that cold air pushes east. >> thank you for watching aljazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. the stream is next. you can check us out at aljazeera.com. >> hi, you are in "the stream." home schooling is on the rise and expected to be a continued trend, is that better educated kids or keeping them unprepared for the world? waj is bringing in the live feedback and waj, this is a very

interesting topic, typical home schooler is not the student we are seeing as part of this rise in home schooling. a yes, rise in minority and religious communities, a lot of people thought you were socially awkward or weird and tweeting in... however, on the flip side, lauren is saying... switching it... however, michael is bringing up a point... lisa? >> i went to a public school and i went to public school with a lot of awkward kids and i was of them.

>> yes, i was the deem on those awkward kids. >> home schooling is expected to surge over the next decade, particularly among minorities. kids that learn at home out perform the public school counter parts and public school kids hoover around 50% percentile and the home schoolers around 80%. where the home schoolers end with social development is does piet -- disputed issue. it is not regulated. in some states they have to submit the test scores. in texas, idaho and oklahoma no regulations at all. why is it on the rise across diverse communities and better for the kids than the public school settings? we have an attorney for the home schooled legal defense association and advocates for the rights of parents to direct

the education of their children. sara hunt is a lawyer and home schooled for ten years and andrew is director of the institute of excellence in writing and home schooling father of 7 kids. welcome everyone to the show. >> thank you. >> so, mike, since 1999 the number of kids home schooled jumped 75% and the report is saying that home schooling is growing 7 times faster than the number of kids enrolling in k-12. >> home schooling is growing fast for a long time, in fact, the fast growing form of education in the world today. not just in the united states. when you look at the reasons that people are home schooling, two ways, a push factor, things that push people away from the public schools and pulling factor. and so you are seeing interests from a lot of communities. minorities.

the number of black and hispanic home schoolers jumped 8 times in the past five years and ten times for hispanics. you are seeing the conditions about the environment of the school. 91% of the people saying that is a factor and other interesting tack factors as well. people providing for the religious or moral education. parents that have children with special education need, physical issues they are dealing with and not handled well in the school environment and these are communities that finding home schooling to be attractive for the individualized instruction and lower teacher student ratio and the environment is stable and safe. that is contributing to the home schooling in the country. >> andrew, follow up on that, it is very interesting numbers when you talk about minority students, 15% in the hispanic, 8% in the black community, and

4% in the asian community and what is contributing to the interest in the minority communities and the same thing in the interest of white parents? >> oh, absolutely. it is their parents. where ever they are from or color they happen to be, they are going to to have the same concerns and i think, you know, all of us yes the education of the children, the opportunities for the children, that's number one priority and i think increaseingly parents of all different demographics are realizing yes home schooling is possible. i would agree with everything that mike said and maybe add to that, there are more resources available today than say 20 years ago when the movement was early and support programs, you know, co-op classes, online classes, curriculum and materials that make it much more

realistic for parents to be able to supervise home schooling with assistance and that makes a lot of difference and allows more people to jump in and try something they might not have felt comport bl doing years ago. >> we are hearing from the community, linda... heidi is saying... and bearded guy is saying... sara, i'm going to you about this, minority communities what

is it about the religious communities and why going to home schooling? >> the christian communities such as the one i was raised in, home schooling is providing the parents the ability to indock rate and brainwash the children and provide them with a religious education. faith reasons were the primary reasons. home schooling is a wild west out there. there is no much oversight and isolated communities. i have worked personally with 15 young women who have transitioned from very strict home schooled environments and no formal education, no job history and you know, no real societity intervention points because of being at home a lot of time and i have helped the women transitioning to main

stream society. i came from a background and i was the oldest of nine children and home schooled and i was raised in a high controlled religious organization and so sometimes my interaction with the outside world was limited and i had a lot of adjustments. i was fortunate to go to college. we have a difficult time with religious home schoolers thinking that the girls shouldn't go to college. we have 2 million home schoolers and the sat and act home school takers isn't there. we don't know why, there is no oversight. >> so mike, her experience is different and not representing maybe the average home schooler, but what about the argument for the regulations from nothing to a lot.

