In search of educational freedom? Go west, young families. Unless you live in California, in which case, head a little east to Arizona.
Last week, the Arizona Legislature passed the most expansive school choice initiative in America: the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account program. ESAs are the purest version of school choice. Whereas charter school policies allow for a more diverse array of public schools to flourish, and voucher systems enable public money to flow to private schools, ESAs put purchasing power directly into the hands of parents.
Arizona’s ESA program would give about $6,500 directly to any family that decides a public school isn’t quite the right fit for their child. While this will certainly be a boon for the state’s private schools, the most significant consequence may come from a sector that essentially didn’t exist just a few years ago: “pods” or “microschools.”
In the midst of the pandemic, groups of parents banded together and partnered with entrepreneurial teachers to resurrect the one-room schoolhouse in their living rooms. In the fall of 2020, the media covered this development with a mix of respect and trepidation. Many of the stories started by lauding the initiative of these parents and teachers but ended by lamenting that “pods” must necessarily be a luxury good.
But this luxury good is now within reach of every Arizona family. If a teacher were to advertise and attract a dozen students, she stands to draw nearly $80,000 in public funding to her microschool. After curriculum and supplies, she’ll still be making far more than the median teacher salary of approximately $50,000. More importantly, her students will get far more specialized attention, likely suffer through far fewer distractions, and are less likely to fall behind or slip through the cracks.
The market has already signaled that there is great pent-up demand among parents for microschools. In 2018, an Arizona entrepreneur named Kelly Smith opened a pod in his home with seven neighborhood students. Smith realized that by partnering with an online charter school, he could deliver tuition-free microschools to Arizona families, and his company Prenda was born. Today, Prenda serves over 3,000 students with its blend of self-paced Chromebook lessons and group problem-based learning.
However, many parents would prefer a more classical approach: less time on laptops, more time with pen and paper, a knowledge-rich curriculum, and a focus on reading great books. Indeed, polling suggests a significant majority of parents want their child to benefit from aspects of classical education. Arizona’s flexible and robust charter school system engendered the birth of the nation’s preeminent classical charter school network, Great Hearts Academies. Today, Great Hearts serves 22,000 students at 33 schools in Arizona and Texas and has a waiting list of over 14,000.
During the pandemic, Great Hearts developed an online school and then launched a new initiative, Great Hearts Nova, which franchises classical microschools by partnering with families to provide courses, curriculum, and teacher support. If Great Hearts cracks the code on these partnerships, it could put a high-quality, highly personalized, classical education within reach of every Arizona student. And if they don’t, someone else surely will.
The beautiful thing about Arizona’s ESA program is that it can eliminate any mismatch between what parents want for their child’s education and what they can get. Arizona now funds students, not systems. For many independent-minded parents, the idea of taking their child’s education directly into their own hands and partnering with other families to form small educational communities will be deeply attractive.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s steady leadership on school choice is to be greatly commended. When he steps down at the end of the year, part of his legacy will be cementing his state’s position as the nation’s leader in school choice. Conservative state leaders across America ought to watch closely how parents and educators respond to this new system. And if they want to attract young families — and unlock the true power of parents in education — they ought to consider following in Arizona’s footsteps.
Max Eden is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
