JEFF BRYANT: Homeschoolers want you to believe the pandemic has a silver lining — they’re wrong | Salon.com

Homeschoolers want you to believe the pandemic has a silver lining — they’re wrong | Salon.com

Homeschoolers want you to believe the pandemic has a silver lining — they’re wrong
While the public experiences a health calamity, the homeschooling movement sees a big opportunity

In the early days of the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S., when the number of known cases was barely cresting 1,000, advocates for homeschooling were greeting news of the outbreak as an opportunity to promote their cause.

"While the virus has caused illness and hardship for many, keeping children out of school is not a global calamity," wrote libertarian think tank operative Kerry McDonald in Forbes on March 11, two days before President Trump declared coronavirus a national emergency.

McDonald wasn't the only cheerleader for homeschooling in the face of a pandemic. "Learning can happen anywhere," Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos enthused on Twitter.

School closings were turning parents into "the nation's teachers," according to the Washington Times, a consistent advocate for public school privatization. The article, by Christopher Vondracek, told readers not to think about home-schooling as being "associated with religious reactions to the secularization of public education and the banning of prayer in public schools during the 1960s." Homeschooling, he contended, "looks nothing like that of yesteryear," because now "innovative lessons abound" and new technologies — including video streaming, apps, and social media — have made homeschooling a better option for parents seeking "individualized instruction and safer environments" for their children.

Vondracek pointed readers to the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), which "lists a variety of reasons for home-schooling." What Vondracek failed to mention is that NHERI is not an educational organization but is instead part of a network organized by the Home School Legal CONTINUE READING: Homeschoolers want you to believe the pandemic has a silver lining — they’re wrong | Salon.com