N.C. Homeschool News 9/14/08

Baptist survey finds 86% of Americans believe homeschooling is a Constitutional right: A telephone survey conducted this summer by LifeWay Research, a ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention, found that more than eight out of ten Americans support homeschoolers' right to teach their children. However, 54% of respondents also agreed that homeschoolers "often lack social skills".

The survey contacted over 1200 people and had an error of less than 3%.

Homeschooling growing as public schools shrink in Asheville: The Citizen-Times reports that public school enrollment has fluctuated in Buncombe County and Asheville City, but homeschooling has grown by 615 students in the past five years. Private school enrollment increased by 150 during the same period.

Two out of fifteen W.N.C. National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists are homeschooled: At least two of the semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition come from western North Carolina. Grace Broadwell and Nathaniel Jeffries will be considered for the scholarship which will be awarded in 2009. This was reported by the Asheville Citizen-Times, which deserves kudos for giving homeschoolers coverage that other papers frequently ignore.