US Sees Surge in Homeschooling and Not Just Over Pandemic

Thanks to the Covid virus, there’s been a surge in homeschooling in the United States.

The U.S. Census Bureau conducted what it calls its “experimental Household Pulse Survey,” described on the bureau’s website as “the first data source to offer both a national and state-level look at the impact of COVID-19 on homeschooling rates.”

The survey shows “a substantial increase” of homeschooling from spring of 2020 to the start of the school year the following fall. These dates coincide with the start of the pandemic.

But the surge didn’t end there. This March, the bureau reported that the number of households with at least one homeschooled child more than doubled from 5.4 percent to 11.1 percent.

Why the dramatic increase?

According to Steve Duvall, the director of research at the Home School Legal Defense Association in Virginia: “COVID last year was the number-one reason people started to homeschool. That made a lot of people try this for the first time.”

Sandra Kim, the media relations manager at the association, added that the health risks the CCP virus poses to children in a school setting prompted parents to take on homeschooling.

“A lot of parents are unsure about the vaccine for their child,” Kim said. “So that might be another factor going forward, as we’re seeing things like mandates, starting from California.”

Duvall said for the past 20 years or so, the leading reason for homeschooling was poor school safety. That has dropped to reason number four, with more flexibility and more one-on-one attention as numbers two and three, respectively. He cited these statistics from a Hanover Research survey.

Brian Ray, who has a doctorate in philosophy, is a co-founder of the National Home Education Research Institute in Oregon. While he agrees there’s been a “significant” growth in homeschooling, he feels the bureau’s statistics are flawed for several reasons. He also believes its numbers are misinterpreted.

“The census bureau did not say the number of homeschooled children doubled. They said the number of adults living with a homeschooled child about doubled,” he said.

Ray accumulated data from several sources and came up with his own estimated number of U.S. homeschooled students. He “mixed it up in the mathematical pot,” and concluded there are roughly 3.721 million students being homeschooled in the current school year.

The previous school year had an estimated 2.2 to 2.5 million homeschooled students.

Ray believes U.S. public schools did not have the infrastructure, or even the know-how, to produce effective, remote learning during the lockdowns. This, in turn, caused part of the surge.

He also believes critical race theory and the LGBTQIA+ push are additional factors. He said parents perceive, or believe, “that critical race theory is being forcefully introduced throughout the schools,” and “they think it’s way-over-the-top, a form of indoctrination.”

“There’s been an accelerated push for sexuality philosophy and theory into every field of what’s being taught in public schools,” he said. “Parents, whether they’re Progressive, Conservative, Libertarian, they’re tired of that.”

“Right now, it doesn’t seem like the growth of homeschooling is slowing down any,” said Duvall. “It doesn’t look like the end is in sight.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/us-sees-surge-in-homeschooling-and-not-just-over-pandemic_4033991.html

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High School Student Arrested for Refusing to Adhere to Mask Mandate

A 16-year-old Wyoming high school student was arrested for refusing to wear a mask, resulting in an hour-long school lockdown.

Grace Smith, a Laramie High School student, said in an interview with Wyoming Sen. Anthony Bouchard about her arrest that she had received three separate two-day suspensions. She was also allegedly fined $1,000 for trespassing after she refused to leave the school's premises.

"It makes me angry," Smith said. "It makes me feel unwanted by the school system. It makes me stressed out that I have to fight this battle as a 16-year-old. Right now, I should be playing sports and having fun. And instead, I’m fighting for the rights that were supposed to be won hundreds of years ago."

Bouchard applauded Smith for "standing against Covid Tyranny" and set up a fundraiser on GiveSendGo to help her with "the legal cost of defending her civil liberties and the civil liberties of other students in Wyoming who are enduring the same unlawful treatment." The campaign has raised more than $32,000 as of Sunday afternoon.

"You're what really everybody has to do, and I believe that," Bouchard told Smith in the interview. "I've seen from the beginning of this, everything has been about following orders, it's all about compliance, but I don't really see a real direction we're going in other than making people fit into a mold."

