Two years ago, public leaders shut down pretty much every public school in the country, a move which arguably suggested that public schools are not—what's the word?—essential.

Two years later, a record number of parents are still saying: "We agree."

The coronavirus pandemic ushered in what may be the most rapid rise in homeschooling the U.S. has ever seen. Two years later, even after schools reopened and vaccines became widely available, many parents have chosen to continue directing their children's educations themselves.

Homeschooling numbers this year dipped from last year's all-time high, but are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press.

Families that may have turned to homeschooling as an alternative to hastily assembled remote learning plans have stuck with it — reasons include health concerns, disagreement with school policies and a desire to keep what has worked for their children.

Younger readers might not be aware of this, but there was a time when it was a lot harder to do homeschooling in this country. Most public authorities were hostile to it, there were a million hoops you had to jump through, and curriculums were hard to come by. Being homeschooled sometimes felt like being part of a literal underground society.

Times are different now, thank goodness, and these days it's even easier to get your children into homeschool and get them well-educated while they're in it. But even those of us who have been heartened by the recent years of progress did not expect anything near the level of what we've seen over the past few years.

Keep it up, homeschoolers, don't quit now!

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