Are you affluent?

[regentrude]

Our town has a median household income of $32,500. That is not an "affluent school district". 

 

ETA: The schools here are not "blighted". They are pretty decent. Just not a good fit for my gifted kids - which is the sole reason I homeschool.

 

Edited April 10, 2017 by regentrude

[DesertBlossom]

Not affluent here. Our neighborhood school has a high percentage of low income students.

 

I had one public school teacher tell me that the reason public schools are failing is because middle class white kids are being pulled out to be homeschooled. And he essentially said that low-income minority students needed the influence of the white kids. There is just so much wrong with that statement. This same teacher also grew up in a so-called inner school (so he says), got married and conveniently moved to a brand new, almost all white suburb with a huge percentage of Mormons. His kids won't be going to any inner city schools. Hypocrite much?

[Loowit]

We are middle class.  Our school district encompasses a fairly broad area, but is mostly lower middle class to poverty level.  Most of the elementary schools are poor, including the one that my kids would have attended.  While that one was factor in choosing to homeschool it was not the deciding factor.  Although I will add after having tried to work with them to get speech services for my DS, I am glad we didn't send our children there.

[Reefgazer]

We are affluent and live in a poorly-performing district with high poverty.  And who cares what some nincompoop thinks about why you or I homeschool?

[DawnM]

We are comfortable.  

 

Our school zone is the best in the area. 

 

We homeschooled until last year.  I actually like the schools my kids are going to.  I am sure there are drugs and influences but so far, my kids have made wise choices and are getting a very quality college prep education.

 

 

[heartlikealion]

I do not consider us affluent. We definitely don't live in an affluent area. In fact, we live in one of the poorest areas of the country (so there are times when I feel like I'm better off than many, but still not what I'd call affluent). We are accidental homeschoolers. Now, where I would like to send ds to school is what I would call an affluent area but we cannot afford to move there. Our rent is affordable here and we'd have to downsize and pay more to live there. Of course by staying put we save on rent but we are out of reach of most of the things we like to access (shopping centers, restaurants, entertainment).

 

I don't know too much about the personal lives of all the homeschoolers I've met. Definitely not all were affluent, but some yes. Like one of the meetups I attended was in a beautiful home and their dd played the harp. That just screamed "affluent" to me but I didn't grill them about their lives lol.

[Donna]

Not affluent...might be if I never had kids and worked full time rather than homeschooling. Live in a rural school district...moved to this rural school district from one of our states Abbott (ie. poorly performing with high poverty) districts which was where we lived when we started homeschooling. I did send my boys to the school district we live in now for a few years.

 

The quality of our school district has not the slightest influence on my reasons for beginning and continuing to homeschool.

[Alice]

We live in a very affluent area. We have a comfortable income. 

 

We choose to homeschool based more on the benefits of homeschooling than that we don't like the public schools. We like choosing our own curriculum. We like the creativity and flexibility. We like the lifestyle. We like learning together. I like being with my kids. 

 

The things about the public schools that I don't like have nothing to do with diversity or exposure to people different from us. I don't like the emphasis on testing. I don't like the amount of stress that I see in kids in this area...it's a pressure cooker environment and I know so many kids who are exhausted and stressed. Homeschooling isn't a complete cure for that but it is better. 

 

And the school districts around here aren't really great examples of diversity anyway. 

Edited April 11, 2017 by Alice

[amy g.]

We are affluent but homeschooling has allowed us to move to a place with very poorly preforming schools.

 

Middle daughter just told me today how much she appreciates having the opportunity to live in perhaps the the most diverse city in the country.

[Katy]

I don't know what "affluent" means. It's too relative. If you're struggling to pay for necessities, being comfortable could seem affluent.  If you're comfortable, not having to work would seem affluent.  If you are looking at acquaintances who've sold businesses for hundreds of millions or more by their mid-30's, affluent becomes something else entirely.  DH's income puts us in upper middle class, but he does have to work.  We choose to buy homes in good school districts. We home school for a better education, not to super shelter our kids. If we were rich (if we sold a business that put our net worth in excess of 100 million), I might choose fancy boarding schools with ridiculously challenging programs.

 

I have known a handful of uber-religious affluent people who DO home school solely to shelter kids, but I think that's pretty rare.

