Why are black families turning their backs on the public schools?

More recently, a growing number of black families are also turning their backs on the public school system...

Mar 15, 2012

Home schooling in the U.S. is a practice mostly identified with white households according to BBC News. However, more recently, a growing number of black families are also turning their backs on the public school system. A Copeland woman who is currently homeschooling her son believes that bullying could be a significant reason why some blacks consider homeschooling.

“There were lots of fights and people getting shot,” says Sonya Barbee.

“It was just too much. To me, it’s not a good environment for a kid and even though I work full time, so it’s really hard for me, I still feel like it’s the right decision.”

Sonya has not made life easy for herself. A single mother, who works for the US government, she now has the added burden of being a teacher to her 11-year-old son, Copeland.

It was not the violence, or even the fact that he was being bullied, that finally led to the decision to remove Copeland from his public school in what she describes as a “really bad area” of Washington DC, but the fact that he was “losing his love of learning”.

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