ALBUQUERQUE — In a spacious, well-lit home just a stone’s throw from North Star Elementary School in Albuquerque, Cynthia Anastasio’s three daughters were studying biology, physics and history, just as they would in any school.
The difference: They were learning at home at their own pace, with their mom serving as teacher, counselor, nurse and tutor.
On a recent morning, Angelina, 13, was looking through a microscope at a mix of hay, soil, egg yolk, rice and bacteria collected in water from a nearby pond.
In the next room, Carina, 16, reviewed a physics textbook. Giavanna, 11, studied history.
“Nobody cares more about the education of children than their parents,” said their teacher and mom, Cynthia Anastasio. “You can tailor education to each child’s abilities and personality. Where else could you stop to review division for two months because fractions are rocking their world?”
Like Anastasio, many advocates of home schooling say parents best understand their children’s needs and can provide a top-notch, one-on-one learning environment — often without the standardized testing that has stirred up controversy across the nation. But there are growing concerns that some states, including New Mexico, do not provide enough — or any — oversight.
Nationwide, an estimated 1.7 million to 2.3 million families home-school their children, a number that has been rising steadily over the last two decades. About 7,550 of them are in New Mexico this school year, according to the state Public Education Department. While that number is a huge drop from the nearly 29,000 kids who were home-schooled in the state a decade ago, it’s still a significant number of students — enough to fill a midsize public school district.
It’s unclear why fewer parents are home schooling their kids in the state while national numbers are increasing. Some advocates attribute the decline in home-schoolers to the rise in charter school options in New Mexico. Other cite a drop nationwide in the number of parents who say they home-school for religious reasons.
Home-school parents in New Mexico, one of the states with some of the most bare-bones home-school regulations, are not required to show proof of an education plan or report on their children’s progress.
No one visits a home school to assess student proficiency.
While many children thrive under a parent’s tutelage — and parents serving as teachers welcome the freedom and flexibility of minimal regulations — some experts say lax oversight of home schools can lead to educational neglect of children or allow other types of abuse to go unnoticed.
Recent high-profile cases like that of the Turpin family in California, in which a couple were accused of physically restraining and abusing their 13 children for years under the guise of home schooling, and the child abuse death of Matthew Tirado, a Colorado teen with autism whose mother pleaded guilty to manslaughter, have heightened calls for more state regulations.
“Home-school regulations need to be something that protect the interests of children,” said Robert Kunzman, managing director of the Indiana-based International Center for Home Education Research and a professor in the Center for Education at Indiana University.
“And hopefully,” Kunzman said, “it does so in a way that is not overly intrusive or in a way that is so prescriptive that it hinders the flexibility that home-school requires.”
“The flexibility is the number one benefit of home schooling,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Association for Responsible Home Schooling, a Massachusetts-based advocacy group that supports home schooling but also wants to see more regulatory efforts by states to ensure child safety and strong academic outcomes.
“You can take your kids to the museum,” Coleman said. “You can go watch the construction crew work across the street and then get some books from the library and figure out what they are doing. You can take them to workshops during the day.
“That opportunity to make life about learning and pursue those opportunities to learn — that’s a huge pull,” Coleman said.
Parents and students also cite safety concerns as reasons for home schooling, saying there’s little chance of a child being bullied at home or facing an attack by a gunman.
There’s more opportunity, they say, for children to learn values their family embraces and to incorporate life experiences into learning — such as a visit to the local shopping center or a road trip to Wyoming to get a better glimpse of a total solar eclipse.
On the other hand, home schooling can require a sizable investment. In New Mexico, parents must purchase their own materials, with costs ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand. They might also have to give up lucrative jobs.
Anastasio, trained as an engineer, estimates she forgoes $100,000 a year in salary to stay home and teach her three daughters not far from one of Albuquerque’s newest and best-scoring elementary schools.
But, she said, “it’s worth it.”
Her three girls score A’s, she said, and must show success in academics before they can take part in beloved activities, such as robotics camp.
The two oldest proudly showed off their impressive scores from the ACT college preparation exams.
“All three of them will go to college and get college degrees,” Anastasio said.
Asked whether the state has enough oversight of home schools, she said, “The more you try to legislate home schooling, the more problems you will have because you are taking away the freedom to make what works, work.”
