Posted on 12/08/2017 10:52:48 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
It’s nearing Christmas, and everyone knows the best gifts come in small packages. The same can be said of government and of schools, too.
Micro-schools are an emerging trend of what Education Next defines as ““one-room schoolhouse meets blended learning and home schooling meets private schooling.”.” According to EdWeek, ““The definition of a micro school is still being hammered out,, but a consensus seems to be coalescing around a few core details: Schools have no more than 150 students in grades K-12; multiple ages learn together in a single classroom; teachers act more as guides than lecturers; there’s a heavy emphasis on digital and project-based learning; and small class sizes, combined with those other factors, make for a highly personalized education.”
The micro-school movement is spreading like wildfire in some places. Acton Academy, a system of micro-schools based in Austin, Texas, describes itself as, “One-room schoolhouses for the 21st century,” and has expanded to a network of more than 50 schools since its inception in 2009. What people seem to like about these tiny schools are the benefits that are also inherent in limited government and all institutions that are small in scope: They’re accessible, easy to manage, give the consumer a say in how things work and are relatively inexpensive. “As we look at our comprehensive high schools in America, they’ve been competing over years to offer more courses, more athletics, and it increases their cost structure,” a micro-school parent told EdWeek in 2016. “We see the same thing in higher education. But increasingly, there’s a segment of their market demographic that feels overserved.
“With small buildings, few faculty and staff members, and a curriculum built largely around free, online programs, micro-schools strip education down to the bare essentials,”EdWeek also reported.
Every time education funding is cut—or even when reduction is mentioned as a mere possibility—people, usually those tied to teachers unions, raise Cain as if cutting a sliver from bloated education budgets is comparable to setting the school buildings on fire. What, I have always wondered, do they need so much money for, exactly? And will they ever have enough?
The fact that a bulk of education funding goes toward paying for the salaries and benefits of teachers and administrators explains why “how much” is not a number government school advocates are ever willing to divulge. But how much does it cost to educate a child effectively? How can a handful of textbooks, a desk, some chalk, and a teacher possibly justify increasing federal spending 36 percent since 2002??
Micro-schools are proving the “bigger is better” myth spread by government bureaucrats is wrong. Children don’t need a $72 million football stadium or expensive, fancy, five-pound textbooks loaded up with glossy pictures to learn, thrive, and succeed. Some, in the instance of online learners, don’t need facilities at all. Others only need occasional collaboration with a few peers, as is often the case with micro-schools, to satisfy their social and learning needs.
There’s a saying in fashion about trends repeating themselves every 20 to 30 years. In this case, it’s taken more than a century for the small-school trend to come back in vogue. But unlike fashion, the trends of which are decided by the whims of zany designers, the micro-school craze is growing because of free-market, pro-liberty principles—at least for now.
Parents are fed up with the current enormous, corrupt, and wasteful public education system. It puts every unique child in the same box, and as a result, fails to adequately teach kids. What The Huffington Post calls “edupreneurs” have taken notice of the gaping market void created by the archaic government system—which never worked well, anyway—and they’re doing something about it.
““It’s getting easier to open a really cool school,”,” HuffPo reported in 2015. “A new wave of tiny schools are creating options for students, parents, and educators. Micro-schools vary in size, approach, and governance. Private micro-schools … help students shape a personalized path.”
Micro-schools are more responsive to students’ needs; they run more efficiently and at a lower cost. These principles are true of government, too, which is why it’s likely micro-schools will be the next target on the list of government school lackeys. For now, though, these small schools are making an important point in a big way: Schools, like government, are best in small packages.
Public unions must be outlawed.
I believe it was In Search of Excellence (Peters) which said that “Bad things start to happen when you get more than 500 to 1000 people in the same place.” Basically because no one knows everyone there.
...who would be left to fill out the 25 pounds of paperwork every week documenting school performance and compliance with lebenty zillion regulations and rules?
Simply not workable in this day and age. Nothing is more important than those reports that flow from every school in the state to the State Capitol to be assembled into huge binders that are then incorporated into 1,000 page summary reports that then flow to Washington DC.
Great question.
I was homeschooled, and there was plenty of accounting hassle involved, even for one teaching parent of one student.
There are so many laws and regulations involved, it's hard to imagine micro schools surviving. Teachers still need credentials, too. Private schools are still so hamstrung, they are virtually working for the state.
That deck is stacked.
My wife works,in our local K-8 school district. My sister teaches math to inner city middle schoolers. Their inside-tje-beast stories are just unbelievable.
In Tampa, there is a school in an old 7-11.
The second was college. My first two years of college were in a town of 10,000 located a hundred miles or more from any other town that big. Classes were quite small. None of my classes was more 32 students, and many were much smaller than that. I was absolutely required to finish in four years since Viet Nam War restrictions limited a college deferment to four years. This meant I had to take Freshman Calculus in my first term. Knowing this, I carefully checked, and then rechecked every question on the math entrance exam as I took the test. After I got about a third of the way through the test, the moderator announced "time is up", and collected all the papers. Some how I had missed the part that this was a timed test.
I clearly flunked the test, and was assigned to the remedial math class. It started with addition, subtraction and multiplication. Division was too advanced. Resigned to this, I started my first day in the remedial math class. It started with "addition". About midway through the class, a knock was heard at the door, and the instructor went over and talked with the interloper. I was then told to leave the room, and follow her. She turned out to be the secretary to the head of the math department (who just happened to be someone I delivered newspapers to for five years). Maybe that was the reason, or maybe others had the same problem. Nevertheless, he explained to me that somehow my math test had been 'lost', and it was necessary for me to take it over.
I remembered the first third of the test so well that I answered those questions from memory. I completed the rest, and also had time to check the answers, and thus aced the test. The next day I was able to start the first day of Calculus, and so was able to complete my engineering degree in four years.
My life was obviously profoundly changed by 'micro-schools'. It's just too bad that few of todays students get similar opportunities.
My grandsons attend something similar. They call it a hybrid school because some of the students are homeschooled and only attend half days for foreign language, science, and maths. They also have full time students. Classes are small with multiple grades in the classroom. Students work at their own pace.
Our older grandson started last year in kindergarten but this year he is doing first, second, and third grade work in various subjects. We are well pleased with the school!
Yes, indeed! There was plenty of mandatory paperwork to the government.
Even though my 3 children were enrolled in the community college ( with 4.0 averages) the county school district still required their paperwork. Their college transcripts were not enough to satisfy them.
How are these small schools funded?
By school tax that goes to the local ISD?
Or by a combination of funds from students’ parents, local companies, and sales tax?
Check out the current situation in some states w.r.t school tax; it’s out the roof... see Texas for example (Katy does NOT need a 10 million dollar stadium).
Get rid of the eleventy million rules & regulations.
The only sure way to do that is get back to where the fed gov had NOTHING to do whatsoever with education...which was most of the nation’s history.
I know of several home schooling co-ops using this method. The parents use online schooling modules they trust or traditional textbooks at home, and then they take the kids two or three days a week to a central location to get P.E., music lessons, language lessons, and the over-rated “socialization”.
It sometimes shuts up liberals to say “my kid goes to X Academy” not saying it is a homeschooling co-op instead of “we’re homeschooled”.
If they ask further, you just say it is a small religious private school. And when they bring up “socialization” again, you know that they are truly biased ... how dare you not expose your kids to all kids of all races, income levels and levels of bad behavior!
The micro-schools funded by homeschooling co-ops are funded by parents, though some are supported by religious congregations.
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