[Guest]

Well, it is common (at least where I live) to be at least well-off enough to afford having one working parent or one primary earner who is not the homeschooling parent. I live in a HCL part of the country with top-notch schools.

 

I homeschool because I put a high value on liberty. I simply never have thought it was optimal for little kids to be shipped off to a different building for the large part of the day, segregated from their family and by age and ability level.

 

If there's one thing that's hard to generalize about, it's homeschoolers and what they do and why.

[maize]

 

If there's one thing that's hard to generalize about, it's homeschoolers and what they do and why.

This!

[bettyandbob]

I live in an affluent district. I am not affluent. I homeschooled because my 2E kid was going to be destroyed in our assigned elementary. That was obvious in K. Bad principal. Can't fix that.

 

I prefer my kids be around all types of people. My DC all attended public high school. Despite an affluent district neighborhood high school is over 1/3 reduced price or free lunch. They have a food pantry so kids can take home stuff for weekends. For spring break some kids picked up full grocery bags. The school also has multiple native languages among the student population. The school is a little more than a mile from my home. If I were trying​ keep my DC from experiencing diversity, I'd have had to.lock them in the basement and never allow them out of the house. All of my kids returned​ to public school specifically to go to that high school, because that high has way more than I can offer academically. So, no I wasn't trying to protect my DC from diverse environments when I homeschooled.

[Ravin]

We used to be poor and live in a "good" and relatively affluent school district. I homeschooled DD and sent her to an out of district enrichment program.

 

Now, we are still not affluent, but we aren't poor either. We live in a so-so school district. DS is doing very well in the public school, and while there are things that get on my nerves, as long as he does well (academically, emotionally, etc.) it's fine. We tried a charter for DD, which was fine except for one teacher we couldn't get away from that was sparking snowballing problems, then an online charter which was a disaster, and we went back to homeschooling and the out of district enrichment program.

 

We will possibly be moving to a very depressed area, where there will at least be some options because of BIE schools competing with the district schools, but where homeschooling isn't legal, just in time for DD to start high school.

 

The overall quality of the schools (which in any event is difficult to define) is not my primary consideration in whether or not to homeschool. The needs of my individual kids and our family has a lot more to do with it. A school that's a great fit for one kid could be a disaster for another, and a school that has lousy test scores could actually be very good in other ways.

[AimeeM]

I'm not sure what qualifies one as "affluent." We are considered upper middle class for our area. We live in a very good school district, but almost every school in our (very large) county has about 50% of students receiving free or reduced lunch. It's just in the way our schools are zoned.

 

I do not homeschool to keep my children away from the children in our schools who are less "affluent"? That's absurd. Almost every homeschooling family I know is considered lower income, or lower middle class. I know plenty of folks who are homeschooling and living in poverty. They are determined to give their children a solid education -- not matter what. Despite many "affluent" pockets, our state ranks one of the worst (nation-wide) in education. So, even if you live in the very best "district" you are still getting only the best school in the worst state (for schools). Money has nothing to do with the state of our educational system (again, in my state).

 

There is a mission-based Catholic school locally. Ninety-percent of the students receive scholarships. Almost every student is low-income. This school consistently outranks many of the other private schools and public schools in the area. 

[Garga]

What a goofy comment!  That was written by some random person who was making things up as they went along.

 

We do not live in an affluent area, though I'm not sure how that's defined exactly.  We have our fair share of seedy-looking characters around town and falling apart apartment complexes.  The number one industry in the area is agriculture, so we're hardly a bunch of stock brokers and cosmetic surgeons around here.  We're berry farmers or horse farmers or sheep farmers or we work at one of the three tattoo parlors in our town with a population of 4400.  And "town" is a 1 mile by 2 miles rectangle.  Once you're out of town, you hit the fields.  

 

The high school offers classes in agriculture for the kids who will become farmers.  That was certainly not the case when I was in high school in a Baltimore suburb.  We have Drive Your Tractor To School day once a year.  And everyone is off school for the first day of hunting season.  Nope.  I don't think we're affluent.

 

If I were to send my kids to school, I'd fear they'd get a narrow-minded view of the world.  This area is 94% white so there is pretty much no diversity.  When I homeschool them, I deliberately teach them about all the other ideas/ways of life that are out there.  I'm not confident the local schools would do that.  

