More black families choosing to home-school

RICHMOND — Denise Armstrong decided to home-school her two sons and daughter because she thought she could do a better job of instilling her values in her children than the public school system could.

Years ago, she found herself the lone black person at home-education gatherings, usually dominated by white Christian evangelicals. But gradually, she has noticed more black people joining the ranks.

“I’ve been delighted to be running into people in the African-American home-schooling community,” Mrs. Armstrong said. “I noticed, looking around the home-schooling convention at that vast sea of people and seeing more people of color.”

The increase of black families opting to educate their children at home, home-schooling advocates say, reflects a wider desire among families of all races to guide their children’s moral upbringing. But it also reflects 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 Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), 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 is not yet available, the center said.

In Virginia, there were 17,448 students home-schooled in 2004-05, down from 18,102 the previous year, according to the state Department of Education. However, according to HSLDA, the percentage of black home-schooling families has increased, though hard numbers weren’t available.

There are about 20,670 home-schooled students this year in Maryland, compared with about 2,290 in 1990, according to the state. The District has about 70home-schooled students this year.

Michael Apple, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin who tracks home-schooling, said the numbers are still very low because most black families lack the time or economic ability to home-school their children.

Much of the increase is seen in cities with a history of racial tensions, and where black people feel alienated and marginalized, he said.

Some families decide to do it because public schools don’t all adequately teach black history and culture, some want to protect their children from school violence, “and for some, it’s all of this and religion,” Mr. Apple said.

Mrs. Armstrong, of Chesterfield County, said she wants her children — ages 12, 10 and 7 — to have a “moral Judeo-Christian foundation” that public schools cannot provide.

“I felt that my husband and I would be able to give more of a tutorial, individual learning situation than a teacher trying to address 40 kids at one time,” she said.

To help guide black families, Joyce Burges and her husband, Eric, started the National Black Home Educators Resource Association in 2000. She said many families were dissatisfied with their public schools, but were unaware that home-schooling was legal.

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