In an interview last year with Fox News, Bob Lubke, a senior policy analyst for the North Carolina-based Civitas Institute said, “If you look at national, and even state polls, you can see that the more familiar people become with Common Core, the more the dislike it. They feel like they are losing control of what their kids are learning.” Likewise, the Heartland Institute reported that in North Carolina, parents are concerned enough with Common Core that home schooling grew by 14 percent during the last academic year: “More children are now getting an education at home than in the state’s private schools.”

Michael Farris, father of ten and chairman of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, told me via e-mail that Common Core is a “factor in homeschooling growth.” “The public schools continue to pursue failed theories,” he wrote. “The overall approach is not working for any meaningful improvement. The centralized planners believe that one-sized fits-all will produce great educational results if we just regulate it enough and test it enough. Those theories lie at the heart of the discredited Common Core curriculum.”

The freedom to choose is a boon to homeschool education. The freedom to choose another means of education—whether that’s private school, charter schools, or homeschool—because of dissatisfaction is a hallmark of democracy. Some kids, like this homeschooled robotics team that invented a new way to teach beginners Braille, will owe their careers and general happiness to this simple choice.