 

 

ETA:  I have no clue if the schools here are good or not.  I've had zero reason to look it up.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Garga

[Crimson Wife]

Rich parents don't homeschool but enroll their children in expensive private schools.

 

We started HSing because we could not afford to pay what was then $27k/year/child for the local private school for the gifted and our district did not offer any GATE until 4th grade (and then not remotely enough slots for the number of children in the district who qualified). We later moved to a district that does not offer *ANY* GATE whatsoever.

[Dmmetler]

I'm in a middle class district that does a great job with average to slightly above average suburban kids, and pretty mediocrely with everyone else. The first school DD has attended since K is an urban community college which is highly diverse in many ways-but gets few kids from the "best" schools. Her best friends are a grandmother, a single mom with two kids, who had her first at 15, and a Pakistani immigrant.

[frogger]

Ha ha ha ha

 

I knew I would homeschool(and did if you count pre-school) when we lived below the poverty line. I homeschooled when we were barely making ends meet lower middle class. I homeschool now with an upper middle class income and have only recently been enticed by certain teachers and classes locally.

[Laura Corin]

The fact that I am from Seattle and don't care for coffee, work for Microsoft, drive a Subaru, own a kayak or wear those five toe shoes doesn't mean I can't see some truth to the stereotype that Seattlites are caffeinated kayakers who work in tech and drive their Outbacks around while wearing those shoes.

Rabbit trail. Why Subarus?

 

We mostly home educated overseas where the school options were harmful.

[creekland]

We're neither affluent nor poor (by American standards) and I live in probably the most statistically average school district one can find.

 

We chose to homeschool (once my oldest started 9th grade) because I went to GOOD schools and wasn't seeing that caliber here for my kids.  I didn't want them held back by our statistically average schools.

 

Considering I work in our local public high school, I had absolutely no issues with their being taught various values from my friends!  I wish our school were more diverse.  It isn't.  We've tried to work hard to bring our kids up with more interactions with other cultures than they'd have gotten from our ps.  College (and travel) helped.

[LucyStoner]

Rabbit trail. Why Subarus?

 

We mostly home educated overseas where the school options were harmful.

 

I think it is because there's a bit of a bias against SUVs right in Seattle but many people still want a lot of room and they rationalize that they aren't as bad on gas as SUVs (even though that depends on the Subaru and depends on the SUV) And roof racks for those kayaks.  And we like to pretend we spend a lot of time in the mountains.  

 

They are very trendy here.  There are a lot of people driving around in this exact car:

 

 

Don't get me wrong.  There are a lot of Toyotas and small cars and minivans and SUVs on the road, but Subarus are very popular and probably one of the more trendy options around here.  It's become a bit of joke.  

Edited April 11, 2017 by LucyStoner

[Jean in Newcastle]

I think it is because there's a bit of a bias against SUVs right in Seattle but many people still want a lot of room and they rationalize that they aren't as bad on gas as SUVs (even though that depends on the Subaru and depends on the SUV) And roof racks for those kayaks. And we like to pretend we spend a lot of time in the mountains.

 

They are very trendy here. There are a lot of people driving around in this exact car:

 

 

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of Toyotas and small cars and minivans and SUVs on the road, but Subarus are very popular and probably one of the more trendy options around here. It's become a bit of joke.

I loved my Subaru. Truly. I cried when it bit the dust finally. Edited April 11, 2017 by Jean in Newcastle

[8circles]

Affluent school district (median household income ~$82,000) but I wouldn't have said we are affluent. All the schools here are rated very high. We chose to homeschool for reasons other than "fear of other". In fact, we may have all our kids in PS in the fall. All the other people we know in this district who homeschool are much less affluent than we are, save one.

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

We're not affluent but we're comfortable. Our household income is higher than our city's average. Parts of our county are affluent, but my city isn't. At all. 

 

Our reasons for homeschooling have nothing to do with sheltering our son from people who are different. I taught in this school system and was well aware of its problems. Our original plan was to send ds to private school but then we researched homeschooling and made our choice.

 

That person has a stereotype of homeschoolers in his/her head and has no real idea why people homeschool. There is probably some truth to the idea that many homeschoolers don't live in districts with blighted schools, but that doesn't mean they all homeschool for the same reason. Good heavens. Another non-homeschooler making assumptions about homeschoolers. What's new?

