The ranks of home-schooled children seem to be growing, according to a USA Today story that examines numbers from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). About 1.5 million kids were taught at home in 2007, up 74% from 1999 (when NCES started keeping tabs), and up 36% since 2003, according to the story. Overall the percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased slightly from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007.
According to the piece, moral or religious reasons remain a top motivation for home-schooling, but there are also "unschoolers"--those who regard standard curriculum methods and standardized testing as counterproductive to a quality education. And the category of "other reasons" rose 12% -- from 20% in 2003 to 32% in 2007 -- and included family time and finances.