Pandemic-Forced Homeschooling Is Winning Converts

Opponents of school choice have been touting a poll that they claim shows enthusiasm for homeschooling waning as pandemic-forced experiments in DIY education drag on. But a closer look at the numbers reveals nothing of the sort. Instead, it appears that even after months of an unplanned plunge into kitchen-counter education, the proportion of people saying they feel more positive about the practice has remained a majority, while opposition shrinks.

“One other interesting thing in this poll,” self-described labor campaigner and public education activist Kombiz Lavasany tweeted on February 3. “Right-wing education types kept saying how this would be a renaissance for homeschooling vs public schools. Not so much.”

The tweet included a screenshot from a January survey stating that “strong favorability of homeschooling has dropped considerably among school parents this month to the lowest it has been since the start of the pandemic.” Conducted by Morning Consult for Edchoice on a monthly basis, the survey tracks sentiment over time with regard to the educational landscape. Asked in January how their opinions on homeschooling changed as a result of the coronavirus, 18 percent of respondents said they were “much more favorable,” down from a high of 43 percent back in July, when school was on summer break for most families.

But that’s only part of the story. For January, another 40 percent of respondents said they were “somewhat more favorable” toward homeschooling as a result of their coronavirus experience. By contrast, 10 percent said they felt “somewhat less favorable” and 9 percent were “much less favorable” toward homeschooling (22 percent had no opinion). That’s 58 percent to 19 percent—or a 3:1 ratio—of increased to decreased favorability for DIY education.

EdChoice and Morning Consult first asked about feelings toward pandemic-forced homeschooling last May after families had tried their hand at it for a few months. In that first survey, 59 percent of respondents said they felt more favorable (26 percent “much” and 33 percent “somewhat”) while 29 percent were less favorable toward the practice (12 percent “much” and 17 percent “somewhat”).

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