[Carol in Cal.]

Well, and Suburus have all wheel drive all the time, so you are Ready To Roll on a moment's notice. 

It's kind of like potential energy, yuppie style.  Except that the potential is to head for the hills, ignoring the possibility of snow.

[kitten18]

We live in a very affluent area. We have a comfortable income.

 

We choose to homeschool based more on the benefits of homeschooling than that we don't like the public schools. We like choosing our own curriculum. We like the creativity and flexibility. We like the lifestyle. We like learning together. I like being with my kids.

 

The things about the public schools that I don't like have nothing to do with diversity or exposure to people different from us. I don't like the emphasis on testing. I don't like the amount of stress that I see in kids in this area...it's a pressure cooker environment and I know so many kids who are exhausted and stressed. Homeschooling isn't a complete cure for that but it is better.

 

And the school districts around here aren't really great examples of diversity anyway.

Exactly.

[LucyStoner]

I loved my Subaru. Truly. I cried when it bit the dust finally.

They are great cars. My MIL and at least 1/3 of our friends drive them. If we didn't need 7 seats (2 parents, 1 grandpa and easily 4 kids on any given day) I might well have one myself. Apparently nationwide, Spokane and Seattle top the list of cities where Subarus are most common. At least according to this. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/does-everyone-in-seattle-drive-a-subaru/ 😂

[hopskipjump]

hahahahahahahahahahaaahahahaha. 😂😂

 

No.

 

😂😂😂😂😂

[Anne in CA]

I think it is because there's a bit of a bias against SUVs right in Seattle but many people still want a lot of room and they rationalize that they aren't as bad on gas as SUVs (even though that depends on the Subaru and depends on the SUV) And roof racks for those kayaks.  And we like to pretend we spend a lot of time in the mountains.  

 

They are very trendy here.  There are a lot of people driving around in this exact car:

 

 

Don't get me wrong.  There are a lot of Toyotas and small cars and minivans and SUVs on the road, but Subarus are very popular and probably one of the more trendy options around here.  It's become a bit of joke.  

I live in east Shasta County CA and I own a Subaru Outback... and I love it. It gets over the snow covered passes beautifully but it isn't much more economical on gas than a big truck. I am the only Subaru mom in dd's high school. She has lived down the Subaru. She is also the only Democrat she knows in this high school but people think it's "quirky" and "cute" rather than obnoxious, lol.

[OneStepAtATime]

There are as many homeschoolers as there are reasons to homeschool. The statement made in the OP is from someone who either has never actually met a homeschooler or was only exposed to one type of homeschooler. They sound terribly ignorant and closed minded.

 

Just in the very tiny homeschooling group I joined when we first started, there was every kind of income from upper middle class all the way down to below the poverty line, and everything in between. Some could easily survive on one income. Others were really struggling and having to scrimp and save to make it happen. And everything in between.

 

Some were homeschooling because of a strong philosophy regarding educational practices. Some homeschooled for religious/cultural reasons. Some homeschooled (like me) because their kids had learning challenges the school had not been able to help with. One homeschooled because of wonky scheduling for specialized activities their child was in that were part of a career plan. Some were homeschooling because their school district was rampant with drugs and weekly police raids. One seemed to be doing it because it seemed like a cool fad thing to try. One was doing it because of the extreme health issues of her children. One was doing it because her daughter had been bullied unmercifully when she hit 6th grade.

 

Lots of different reasons. Lots of different financial scenarios. I haven't met large swaths of cookie cutter, one size fits all, homeschoolers. We are a pretty diverse bunch, as far as I can tell.

Edited April 11, 2017 by OneStepAtATime

[Targhee]

We are comfortable but not affluent. We live in a county of under 40,000 people, with ranching, mining, and tourism as the main economic base. The school district isn't horrible, but it's not impressive, and in a state with one of the lowest per child funding of any in the country. It's rather homogeneous, but the small university in town gives a little window to the wider world. We have only lived here a short time. I think most around here choose homeschool because they are anti-school/anti-institutional. Where I lived before homeschoolers, like the community at large, were much more diverse. There I found two main camps - religious isolationists and radical unschoolers. There were others, but these were the big ones.

