The Covid-19 pandemic proved that K-12 education was ripe for disruption. A new report from Tyton Partners finds that a majority of parents “prefer to direct and curate their child’s education rather than rely on local school systems.”

With many families educating their children at home during the crisis, parents discovered learning and personal growth can happen everywhere, not just in the classroom. Not only are parents choosing where, and how, their children are educated; they also are making choices on extracurricular activities like camp, tutoring, cultural enrichment and sports.

Could educational choice and extracurricular choice coexist, and how might it work?

Tyton Partners, with the Walton Family Foundation and Stand Together Trust, set out to find answers to these questions with a new report, “Choose To Learn: Connecting In- And Out-Of-School Learning In A Post-Pandemic World.”

Researchers surveyed more than 3,000 parents and nearly 150 organizational leaders who offer in-school and out-of-school educational programs.

According to the survey, the pandemic fundamentally changed the way parents view K-12 education.

Parents’ values and beliefs toward K-12 learning

While parents still believe in-school learning is the greatest means of improving a child’s intellectual opportunity, Tyton Partners found that parents viewed out-of-school activities to be far better at supporting a child’s passions of interest and developing a child’s sense of self-worth.

Out-of-school activities were viewed as being better at helping students develop relationships with peers and adults and reinforcing key family values and beliefs. These out-of-school style activities may even be blended into non-traditional educational models, such as microschools or other alternative educational programs.

Top aspirations for child’s learning

Given the positive benefits of these out-of-school activities, researchers reviewed concerns over equitable access to extracurricular activities and alternative schools by minorities or low-income families. Alternative school options and extracurricular activities also remain unaffordable to most families, regardless of race or income.

Researchers provide two solutions to making alternative educational models and extracurricular activities more affordable: education savings accounts (ESAs) and public microgrants.

ESAs would provide funds directly to parents to pay for tuition, tutoring and other afterschool activities like camps, museum trips, sports and more. Microgrants include programs like VELA Education Fund  offering grants to educational entrepreneurs, or Boston Public Schools’ “Opportunity Portfolio,” which provides grants to community organizations and enrichment programs to serve local students.

In addition to resolving equity issues, the researchers examined accessibility and quality issues as well.

Overall, the research launched to gain a better understanding of issues impacting every family, including the more than 40 million parents who send their children to public school, according to Christian Lehr, senior principal at Tyton Partners and lead author of the report.

“Relative to issues of equity and access, our local public districts play a crucial role for K-12 families,” Lehr said. “At the same time, families crave a wide variety of learning experiences. It is in this spirit that we examined parents’ aspirations at the intersection of in- and out-of-school learning, and ask: How can the K-12 sector deliver a stronger union of academic, extracurricular, and personal outcomes for all families, regardless of life or economic circumstances?”

Editor’s note: This article appeared Sunday on bradenton.com.

On break in the hallway between St. Marcus Lutheran Church and its attached school, eighth grader Annii Kinepoway had no hesitation in explaining what she’s learned to love best here — the good Lord and good grades.

“I like knowing there’s somebody you can ask for help if you need it. Somebody is there and looking over you,” she said of her newly found faith, while proudly wearing the tie indicating her academic honors.

Annii’s mother could only afford this educational opportunity because of school choice programs, which 94% of St. Marcus’ 1,160 students in Milwaukee also use.

“It has changed our lives for the better,” said Wishkub Kinepoway, a Native American and African American single mom. “She says, ‘I really love St. Marcus because I don’t have to pretend I’m not smart.’”

School choice is one of many education issues that have become a partisan battleground, bringing parents to the polls this fall. One core question is how widely, if at all, taxpayer money should pay for bradprivate school tuition, instead of only financing public schools. Critics say such programs weaken public schools, whose costs remain high even if students transfer, taking some state funding with them.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated tensions. Public schools often were closed longer than private ones, and extended online learning has been linked to major learning losses.

But many low-income parents in neighborhoods like Milwaukee’s predominantly African American north side or Latino south side say voucher programs — introduced here three decades ago — are the only way their children can attend faith-based institutions. They say those schools teach structure and values in ways public ones are often too overwhelmed to do.

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Editor’s note: This opinion piece from Michael J. Petrilli, president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and Nathaniel Grossman, editorial and program associate at the Institute, appeared on coalvalleynews.com.

