This message comes from NPR sponsor Talking Pictures, the new podcast from TCM and Max, hosted by Ben Mankowitz.

Hear intimate conversations with influential filmmakers, Nancy Myers, Mel Brooks, and more.

Listen to talking pictures, wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies.

There are plenty of battles raging in public education today over textbooks, treatment of

transgender students, equitable funding, and more.

But there's another trend that's kind of gone under the radar and that's a surge in parents

opting for homeschooling rather than traditional school. Our guest today is

Washington Post reporter Peter Jamieson, who's led a team of post reporters looking into the rise of homeschooling.

Their analysis found that homeschooling is now America's fastest growing form of education,

expanding more rapidly than public or private schools.

While homeschooling was long dominated by Christian conservatives, the post found homeschooling

parents today are far more diverse, and that homeschooling is surging

in urban, rural, and suburban areas among struggling schools and schools with high graduation

rates and test scores.

Regulation of homeschooling is up to states.

The reporters found it varies widely and is often lacks,

leading to criticism from some advocates

that homeschooled kids are being short changed

academically and are more vulnerable to child abuse.

Peter Jamieson is an enterprise reporter at the post where he was part of a team of journalists awarded the Pulitzer

Prize for public service for coverage of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

...