Home School Enrollment Surge
Fuels 'Cottage' Industry
By
Mark Walsh
Elizabeth Shultz remembers the challenge she faced when she began teaching her oldest son at home five years ago. The neophyte instructor was confronted
by a bewildering array of packaged curricula and other educational products
geared to the home schooling market.
"I was quite overwhelmed," the Alexandria, Va., mother said last
week. "I wanted to buy everything because I wanted to be the perfect
home school mom."
But Ms. Shultz was also on a tight budget, and she ended up patching together
an assortment of learning materials for several years. Before this school
year, though, with her sons in 1st and 4th grades, she was ready to turn to
a more sophisticated curriculum package. After shopping around online, she
settled on $300-per-student learning materials from Core Curriculum of America of North Port, Florida.
"I looked at a lot of the different providers, but this company did
phone interviews and customized the curriculum for both of my sons,"
Ms. Shultz said.
Core Curriculum is one of hundreds of educational providers that primarily
target home schooling families. It is a market that appears to be growing
as fast as the ranks of home schoolers themselves. The U.S. Department of
Education reported last year that there were 850,000 home-schooled children
nationwide, based on a 1999 survey. Many observers of home schooling contend
the number is higher—at least 1 million, and possibly more—and definitely
growing.
Another common estimate is that home schooling parents spend about $700 million
a year on instructional materials such as books, maps, and science equipment.
"It does seem that a larger percentage of people coming into home schooling
today are looking for these kinds of resources," said Linda Dobson, an
author and a spokeswoman for the National Home Education Network...
...The market for religious home school curricula has many entrants, but among
the bigger ones are A Beka Books, Alpha Omega Publications Inc., and Bob Jones
University Press...
Targeting Mom
Core Curriculum, the Florida company providing Ms. Shultz's materials, has also begun offering its materials to charter schools. The company started
as a family business in 1989, and last year reached $1.8 million in revenues,
said Core Curriculum's operations manager. Core Curriculum is doing most of its business
over the Internet, he added.
"Our primary market is the new home schooling mom," said the operations manager.
"They are wondering whether they are qualified to teach their children
at home. And they ask, 'Where am I going to get my curriculum?'"
Core Curriculum offers both Christian and secular curricula, which is unusual
in the market. It uses its interviews with parents—typically mothers... to develop a customized package from its pool of more than 300 traditional educational publishers.
"There are more and more home schoolers coming online every day, and
they are going to need a curriculum," said Core Curriculum of America's manager.