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.