Is home education on the rise?

I know that much of the media is convinced that home education is on the rise and I'm starting to wonder if, for a change, what they say might actually be true. These last few weeks in particular I ahve had so many asking me about home education with a view to doing it themselves. We've had various new people at our local Home Ed group but I didn't think too much of it - most of them were already home educating but had only just found the group. But now I've spoken to at least 4 families in the last month alone who either have children at school or preschool who they are considering home educating instead, or who are deciding on the educational method for children under school age.
It's heartening for me, because the more home educators there are in the area, the more potential we have to become a vibrant area for home educated children, with a variety of skills and experience to offer and hopefully enough people to make up lots of different social and educational groups, meetings and outings. It really does say something about the complete loss of confidence so many parents have in our school system that even here in a very conventional and traditional area, so many parents are taking what can often seem like such a bold step. I shall be watching this space eagerly over the next few years.