Microschools Are Facing a Stacked Deck

Starting new learning opportunities for kids is challenging. Take for example the roadblocks learning pods and microschools are encountering recently while they try to launch new “out of school” learning models.

Recently, The 74 online reported on the “growing pains” faced by new innovations in public learning:

“Tia Howard thought she’d found the perfect spot for her new school – a two-acre, rural property in Pinal County, Arizona, with a main house and several smaller buildings that resembled a miniature Western town.”

“She envisioned teaching elementary students in the primary space and middle school schoolers in the casita. The sheds would be for students’ personal interests, like metal working and car repair. But in July, after she put down a $5,000 deposit and just weeks before she was ready to open, Howard ran up against the county’s zoning bureaucracy. Despite plans to serve about a dozen students, officials told her the law required private schools to have at least five acres of land.”

“’We lost our money, and the families lost their anticipated school,’ Howard said. ‘A lot of families are looking for an alternative to what they are seeing in public schools right now.’”

“Microschools, as such small learning environments are known, aren’t new. The model took off during the pandemic, and now serves between 1 and 2 million students. But as interest has surged, so have regulatory snags. Parents and educators with dreams of running their own schools are clashing with local officials armed with sometimes arcane rules that were never designed for education. Lawyers and veterans of unconventional education programs are now jumping in to help newcomers navigate everything from fire codes to food safety.”

“’It’s the problem that comes with trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,’ said Paul Avelar, an attorney with the conservative Institute for Justice. The public interest law firm, which has won major school choice victories before the U.S. Supreme Court, represents Howard.  Avelar want Pinal County to clarify its rule in light of a 2018 state law that says counties can’t require a private school to have more than one acre of land. He hopes to have an answer by the end of this month.”

“’This is going to be one of those growing pains.’ he said.”

“There are now an estimated 125,000 microschools in the United States, said Don Soifer, executive director of the Las Vegas-based National Microschooling Center. Those running them have varied backgrounds and reasons for taking the plunge. While some started out as homeschoolers, other operators left the public system in search of great flexibility or to offer students a more personalized education. Over 60% of microschool founders are white, and almost three-fourths are or were certified educators, according to the center’s recent report.”

“Lawmakers are beginning to pay attention. A Utah proposal this year would have written microschools into the law, permitting them to operate virtually anywhere, much like charters. Despite a close vote, the bill failed after Democrats raised concerns over traffic in residential areas and said it would further draw families away from public schools.”

“While they wait for local officials to respond, many advocates warn that microschools ignore the regulatory system at their peril”

“’We don’t want a graveyard of microschools that we’re looking back on,’ said Jamie Buckland, founder of West Virginia Families United for Education, a homeschooling and school choice advocacy group. ‘If you’re going to charge someone money to educate their child, you have a responsibility to dot your I’s and cross your t’s.’”

…

“Soifer has heard numerous examples of regulations designed to govern traditional schools or businesses clashing with educational programs that don’t fit the mold.”

“A health department in southern Nevada, for example, wouldn’t allow a microschool in Clark County to order pizza for students on Fridays because it lacked a commercial kitchen.”

…

“This fall, Katie Saiz, who runs Green Gate Children’s School in Wichita, Kansas, bought a couple of goats for the preschoolers and elementary-age students to take care of. But the city first required her to get permission from members of a homeowner association in the surrounding neighborhood.”

No doubt, trying to provide learning to young people and their families is a stacked deck against anyone or anything that tries to buck the traditional public school system.

Charter schools faced the same challenges at the turn of the century when they started to take market share away from the public schools. The fact that local and state governments created ways to prevent charters from expanding is probably a reason why most charter schools, even if they are good for kids, have stayed relatively small in terms of enrollment when compared to their public school counterparts.

The worst part of these governmental entities protecting our public school system is that many of those schools that are protected are bad schools by anyone’s criteria. But still, traditional school leaders feel “cover” from their local and state elected officials as they attempt to maintain “market share,” even though some of their “market” is low-performing.

I would be the first to say it’s important to make sure young learners are protected from harm, both physically and emotionally, but how microschools are being attacked for no real reason is expected but costly.

The deciding factor regarding who get to lead learning for our country’s young people should be who is best at getting kids to read, write, and problem-solve at high levels.

Til tomorrow. SVB