>> we are a republic and a lot of good things when you live in a republic. we are engines of experimenting. i personally think that is a very good i approach to education regulation. what you see is a patch work of approaches to regulations across the country and seems to be working. when you look at the over two thousand research articles on home education as a movement and it is exploding in the last ho years. to no states being legal and now legal in all 50 states and the states are working with it, and in a republic that is a way it should be and it is working quite well. >> andrew, is that the case, we are a representative republic and there are reasons for federal standards and a kid's education isn't it a good idea

maybe to set a low bar and knowing that the kids are not falling through the cracks? >> lisa, that might ring true if we were actually able to prevent people in schools from falling through the cracks. that is just not possible. one of the largest factors with the success in schools is parental involvement. so if kids have parents involved in their education, they are much more likely to do well in school, graduate from high school and take the college route, so having standards that would dictate no one falls through the cracks, that is just not realistic. on the other side, we see freedom is the natural condition of man. that is where we tend to prosper. all of us as individuals say when we have freedom we can do

more. we are inknow native and and get excited. the teachers with the more handcuffs on them the less likely they are able to create and engage the students and sure, you know, in an i deal world nobody is slipping through the cracks, but that just is not going to happen in any venue. >> so the rise in home schooling a good thing. why some have a negative effect on those in the system. gives your questions for the guests. >> scared as hell... >> as american troops prepare to leave afghanistan get a first hand look at what life is really like under the taliban. >> we're going to be taken to a place, where they're going to make plans for an attack. >> the only thing i know is, that they say they're not going to withdraw. >> then, immediately after, an america tonight special edition for more inside

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>> welcome back, we are talking about the rise of home skooming in america and why it is now appealing to such a diverse population. we are joined by the cofounder of indigo nation home schooling. thank you for being here. can you hear me? >> hello. >> there you are, and thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> so listen, one of the frequent criticisms of home schooling is that kids are raised in a narrow environment and difficult for them to socially adapt. what do you say to that? i know you home school your kids? >> we have had other parents that are nonhome schoolers ask me that very same question about how do you socialize your children.

but one of the things that escapes parents that send their children to school and who ask these kinds of questions some of the socialization is not desirable. in the schoolhouse we have children basically associated with other children their age, you know, so we have all 12 years olds talking together and very seldom do we have the adult to mediate the conversations and correct things that are wrong and transform ideas that are, you know, harmful. and so i see where a child is home schooled and the parent is involved in the social circles and the parent is also mainly the force behind saying meet this young man or this young lady and a we can better shape the children in the direction that we deem healthy and i see where the children are able to

socialize with a 12-year-old and a 7-year-old and a 42-year-old working at the post office and the 50-year-old libraryian and having community relationships community wide and not just stuck with a bunch of 12-year-olds. >> we have 7 children that we home school and looking at the issue of socialization and comparing the classroom to the rest of the world, what is the purpose of school, socialization, that is a function, but looking at the school environment, how real is that. the kids go to the school and as said they are with kids the same age all day long, is that reality, or the reality dealing with people with different ages, younger siblings and trying different things you can do with home schooling.

>> there is the unexpected element, not just in a single grade, k-6, 7-12, and whatever, kids of different backgrounds and different culture and ethnic background and unpektedly exposed to the different sit wall streets they have to navigate. ie went to a public school too, and at the locker and getting through the crowded hallways you have unexpected situations and some of those are not really the type of situations you want your children to deal with and frankly shouldn't have to. >> we have unexpected situations, we have over 350 cases of documented child abuse and neglect in home school settings and documented on i'm more concerned about the fact that there is not a state where a person that is high school dropout or a criminal child abuse conviction or a person

that is convicted sex offender has restrictions on home schooling. so i'm more concerned about safety of the home schooled children who are at risk and putting in oversight safeguards to make sure that the children, as many of the children can be protected as possible. >> sara, nobody disagrees with you. i don't want to minimize what you are saying, those kids are at risk and that is serious situation, from the topics today we are talking 2 million kids in the home schooling system, the massive increase and the variety and diversity of the kids participating in this movement and looking at why. some of the viewers have some questions and comments on this. >> saying... amy saying...