Laramie High School's mask mandate is in place until Oct. 15, at which time school officials will decide if it will be extended.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/landonmion/2021/10/10/high-school-student-arrested-for-refusing-to-adhere-to-mask-mandate-n2597222

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Tory MP says the phrase 'white privilege' is racist and teachers who use it should be disciplined and reported as extremists

A Conservative MP has defended his view that the phrase 'white privilege' is racist and extremist - and that teachers who use it should be disciplined and reported to the government's counter-terror programme as extremists.

Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathon Gullis said in a statement he had been told 'lefty Twitter is in meltdown' because he said the use of the term in schools, colleges and university's is extremist.

Gullis had told a panel at the Conservative Party conference last week that it is racist 'to suggest everyone who is white' is privileged, and said the phrase should be reported to anti-terrorism programme Prevent.

He also said any teacher who is using the term white privilege should face a disciplinary hearing 'at the very least', reported The Mirror.

After receiving backlash for his comments, Gullis has since defended his comments and urged those believing everyone who is white is privileged to visit parts of Stoke-on-Trent where poverty is rife.

Gullis said on Facebook: 'I would urge any left woke warrior to visit Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke and try [to] tell the people there that they are somehow 'privileged'. I suspect they wouldn't like the response they get.'

A report released this summer found that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated poverty levels in Stoke-on-Trent, which is the 14th most deprived district in England.

Gullis initially made the comments while speaking at an event organised by the Conservative Friends of Education group. He said: 'The term white privilege is an extremist term, it should be reported to Prevent, because it is an extremist ideology.'

Gullis added: 'It's racist to actually suggest everyone who's white somehow is riddled with privilege. 'So I hope that will be reported, I hope that will be looked into, any any teacher who's perpetuated in the classroom ultimately should face a disciplinary hearing at the very least.

'Because it's not what children should be listening to, it's not appropriate for the classroom. 'The classroom is a place to impart knowledge, not to impart political ideology of the teacher standing in front of you.'

Gullis, who is a former member of the parliamentary Education Select Committee, later said in his statement that he has previously said the term white privilege is extremist and should be reported to Prevent while sitting on the Committee.

He added: 'We actually made a point about this in the "Left behind white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds" inquiry I was part of, and which Labour voted against supporting.'

The report from the Commons Education Select Committee which Gullis refers to claimed terminology such as 'white privilege' may have contributed towards a 'systemic neglect' of white working-class pupils.

The Conservative-dominated committee said white working-class pupils have been 'let down' for decades by England's education system - and 'divisive' language can make the situation worse.

The report concluded that disadvantaged white pupils have been badly let down by 'muddled' policy thinking and the Department for Education has failed to acknowledge the extent of the problem.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told the Mirror: 'The idea that white privilege exists isn't extremist, it's a widely accepted fact.

'These comments betray a wider desire in the Tory party to drive a wedge between working class communities, crack down on free speech in education, and impose right-wing values on teachers.

'Working class children of all races are being held back by Tory cuts, not by the teaching of racism and classism in schools.'

During the panel event at the Conservative Party conference Gullis also said there should be 'consequences' for 'woke left teachers' who are pushing their ideology in the classroom. He said: 'The other way we can stop the cancel culture is by actually saying to the woke left lecturers and the woke left teachers, who seem to be becoming more and more apparent, 'ultimately, guess what's going to happen'. 'If you are going to push your ideology in the classroom there are going to be consequences for you.'

'I don't push Conservatism in the classroom, it wasn't an appropriate thing to do…

'For some reason, if a Labour Party member wants to stand up in front of the classroom and say how bad and evil the Tories are, then the headteacher has to take some sort of sympathetic viewpoint to that. 'It's absolutely disgusting, we need to start sacking people who are pushing their political ideology.

'If you want to do that, join a political party, come to Stoke-on-Trent North, pay your £500 deposit, run against me at the next general election.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10077219/Tory-MP-says-phrase-white-privilege-racist-teachers-use-reported.html

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