plans to switch to homeschooling if the first
month goes poorly.
“If there is a lot of stress between the two of
us it is probably going to get him pulled out,”
she said.
Rothermel-Branham, 39, already has scouted out
curriculum as a backup and has signed up for art
and music classes through Outschool, an online
learning platform that is reporting 30 times year-
over-year growth since March.
“It is such a big mess,” said Outschool CEO Amir
Nathoo. “A lot of schools spent all summer
preparing for a social distanced reopening and
now it looks like that isn’t going to happen
because of the virus.”
He said the demand for classes has been
particularly strong in states that moved
aggressively to reopen, including Texas, Florida,
Georgia and Arizona.
Chris Perrin, the CEO of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-
based Classical Academic Press, said curriculum
sales to homeschoolers are up by 50% and that
enrollment in its online Scholé Academy has
increased by 100% amid the pandemic. He said
some there was “understandably a lot of bad
online learning” in the spring and that some
parents were “appalled” as they oversaw it.
“They are saying I can’t stand by and
do nothing,” Perrin said. “So they are
becoming homeschoolers.”