of homeschooling households were below the poverty line.

If non-state-funded parents, poor parents and undereducated parents can make the switch to ensure their children have a good and focused education, the school system most certainly can. 

However, with the current political climate and its drastic effect on the school system, homeschooling may be the way to go for quite a while.