It used to be that home schooling was a rarity. No more.

According to a Harris Interactive Poll of 2,435 U.S. adults surveyed online, one-third of Americans know someone who is home schooling a child.

Eight percent of the households who reported having children who were old enough to attend school said that their child had been home schooled at some point. Here are some of the study's findings:

• U.S. adults that say their main reasons for home schooling their children are dissatisfaction with academic instruction (65 percent), to provide religious or moral instruction (60 percent) and concern about safety at school or on the bus (53 percent).
• Forty percent of Republicans report knowing someone who home schools their child; Democrats report 29 percent.
• More Republicans (69 percent) than Democrats (56 percent) cite religious or moral instruction and student behavior problems (Republicans 50 percent, Democrats 43 percent) as the main reasons behind home schooling.
• Democrats were more likely than Republicans to cite schools being too crowded to provide individual attention (44 percent vs. 35 percent) and educating special needs children (42 percent vs. 33 percent) as the main reasons for home schooling.
• Twenty-five percent of adults rate home schooling as excellent or very good as compared to 17 percent who rate public schools this highly for elementary education; secondary education was rated 23 percent vs. 14 percent respectively.
As economic factors like skyrocketing gas prices put increasing pressures on businesses and families, home schooling, like telecommuting, may see more growth in 2008