Successfully innovative education got a big boost this fall through the Yass Prizes, a private grant-making effort whose final winners were announced on Dec. 14 in New York. The example of the winning school, and indeed of all 64 quarterfinalists, should inform educators everywhere.
The Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless (STOP) education is a partnership between philanthropists Janine and Jeff Yass, the Center for Education Reform, and Forbes. This year it provided grants to 64 schools or educational programs, out of more than 2,700 nationwide who competed. Thirty-two quarterfinalists earned $100,000, another 23 semi-finalists earned $200,000, eight finalists earned $500,000, and the grand prize winner, announced this week, will receive a stunning $1 million award.
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The awardees all innovate in some way while producing measurably superb educational results, usually from difficult or non-traditional circumstances. The $1 million grand prize winner this year was Arizona Autism Charter Schools, dedicated to “serving neuro-divergent learners.” In addition to earning “exemplary” ratings for its flagship school in Arizona, its executives hope to establish similar schools in every state.
Among the eight other finalists, one is for children with a broad range of learning challenges, including autism and dyslexia. Two of them incorporate major apprenticeship programs into their educational mission. One adds a model program teaching disadvantaged students about personal finance and investing. The other four serve extremely disadvantaged communities. Moreover, all 64 that made at least the quarterfinals offer similarly impressive, heartwarming examples of excellence in the midst of unique challenges.
One feature common to almost all of these schools is the fourth element in the “STOP” acronym — “permissionless.” It means that the educational mission there “is free to exist and thrive without dependence on regulatory bodies whose rules are often at odds with parent demands and student needs.”
Alas, on the same day the Yass winner was announced, every Democrat voting in the Senate banded together to kill a resolution by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) to repeal a terrible new Biden administration rule that puts major new additional burdens on charter schools — which, by very definition, operate without being burdened by all the usual “regulatory bodies whose rules are often at odds with parent demands and student needs.”
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The Senate Democrats’ votes were unconscionable, especially considering that some of them had voiced concerns about Biden’s rule.
Still, the terrific stories behind all the schools that won grants through the Yass Prizes are heartening. By way of example, they should encourage more schools across the nation to combine innovation with hard work to give hope to children and families throughout the country.
