METRO DETROIT (WXYZ) — “I am capable of doing this. No one is going to love my children more than I do and no one is going to spend that time with them to go over things,” said Nichole Leatherwood.
Since the pandemic, Detroit mother Nichole Leatherwood has been homeschooling her two youngest children — 9-year-old Savanah and 7-year-old Eric.
“I can just get help,” said Savanah Leatherwood, a homeschool student.
Nichole says she saw her daughter Savanah struggling with remote learning during the pandemic.
“She was getting frustrated and I could see that light was starting to dim. She wasn't believing in herself,” Nichole said. “We have a systemic issue of children being failed in traditional schools.”
Michigan is one of 11 states that does not have a registry for homeschool students.
Since the pandemic, home schooling has increased says Israel Wayne, vice president of the Michigan Christian Homeschool Network.
“They had lost over 50,000 students from the public school system since Covid. And we have to find a way to get these children back into the public school system,” said Wayne.
The debate over the homeschool registry sparked fury among advocates in December after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and House Education Committee member and Michigan State Rep. Matt Koleszar (D) of Livonia cited recent reports of child abuse in a case out of Clinton County and stated homeschooling was used as a cover to hide the abuse.
In a December post on X, Rep. Kolesar said “abusive parents are taking advantage of not reporting to the state.”
“They're saying that homeschool parents are potential child abusers and now we need a homeschool registry to protect children,” Wayne said.
Bernita Bradley, Engaged Detroit, a homeschool co-op says “This picture that they're painting of homeschool families being abusive or only choosing homeschool because they want to be abusive that's the furthest thing from the truth."
Koleszar says his words were taken out of context and says he respects parents rights to homeschool their children.
“My words were very falsely spun and to that i said all homeschoolers were child abusers. I never once said that,” Rep. Koleszar said. “I fully respect and appreciate the right and ability of parents to homeschool their children.”
Nichole says the registry proposal is government overreach.
“From my perspective that doesn't seem that's the real reason behind it,” she said. “I don't need someone coming in and telling me what I need to do and how I need to do it.”
