EAGnews.org is reporting that the homeschooling rate in Virginia has nearly doubled over the last decade.

A Times Dispatch story shows the number of homeschool students at 35,858 in 2013, up from 22,021 in 2002. The numbers are only slightly up nationwide. The National Center for Education Statistics report an increase from 2.2 percent to 3 percent in children that are now home-schooled.

A group of Virginia homeschoolers told the Dispatch that they prefer this option because they can learn at their own pace and can avoid the "bullying and cliquishness" atmosphere of public school. One 17-year-old student said public schools held him back and now he learns at a much faster rate.

Because students learn at a faster pace, many of the students are already taking online college courses. The Web has also made it possible for homeschool parents and teachers to have a larger variety of books to choose from, instead of what individual districts choose. This has helped the popularity of homeschool move from a choice made for a religious reason to one that is academic because of the advantages of choosing personalized curriculum and pace.

As one parent said, “If you are homeschooling, you are completely out of the clutches of the Common Core.”