The Microschool Revolution Is Just Getting Started
Forget apples—this Teacher Appreciation Week, how about giving educators something they can actually use: freedom. Florida did this with a 2024 law that opened the door for educational innovation by easing zoning and land-use restrictions on microschools, making it easier for alternative learning models to flourish outside the traditional system.
Following the passage of House Bill 1285, veteran educator Alison Rini repurposed a vacant day care center in the middle of a government housing project in Sarasota, Florida, and opened a microschool. A microschool generally refers to elementary, middle, or high school programs that are tiny by design, averaging just 16 students each.
Parents at Rini’s school previously sent their children on a seven-mile bus ride to the nearest public school. But now they can enroll their kindergartners in a neighborhood program just steps from home. Rini is still a teacher, but she is also her own boss.
And she is not alone. Rini’s enterprise, Star Lab, is part of a national movement that took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some parents, frustrated by the quality of online instruction, formed informal homeschool co-ops and learning pods as alternatives. These groups rotate teaching duties among themselves or pool their resources and hire professional educators.
Parents usually take the lead, but teachers are also getting involved. Many educators have left the public school system and launched microschools in homes, churches, libraries, strip malls, converted office spaces, and even wil
Article from Reason.com
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