Factoid of the day

In this article, which is about another UN Treaty that will tell us how to live, I ran across this factoid:

In a 2007 study, 6 percent of parents of the nation's 1.5 million home-schooled students cited health or special needs as the reason for educating at home.

more statistics from a USGov website:

Faith-based and nonsectarian private schools, along with a growing number of children who are homeschooled, account for approximately 13 percent of the school-age population in grades K-12....

...private schools...currently account for about 24 percent of all elementary and secondary schools, 11 percent of all students and 12 percent of all full-time teachers. Seventy-six percent of private schools have a religious affiliation...

About 1.1 million students were home schooled in the U. S. in the spring of 2003, an increase from an estimated 850,000 in the spring of 1999. 

hmmm...looks like the gov't needs to update their website, since it only has estimates up to 2003...
This website has 2010 statistics:

In fall 2011, over 49.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. Of these, 34.9 million will be in prekindergarten through 8th grade and 14.5 million will be in grades 9 through 12 (source) . An additional 6.0 million students are expected to attend private schools (source).

My sons attended public and church schools...the public schools had the ESL programs they needed, but I ran into violence and prejudice in these schools. My oldest was strong and macho, and after being suspended for defending himself against five other students did okay, but I kept my younger boy in church schools because he was too gentle to fight back, and paid for his dyslexia tutoring myself.

My grandchildren are home schooled and/or attended church related schools.


Here in the Philippines, Ruby is homeschooled so that she can accompany her parents on trips to deliver rice or attend trade fairs. If she was in a school, she would not have time with her family; local teachers come in the evening to give her classes, and Joy can help her with her homework in the car during the trips, usually to Manila or Pampanga.