Homeschooling is no longer viewed as a fringe educational choice.
Across the United States, millions of children are now educated at home, and the movement continues to grow. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, an estimated 3.4 million students were homeschooled during the 2024–2025 school year—roughly 6% of the nation’s school-age population, a substantial increase from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers note that the trend has continued even after schools fully reopened.
The reasons families choose homeschooling vary widely.
Some parents want greater flexibility to meet their children’s individual learning needs. Others cite school safety, academic concerns, scheduling flexibility, or the desire to provide an education shaped by their family’s values and beliefs. Researchers have found that homeschool families come from a wide range of ethnic, economic, religious, and political backgrounds, making homeschooling far more diverse than many people assume.
Supporters also point to studies suggesting that many homeschooled students perform well academically on standardized tests, while critics note that research has limitations and that outcomes can vary significantly depending on the family, curriculum, and educational environment. Both supporters and critics agree that parental involvement plays a major role in a child’s educational success.
At the same time, school choice continues to expand in several states. New education savings account programs and scholarship initiatives are giving more parents additional educational options, including assistance for homeschool-related expenses in participating states.
For Christian parents, however, the conversation extends beyond academics.
Education is never merely about mathematics, science, literature, or history.
Every education communicates a worldview.
Every curriculum teaches values.
Every classroom shapes a student’s understanding of truth, morality, identity, and purpose.
That reality places an enormous responsibility on Christian parents.
Scripture consistently teaches that parents—not governments, schools, or churches—bear the primary responsibility for raising their children in the instruction of the Lord.
Long before formal school systems existed, God instructed parents to teach His Word diligently throughout everyday life.
These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
God’s Word reminds fathers in particular to bring their children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)
This biblical responsibility can be fulfilled in different educational settings.
Some faithful Christian families homeschool.
Others choose Christian schools.
Still others prayerfully use public schools while remaining deeply involved in their children’s education and spiritual formation.
Scripture does not command one educational model for every family.
What it does command is intentional discipleship.
That means Christian parents should thoughtfully evaluate whether the educational environment their children experience each day reinforces—or undermines—the biblical truths they are teaching at home.
Questions worth asking include:
- Is my child growing academically?
- What worldview is shaping my child’s thinking?
- Am I actively discipling my children?
- Am I involved in what they are learning?
- Am I preparing them not only for a career, but also to follow Christ faithfully?
Homeschooling is not the right choice for every family.
It requires significant time, commitment, and sacrifice.
Many Christian schools provide outstanding alternatives, and many Christian parents faithfully disciple children enrolled in public schools.
The central issue is not simply where our children are educated.
It is who is intentionally shaping their hearts and minds.
As homeschooling continues to grow across America, Christian parents have an opportunity to reflect carefully on the calling God has entrusted to them.
Whether education takes place around the kitchen table, in a Christian classroom, or within the public school system, our highest goal should remain the same:
To raise children who know God’s Word, love Jesus Christ, think biblically, and are prepared to run their own race faithfully.