andrew, this is a concern here, a lot of people saying look low income students at times do much better when placeed in the same classroom as higher achieving the students. do you believe you have a responsibility to help the public school system and help the local community? >> well, i think people definitely want to help the public schools. i i don't know anyone that has antagonism towards that. i guess, you know, the flip side of that if we were to come out in favor of preventing parents from taking their children out of public school if they see fit, aren't we dictating in a way that institutions have the right to educate children as they see fit rather than the parents having the primary

responsibility. >> mike, so you have 7 kids -- >> that is a concern from the larger perspective -- >> hold on. 7 kids the first two going to traditional school? >> no. we have home schooled the entire way. we are a case study in terms of home schooling. my six-year-old loves music. he's taking lessons. composition lessons from a professor. he's 16. he's taking three ap classes. my 14-year-old taking ap classes and passed they will. talk about the innovation and things, this is what is possible for all parents for education, and lots of opportunities. talk about the children who in a public school setting would suffer and the truth is in a

public school setting you look at the statuses and et niceties and no coral lags with race or income in the home school settings. so it is really an interesting thing to think about. >> we have some a pushback from the community saying... and saying... sara, look this is just an option for the privileged families, what about the single parents and the parents are working full time, how do you respond to that? >> that is very accurate.

it is affordable to those. as a result, you are going to have a very privileged, generally white middle class privileged group of people home schooling. some of the studies, they are interesting, but the ma superior/ty of the studios are self-selected and without essentially half of states requiring only notice, some don't even require a notice, we really don't know much about the home schooling. there are just a few ran dam studies. >> you are a ph.d., mike is an attorney, he's well educated as his wife, you are both of a certain socio economic status. it doesn't matter the background or the race home schooling is a leveller, is that true?

>> i would say especially true. especially when you have home school parents working in networks with other parents where you are not only depending on your expertise, we have parents working together and we have parents that have to work, and that is a reality for most of the families. two parents working in most families, and so we are not talking about upper middle class and not talking about white evan jell cal parents. we are regular working class and in this case, children of african heritage families that about a slightly want their children schooled at home because of the history of the african people in the standard curriculum in the schools. it is not a mistake that every textbook that you open begins in europe and a european story.

what is the message to the child that is not of european heritage. it is you have made no valuable contribution. the parents will bend that over to take the chimed out of that environment. we have to hit a break and back to it, should the home schoolers get a tax credit. what does the rise of home education? >> al jazeera america presents extraordinary documentaries. >> i've seen nothing like this before in my entire life. >> the amazon rainforest is going up in smoke. >> hundreds of kilometers square are disappearing in a day here. >> indigenous communities at risk. >> if their forest continues to

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get a tax credit and waj, we asked the viewers to weigh in on that. >> carol is saying... one saying... flip side saying... >> harsh. >> yes. >> should there be a tax incentive? >> this is complicated. it is expensive to home school. fairly inexpensive. you know, home schoolers want the tax credits and some say no, we just want to be left alone and not the regulations. this is a debate going beyond home schooling and how we fund education in the country and we

are paying into it and how much are we getting out, but at the end of the day the choices, the funding we can debate. i don't have a problem with the tax credits. our association supports them. >> is this rise in home schooling an indication of problems or deeper problems within the public school system? >> not only in the public school system and also in society. society if you look at the founding fathers of american education, the racism, sexism and classism that he professed is right at the root of american education cannot be overlooked. i don't want you to walk away with the idea of people are home schooling to shelter them to have a rich and abroad education, we pull in the expertise from all e over the

communitied, including retired professors and schoolteachers and artists, music teachers, we know where the weaknesses ares and we know what we don't know. if the children are abusedt home look at how many are abusedal school. the home schoolers are trying to get the very best for their child and willing to knock on doors and read books and stay up late and study how to get the child the best experience. >> of course, that is what every parent wants for their child. thank you to all off the guests. and to the community for a great discussion. until next time see you online at al jazeera.com/aj stream.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. >> russian president vladimir putin officially making crimea a part of his country, and ukraine making moves of its own. >> the search for malaysia airlines flight 370, the first try to locate the debris yields nothing. >> turkey taking on twitter, the leader of the nation cracking down on that the social media site.