A growing number of local families are withdrawing their kids from public schools, and turning to home schooling as an option.
Dina Wilkins, a mother of two, said she has home-schooled her kids for three years now.
“One thing we were looking for was more family time,” Wilkins said.
She said she pulled her two boys out of school so they could spend more time with their dad.
“My husband is a wounded warrior, he was injured in Iraq, and we needed some time with dad earlier in the day, we realized it was a solution for us,” Wilkins said.
Statewide, an estimated 350,000 students are home-schooled.
“Texas leads the nation in the number of home-school families,” said Tim Lambert, president of the Texas Home School Coalition.
The Texas Home School Coalition released that from 1998 to 2017 there’s been a seven percent increase each year of students withdrawing from public schools in order to home-school.
“We have data, the data is overwhelming, that home-schoolers as a group score 15 to 30 points above the national average academically they tend to be leaders socially,” Lambert said.
Wilkins said she wants to clear up some of the misconceptions about home schooling.
“A lot of parents are real nervous about can I do this because I’m not an educator and I tell them if you’re their parent you know them best,” Wilkins said.