[swellmomma]

Very much not affluent. I grew up in an affluent area, went to a so called good school it was horrible. My whole adult life I have been poor and lived in poor areas with crap schools.

[Carrie12345]

For whatever it's worth, I just looked up the district we used to live in, in what I consider an affluent area. The median income is 6 figures.  The school's state rankings are nothing to be impressed by. Very middle of the road.  I began researching homeschooling while ds was enrolled there.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I don't live in an affluent school district. 

 

And no I'm not affluent.

 

 

[lulubelle]

We have affluent schools where we live, top 5 in the state. It's a large high school and very well known for its intensely driven students. Many kids go to private schools for smaller classroom and a less intense environment. We are not affluent for the town, but are comfortable. My son has ASD. We've homeschooled him from the beginning and he is going to the high school in the fall. I'm not too excited about it, but he's getting more impossible at home and we need help.

[Bluegoat]

We aren't affluent.  Income wise we are lower-midlle middle class, and we live in a working-lower middle class neighbourhood.  A lot of that is about being a one income family that spends a fair bit on education.

 

I wouldn't call our school district affluent.  Districts here aren't wildly different in terms of funding, anyway, but our schools have a very wide variety of income levels and also a fair bit of racial diversity - the area of the city I am in was once farming villages that included African-Canadian communities, and now as a lower-priced but safe area we get some new Canadian families that are at the point of buying homes.

 

THat being said, there are some school areas that are considered to have more problems, and this isn't one of them.

 

We homeschool largely because I don't like the way early education is handled in our province, and I just feel like the school program overall is mediocre.  And surely I would be sending my kids to school mainly to get a good education.  I don't think I would really send or not send based on diversity - I get the appeal of various sorts of diversity in the environment, but at the same time I sometimes think that in eschewing more homogeneous populations there is a kind of intolerance or being dismissive at work, as well.

 

As far as the fact of my kids being exposed to "different" ideas than my own - I will use that rather than liberal - that isn't why I homeschool.  I do appreciate though that I can base the education I give my kids on a coherent educational philosophy and worldview, which is something that I think is missing from the public schools here, and indeed is a major reason for their educational failings.  It's the main difference I see between the public schools and private ones - they all have some sort of worldview, ranging across many major religions and secular humanism.  And most (not quite all) of them give, IMO a pretty good education and I'd be more willing to have my kids there than in the lame public schools - even the ones with a different worldview than mine.

 

I have, OTOH, found it interesting to see my eldest daughter, who entered public school this year, be exposed to certain things the school is big on pushing, in terms of values.  Pretty much all of the tolerance/acceptance/I'm ok your ok stuff.  I'm not worried about this - she'll make what she will about it - and much of it I even agree with.  But it's been interesting to me the extent to which it's been taught dogmatically rather than thoughtfully, and it actually doesn't seem to include a diverse presentation of different ways of thinking.

[mom@shiloh]

We live in one of the worst school districts in our state, but that has nothing to do with our reasons for homeschooling.  We moved into this school district long after we started.  An advantage to moving into this district was that our house was inexpensive because everyone wants to avoid the school district.  

 

ETA:  compared to the vast majority of the world, yes, we are affluent.  Compared to US standards -- just middle class.

Edited April 11, 2017 by mom@shiloh

[SparklyUnicorn]

Stuff like this bugs me because frankly, I don't think it matters what the reason is for homeschooling.  This is just a slam on homeschooling period.  Why is one reason better than another?  The reason doesn't matter.  The quality of what you are doing is what matters and not the quality of your reasoning for doing it!

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Whoever wrote that original post lumping all homeschoolers into one reality, really needs to get outside of their prejudiced bubble.

 

Absolutely!  It's not even entirely possible to know what many homeschooling families are like.  Who exactly is collecting this information?  I live in a high reg state and nobody has asked me what my income is or social status is.  And then in many states, there is no reporting at all so they don't even know who is homeschooling or not. 

[Anne in CA]

Stuff like this bugs me because frankly, I don't think it matters what the reason is for homeschooling.  This is just a slam on homeschooling period.  Why is one reason better than another?  The reason doesn't matter.  The quality of what you are doing is what matters and not the quality of your reasoning for doing it!

There are so many negative things inferred when people start assigning reasons as to why people home school. And in the case of the OP's source it seems to me that criticizing the choices of the wealthy is just fine. 

