The Homeschool Generation Is Growing Up - And A New Battle Is Just Beginning

For 22-year-old Andrew Coates, becoming a professional firefighter seemed like a natural next step.

He already volunteers with the Cedar Bluffs Fire Department in Nebraska. He holds a state EMT license. He has experience responding to emergencies and wants to make a career out of doing what he already loves.

But when Coates applied to become a paid firefighter in Fremont, Nebraska, he ran into an obstacle that had nothing to do with fighting fires.

He had been homeschooled.

The city's original job posting required "graduation from high school." But Fremont rejected Coates because his homeschool diploma did not come from an accredited high school. The city subsequently changed its wording to specifically require graduation from an accredited school.

Coates challenged the decision, arguing that the issue was now bigger than his application. "We want to make sure that every homeschooler has an equal opportunity," he told WOWT.

His case should get America's attention because Coates isn't an educational anomaly anymore.

He's part of a generation that is rapidly getting bigger.

When schools shut down during the pandemic, homeschooling exploded. Many assumed families would eventually return to the old system and homeschooling numbers would settle back to their previous levels.

That hasn't happened.

New data from the Johns Hopkins Homeschool Research Lab show that of the 22 states reporting 2025-26 numbers so far, 17 — 77 percent — experienced another increase in homeschooling.

Montana jumped 27.7 percent. North Dakota increased 18.8 percent. Arkansas rose 14 percent. Nebraska increased 9.8 percent, California 8.5 percent and Vermont 8.4 percent.

Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wisconsin have now reached their highest recorded homeschool enrollment.

Homeschooling hasn't disappeared with the pandemic. It has become an established part of the American educational landscape.

And what people call "homeschooling" increasingly doesn't resemble the stereotype.

A nationally representative Johns Hopkins/RAND survey found 88 percent of homeschooling parents use additional educational resources. Forty-four percent use online resources, 29 percent participate in co-ops, 27 percent use online classes and 24 percent use online schools.

Today's homeschool can be part kitchen table, part online academy, part co-op, part tutor and part community classroom.

Something bigger than homeschooling is happening.

Parents are discovering that education doesn't necessarily have to come from one building, one curriculum or one institution.

It would be easy for parents with children in public or private schools to look at these battles and conclude they don't concern them.

They do.

Behind the homeschooling debate is a much larger question: Who bears primary responsibility for a child's education?

Government unquestionably has legitimate interests in protecting children and ensuring they receive an education. The disagreement begins when "ensuring an education" becomes defining exactly what that education must look like.

Consider how differently states already answer that question.

Rhode Island requires homeschool instruction to cover subjects including reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, U.S. and Rhode Island history and American government. Attendance must be substantially equivalent to public schools, and local school committees approve home instruction.

New Hampshire just moved dramatically in the opposite direction. A law taking effect this year makes homeschool declarations largely optional, eliminates annual evaluations and makes certain record keeping optional. Its law explicitly recognizes a parent's right to direct a child's education as a "natural right."

Those are two very different philosophies of the relationship between family and state.

And that question reaches far beyond homeschoolers.

It touches Christian schools, private education, charter schools, curriculum disputes, religious instruction and ultimately the ability of parents to make educational choices that differ from whatever government considers normal.

For years, the major homeschool fight was whether parents should be allowed to educate their own children.

That battle has largely moved on.

The emerging fight is over how much control government should exercise over families once they make that choice.

As homeschooling grows, expect debates over testing, notification, curriculum requirements, attendance records, educational assessments and state oversight to intensify.

Some regulation advocates argue that minimum standards protect children from educational neglect. Homeschool advocates respond that reasonable child-protection laws are very different from forcing parents to recreate government school at home.

That distinction becomes especially important because homeschooling's growth itself could invite additional scrutiny.

When something involves a tiny minority, government can largely ignore it. When millions of families begin choosing another path, lawmakers, regulators, universities and employers eventually have to decide how that alternative fits into existing systems.

Which brings us back to Andrew Coates.

This could become the next major homeschool battle.

Today's homeschool students eventually become tomorrow's firefighters, police officers, nurses, tradespeople, business owners, soldiers and professionals.

Coates already possesses a Nebraska EMT license and serves as a volunteer firefighter. Yet Fremont determined that his homeschool education did not satisfy its requirement for a career position because his high school wasn't accredited.

Think about the contradiction.

A state can legally permit parents to educate their child outside an accredited school system, only for that child to reach adulthood and discover that an employer requires credentials from the very system his parents legally chose not to use.

If that becomes widespread, homeschool freedom could exist on paper while carrying a penalty in practice.

This isn't an argument that every homeschool diploma must automatically qualify someone for every job. Employers obviously have the right to establish legitimate qualifications.

But demonstrated ability ought to matter.

If an applicant can pass examinations, meet physical standards, obtain professional certifications and demonstrate the knowledge required for a position, should the location where he learned algebra at age 15 determine whether he gets an interview at 22?

That question won't disappear with Andrew Coates.

It's going to become more common.

Homeschooling's continued growth tells us something important about America.

Parents are increasingly willing to question institutions that previous generations simply accepted. Some leave because of academics. Others because of safety, special needs, flexibility, religious convictions or disagreements over what schools are teaching.

Technology has made acting on those concerns easier than ever.

You no longer need to reproduce an entire school inside your home. Parents can access teachers, curricula, lectures, tutoring, advanced courses and educational communities from almost anywhere.

The old educational monopoly is being broken into pieces.

And that means the argument is changing.

The question is no longer simply whether Americans should have the freedom to homeschool.

The coming question is whether government institutions, universities and employers will genuinely respect that freedom when those children become adults — and how much control government will demand over families still raising them.

Andrew Coates may be one young man trying to become a firefighter in Nebraska.

Behind him is an entire generation.

And that generation is growing up.