(AgapePress) - Overstuffed classrooms, over-burdened teachers, and zero-tolerance policies -- those are just a few of the reasons Louisiana parent Joyce Burges and others in the black community are educating their kids at home. Feeling the public school system has failed them, more and more black families across the U.S. are choosing to home school their children.

Burges, who heads the National Black Home Educators Resource Association (NBHERA), says home schooling is not as hard as many parents think. "There are so many opportunities now," she notes, "because home schooling has become so sophisticated."

In addition to the increasing amount of curriculum material and other products available to home-schooling families, Burges says there are many other resources available to parents who are willing to get creative. For instance, she explains, "What I didn't know I hired tutors to teach. I bartered with college students for a meal -- especially college students that were out of town or out of state -- and I'd say, 'I can cook a meal if you can teach my child algebra for about three or four months.' And it was the same thing with music and the higher sciences."

The Louisiana mother of five has already raised three home-school graduates and is currently teaching her two youngest children at home. She says more black families are turning to groups like NBHERA out of frustration with public education.

"More and more parents are coming along as learning partners with their children," Burges says, "especially when parents have to spend two to three hours in the evening doing homework with their children. They're going to say, 'You know what? I may as well just take the whole thing and do it myself.' And so the growth of home schooling is inevitable."

In 1999, less than one percent of the home-schooling population was made up of black families. But today, black students make up five percent of the two million home schoolers in the United States, and Burges believes that number is bound to continue its rapid growth.

NBHERA is holding its annual Family Summer Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in July. Among those slated to speak at the event are Rev. Johnny Hunter and Patricia Hunter of Global Life & Family Mission (GLFM). Hunter is national director of a pro-life consortium called L.E.A.R.N., Inc. (Life Education and Resources Network), and his work with GLFM involves promoting traditional family values, racial harmony, and the survival of children around the world.

Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

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