[Petrichor]

Kinda? If we didn't homeschool, we would likely send our school age kids to a local private k-8 (we would need financial aid from them though) or charter school, and there are many good ones in the area. And even the public schools we are zoned for are good. The public high school is pretty awesome too. At this point, I would have no problem sending my kids to the public high school if that's what they wanted to do. 

 

I mostly homeschool to shelter my kids from the influence of other kids. Shelter might not be the right word though, since I'm glad when something "inappropriate/bad" comes up in his interactions with others and we can talk about it together.

[SKL]

I do know one mom who homeschooled because she didn't want to send her kid to school with "trash."  Ironically she was not the fanciest demographic by a long shot.  Her kid tested poorly after a year of "homeschooling" and had to go to school with "trash" after all.

 

Mostly the homeschoolers I know are diverse.  Many (not all) are financially comfortable, and school quality isn't really their issue as much as wanting to guide their kids' academic / moral education more closely, or just wanting to avoid time sucks such as 2 hour school bus rides.

Edited April 11, 2017 by SKL

[ScoutTN]

No, not affluent, for my area of the US. Not impoverished either. We don't lack for medical care or food or shelter. But we drive 15-20 yo cars, buy almost all clothes from thrift or consignment and take only a few inexpensive vacations. We live in a lower middle class area and our house desperately needs updating.

 

Choices! We choose to homeschool, so my income is tiny. We choose to do piano lessons and an enrichment tutorial for our kids, so that money is not saved for a nicer car or a vacation. We choose some locally produced foods, so my grocery budget is tighter than it would otherwise be. We choose to have a pet because it enriches our kids' lives. 

 

Schools in our area are below average, esp middle and high school.  The elementary we are zoned for is ok. School quality is only one of many reasons we homeschool.

 

Compared to  what is "poor" in most of the world, we are affluent. 

[mamaraby]

I don't think we're affluent. Middle class for sure. Plenty of privileges that other people don't have for sure.

 

We homeschool for reasons that have nothing to do with the local public schools. I had other reasons when we started (that also had nothing to do with sheltering my children), but now we primarily homeschool because it fits with dh's work schedule so he gets to see the kids more often since we can follow his weekends as they rotate around the calendar. Otherwise, dh would be off for his "weekend" while the kids were in school and the kids would be off in the middle of his work week.

 

Oh, and I'd like my school district to be a bit more diverse. I know both the one I went to as a kid and the one that dh went to were nowhere near anything you might consider as diverse.

 

There is certainly that historical legacy behind homeschooling whatever our individual reasons might be and I think it's important to remember that. It isn't helped by certain...group(s)...who feel the need to speak for all of us as if we are some homogenous monolith and contribute to the stereotype.

[scrapbookbuzz]

 since this commenter implied he/she was acquainted with multiple homeschooling families that meet that description.

Her implication was negated by the rest of what she said. She is obviously not familiar with many homeschooling families or she would know better. Just because someone implies they know something, doesn't necessarily mean they actually do!  :cool:

[mommyoffive]

Affluent is relative, no?

 

So true.  I have no idea how to even answer this. 

[MistyMountain]

I am definitely not affluent. I live in a neighborhood that is fine crime wise and middle of the road. My neighborhood school is decent scoring when looking at greatschools for the area when we got our place but the scores have dropped a little with the new tests they use now. When compared to national standards it is a failing school. One thing that makes it easier to homeschool is the funds we can get by joining an oversight charter.

Edited April 11, 2017 by MistyMountain

[rainbowmama]

I live in an affluent area with a good school district. We live in one of the least diverse counties in the country, and our public schools reflect that. We make well below the median income for our high cost of living area, but we make more than the national median. 

[MotherGoose]

We are affluent and live in an affluent school district. Over all, I mean. There is a large diversity of incomes in the area. No urban poverty though. Schools are safe and new and do well on test scores. So aside from preventing my children from experiencing the unchecked behavior problems present in many public schools that will prevent them from learning, we aren't homeschooling to avoid any group of people or our particular local school. We did want to avoid the hyper competitive especially that would come with our children attending private prep schools in the area. So maybe that's discrimination against the very wealthy..? I'm homeschooling to avoid a school environment entirely. Long days and lots of homework.