Wendy Kinsolving, who home-schools her 12-year-old daughter, Brigit Rivard, at their home in Rowe and at the family’s business in downtown Santa Fe, said she thinks the state’s home-schooling regulations are “fair.”
She would like to see the state offer more resources for home-schoolers and help parents navigate the system, Kinsolving said, but she prefers less oversight, not more.
New Mexico’s home-school requirements are some of the most basic in the nation. The teacher must be a parent or legal guardian with a high school diploma or GED certificate. Like public schools, a home school is required to provide instruction for about 180 days in reading, math, social studies and science. The parent must keep immunization records on hand or a state waiver exempting a child from vaccinations. And before the start of each school year, the parent must notify the New Mexico Public Education Department that the child will be home-schooled.
No one from the state education department or local school district checks in with a home school to ensure it is following the rules.
A spokeswoman from the state Public Education Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment on how the agency views its role in home schooling or whether it believes the state’s regulations and oversight are adequate.
Some states, such as Colorado and Washington, require home-school parents to keep records of students’ progress and mandate annual testing. Many states task district superintendents with overseeing home schools, and several states allow home-schoolers to participate in extracurricular activities at local schools and borrow textbooks and other materials.
Just a couple of states have rigorous rules for home schools.
Pennsylvania, for example, has a 60-page guide for parents considering home schooling which outlines testing and records requirements, and options for special-education services, dual enrollment, extracurricular activities, materials available for use and a state-issued diploma.
Home-school parents in New York must keep attendance records and provide the local school district with an Individualized Home Instruction Plan, including a list of textbooks and other materials that will be used or a lesson plan for each course. The plan must align with state standards. Parents are required to provide quarterly progress reports to the district, and students must undergo annual testing.
Asked for comment on the benefits of the state’s stringent home-school requirements, a spokeswoman for the New York State Education Department said in an email the rules “ensure that young people’s right to an education is not infringed upon, and assist districts in determining the competency of the instructor.”
Officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on their home-school regulations.
Kunzman said he would like to see every state require at least basic skills testing in math and reading.
He also would like states to development an oversight system that would help ensure the well-being of home-schooled students.
Advocates argue there’s no correlation between home schooling and abuse. Such a correlation would be difficult to determine in New Mexico, in part because the state Children, Youth and Families Department does not keep data on schooling for children in abuse cases, an agency spokesman said.
However, said spokesman Henry Varela, many child abuse cases originate from educators’ reports. He provided data showing that of the more than 20,000 reports of possible child abuse the agency receives each year, about 15 percent come from school personnel. School workers make up the third highest category of child abuse reporters, right after anonymous callers (about a third) and law enforcement (a quarter).
Anastasio said she understands that some home-schooled children might not be getting the quality of education or care they deserve. But she believes that could happen anywhere.
She pointed to the nearby elementary school visible through the kitchen window of her home on Albuquerque’s north side.
“You telling me,” she asked, “there’s not a kid over there falling through the cracks?”
Cynthia Miller of The New Mexican contributed to this report.
What the candidates say
The New Mexican asked the state’s two gubernatorial candidates, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce and Democratic U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whether they believe the state’s home-schooling laws, considered by some experts and advocates as too lax, are in need of review. Here are their responses.
Pearce: “Steve Pearce favors thorough and effective oversight of all schools. He believes students and parents deserve a choice and New Mexico must encourage excellence in all forms of education whether its public, private or home school. Steve Pearce believes nothing is more important than fixing the state’s education system and giving kids the skills to succeed and stay in New Mexico as productive adults.”
Lujan Grisham: “A state judge has found that our public school system is violating the constitutional rights of New Mexico children. As Governor, I will be working with educators, school districts, parents, legislators and other stakeholders to develop a plan to meet the educational needs of all of New Mexico’s students. As part of that process, I will consider recommendations regarding improvements that might be needed in our homeschooling system.”
Home school students
Following are the numbers of registered home-school students in New Mexico from 2008-18, according to the state Public Education Department.
2008-09: 5,406
2009-10: 28,768
2010-11: 33,800
2011-12: 29,156
2012-13: 11,033
2013-14: 9,031
2014-15: 10,585
2015-16: 10,377
2016-17: 10,408
2017-18: 10,834
2018-19: 7,549
