A historically high number of US parents see their kids as too cool for public, private, or charter school and have opted to educate them at home instead.

The number of homeschooled children during the last academic year was 51% higher than in 2017–2018 in states with available info, according to government data crunched by the Washington Post. At the same time, public school enrollment dropped by 4%.

Though homeschooling rates have decreased from pandemic highs, what used to be a niche education arrangement favored mostly by religious parents is now going mainstream nationwide.

• WaPo’s analysis puts the total number of American kids learning their ABCs at home between 1.9 million and 2.7 million, exceeding the Catholic school student body in the US.
• The uptick in alternative schooling doesn’t seem to be associated with a low quality of traditional education, as it’s popular in academically high-performing districts as well.

Why has homeschooling gotten so big?

Parents cite several reasons for doubling up as education administrators: schools failing to meet their kids’ unique needs, bullying, and increasing concerns that curricula don’t align with their values. But there are also economic factors at play. Government programs in several states offer parents thousands of dollars’ worth of homeschooling support each year, while nonprofits provide funds to homeschoolers too.

The booming homeschooling rates have created an entire industry catering to parents who don’t want their kids to spend their days waiting for the bell.

• OutSchool, a platform that allows parents to design bespoke curricula out of crowdsourced classes, has brought in $255 million in VC funding since 2015.
• Companies like Prenda, which describes itself as an “Airbnb for education,” help parents set up microschools where five to 25 students learn under a supervisor.

While lunch is doubtlessly better at home…many education experts are skeptical that most parents can match the teaching skills of trained teachers. They note that few requirements exist to ensure quality in homeschools, and they worry that homeschooled kids might miss out on formative schoolyard socializing.—SK

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Israel–Gaza latest: Israel took responsibility for airstrikes on Gaza’s largest refugee camp that killed and wounded dozens of people, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Israel said the strike killed Ibrahim Biari, a Hamas commander who was one of the leaders of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, and a spokesperson claimed dozens of other militants died in the strike. Palestinains reported a second major outage of internet and phone services Wednesday, and a group of foreign nationals and critically wounded people are being allowed to leave besieged Gaza into Egypt today. In the US, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that antisemitism was reaching “historic levels” following the outbreak of the war.

Realtors on the hook for $1.8 billion in damages for commission practices. A federal jury in Missouri found that the National Association of Realtors, which represents more than 1.5 million agents in the US, is liable for the massive sum after they concluded the trade group conspired to artificially inflate commissions on home sales. And that might be just the start of realtors’ troubles: The Justice Department is reportedly scrutinizing the industry’s entire brokerage commission structure, which typically requires home sellers to pay 5%–6% in broker fees. Shares of Zillow and other real estate companies dropped following the news.

The Supreme Court weighed whether politicians can block you. The case, about school board members in California and a city manager in Michigan, will have wide-ranging implications for public officials and their ability to block individual critics on their private social media accounts. The Biden administration supports the block button, arguing that politicians have a right to block people when not operating in an official government capacity and that preventing them from doing so would have a “chilling effect” on free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union disagreed, siding with the blocked citizens.

The most-watched event in sports is headed back to the Middle East. Yesterday, Saudi Arabia discovered that it is effectively set to host the 2034 World Cup since it was the only country left in the bidding process after Australia withdrew hours before the deadline.

While the tournament isn’t for another 11 years, it’s a huge W for the country that has paid big bucks to dominate sports the last few years (though human rights groups have already criticized the possibility of holding the tournament there).

Thanks to billions of dollars of investment from the nation’s Sovereign Wealth Fund…

• Saudi Arabia has played host to several major sporting events, including this week’s high-profile boxing match in Riyadh and its annual Formula One Grand Prix.
• The LIV Golf Tour and the Saudi Pro League have each attracted some of the top athletes in their fields, including Brooks Koepka and Cristiano Ronaldo, respectively.

Zoom out: In 2018, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised that the new Europe is the Middle East, but that vision is challenged amid the Israel-Hamas war, which threatens to become a broader regional conflict. Still, Saudi Arabia continues to pursue its goal of becoming a hotspot for global investment. Last week, Riyadh hosted the Future Investment Initiative, an elite conference dubbed Davos in the Desert, as the country tries to diversify its economy away from oil.—CC

Just like the dry donuts your boss occasionally tosses on the filing cabinets, the perks that Hollywood and Big Tech CEOs get are quite sexy. On top of the millions in salaries and stock they rake in each year, the top brass behind your favorite content also reaps all kinds of major and minor rewards, according to a new report from the Hollywood Reporter. (Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav gets his wi-fi paid for!)

Security and private jets don’t pay for themselves. Meta spends $2.3 million per year flying Mark Zuckerberg around, while Netflix spends $1 million on private flights for Executive Chairman Reed Hastings. Meta takes the top spot in private security spending, shelling out $25 million just last year to protect Zuckerberg—a sum that surely will drop once word of his jujitsu skills spreads. Amazon spends $1.6 million on Jeff Bezos’s security, while Apple disburses a mere $591,000 on security for Tim Cook.

And what is being rich if you can’t hobnob on the back nine? Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer got his $16,000 country club dues paid for by the company last year.

Big picture: Ballooning CEO pay packages were (and still are) a big talking point in WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike negotiations. Last year, the average annual earnings of a major media CEO was $32.6 million, according to Variety.—MM

Stat: Books: Everyone’s got them. That is, except 9% of Americans. A survey from YouGov found that almost 1 in 10 Americans does not own a single physical book. On the other hand, 3% of Americans own more than 1,000 books, a group we assume is mostly made up of kooky college professors and Rory Gilmore wannabes. And while nearly a third of Americans don’t organize their bookshelves at all, those who do are most likely to sort by genre (22%). Only 10% sort by author, and even fewer (3%) arrange by color.

Quote: “Because I got a puppy!”

Have you ever loved a puppy so much that it made you leave your job? St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright has. On his official retirement form, the 42-year-old wrote that the reason he’s hanging up his cleats after 18 years is because he’s a new dog dad. For those thinking about retirement, we do not recommend citing puppy ownership as the rationale unless you, like Wainwright, have $182 million of career earnings to fall back on.

Read: This old-school building material could take over city skylines. (Washington Post)

Watch: Good Work’s Dan Toomey explains why endowments at colleges like Harvard and Princeton are so massive.

Seethe: A new study suggests that anger actually helps people complete challenging tasks.

Listen: Here’s 10 straight hours of the sound of the mourning dove, dubbed the “childhood bird” for the nostalgia it evokes.

Excel: Every industry needs people who can navigate Microsoft Excel like a pro. Don’t miss the return of Miss Excel for two free virtual courses on Nov. 8. Learn to utilize all Excel has to offer to make your day-to-day tasks a breeze. Register now.

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