Richmond, Va. – Denise Armstrong decided to home- school her daughter and two sons because she thought she could do a better job of instilling her values in her children than a public school could.
And while she once found herself the lone black parent at home-education gatherings that usually were dominated by white Christian evangelicals, she has noticed more black parents joining the ranks.
“I’ve been delighted to be running into people in the African- American home-schooling community,” Armstrong said.
Home-school advocates say the apparent increase in black families opting to educate their children at home reflects a wider desire among families of all races to guide their children’s moral upbringing, along with growing concerns about issues such as subpar school conditions and preserving cultural heritage.
“About 10 years ago, we started seeing more and more black families showing up at conferences, and it’s been steadily increasing since then,” said Mich ael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, a national advocacy group.
Nationwide, about 1.1 million children were home-schooled in 2003, or 2.2 percent of the school-age population. That was up from about 850,000, or 1.7 percent, in 1999, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. A racial breakdown of home-schooled students isn’t yet available, the center said.
But the Home School Legal Defense Association says the percentage of black home-schooling families has increased, though hard numbers aren’t available.
The numbers are still very low because most black families lack the time or economic resources to devote to home schooling, said Michael Apple, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin who tracks home schooling. He said much of the increase is seen in cities with histories of racial tensions and where black people feel alienated and marginalized.
Some families decide to do it because public schools don’t adequately teach African-American history and culture, some want to protect their children from school violence, “and for some, it’s all of this and religion,” Apple said.
To help guide black home- schooling families, Joyce and Eric Burges started the National Black Home Educators Resource Association in 2000. She said many families were dissatisfied with their public schools but weren’t aware that home schooling was legal.