Public education in West Virginia looks and feels a little different this fall, thanks to the history-making arrival of the state’s first charter school.

Charter schools are public schools that operate with greater flexibility than traditional schools. They offer all families, regardless of income, a choice in which schools to send their children. While affluent families have long been able to move into neighborhoods that boast high-quality public schools or send their children to expensive private schools, lower-income families are often stuck with their neighborhood school, regardless of the quality of education it provides.

Encouragingly, when West Virginia officials passed House Bill 206 in 2019, they created a new system that allowed for the creation of charter schools for the first time in the state’s history. This year, there are four new public charter schools overseen by the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board, whose primary goal is to ensure that each school provides a quality education to its students. And under this new law, the state may authorize an additional 10 schools every three years beginning in 2023.

To be sure, these four schools represent a small fraction of West Virginia’s roughly 750 K-12 schools, but they represent a sea change or the 1,500 students who choose to attend them.

And following on the awful NAEP scores recently released, it is good news that should be celebrated. Despite political backlash to public charter schools, research suggests choice in education options, and charter schools specifically, benefit students.

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Editor’s note: In a two-part series last week, Tom Greene, national legislative director for ExcelinEd in Action, reflected that the release of NAEP scores in late October came with a nationwide lament about the failings of the country’s K-12 education system, long-term pandemic disruptions, school closures and other challenges.

Those in the education policy space, Greene noted, know that the relentless push for improvement has never wavered, and that actions were ongoing long before the release of NAEP scores. Here are 10 policy changes already in the works that Greene says are offering foundational and innovative solutions that can help modernize education and turn around low student performance confirmed by NAEP.

Early literacy

With learning loss front and center, state policymakers invested hundreds of millions of dollars in early literacy improvements. They created or expanded programs such as teacher trainings, specialized supports for struggling readers and updated classroom resources to help close learning gaps.

Fifteen states passed comprehensive early literacy policies grounded in the science of reading: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and—notably—Alaska, which passed its landmark Alaska Reads Act with bipartisan support after a nearly decade-long effort.

Sweeping education funding reform

Tennessee took the lead in transforming per-pupil spending by passing sweeping reforms to the state’s overall school funding system. Under this plan, money follows the student to all public schools and includes substantial funding weights for low-income students.

The plan also provides funding for early literacy, financial rewards for school excellence and incentives to districts that offer high-value career and technical education.

Strengthening education to workforce pathways

Many states in 2022, most noticeably Mississippi, had strong bipartisan support to help students build skills for postsecondary achievement, especially in high-demand industries. State policymakers unanimously passed the Comprehensive Career and Technical Education (CTE) Reform Act to improve CTE programs and streamline industry-recognized certification.

It includes a workforce audit, career coaching for students and an annual CTE program inventory with return-on-investment analysis to align offerings with business and industry needs. Other states are already taking note.

Rethinking the teacher pipeline

In a groundbreaking action, Indiana became the first state in the nation this year to adopt a policy to give more instructional options to teachers. This new law creates a study to develop a first-of-its-kind chartered teachers policy, which allows parents to enter into agreements with public school teachers to provide customized learning environments for students.

Several other states, including Arizona, Idaho and Oklahoma, took actions to help fill teacher shortages by providing improvements in training, licensing flexibility and adjunct teacher support.

Modernizing education with 21st century skills

Florida adopted financial literacy as a high school graduation requirement, with all high school students required to pass a financial literacy course to receive a diploma. The legislation will empower an estimated 190,000 students a year with 21st-century life skills, starting with students who enter high school in the 2023-24 school year.

Equal funding for charter schools

State leaders are taking action to ensure all public schools are treated equally when it comes to funding. For the first time, Missouri charter schools will receive the same per-pupil funding as traditional public schools. The new funding model directs districts to allocate more funding to each charter school within their jurisdiction to bring them up to the level of traditional public schools. Florida and Georgia increased funding to charter schools to support their facility needs, and Kentucky created a new funding system to direct federal, state and local dollars to charter schools.

Empowering parents through microgrants Microgrants continue to grow in popularity to provide direct funding to parents for a range of academic and enrichment activities that support the educational needs of their children. This year, Indiana and Idaho stepped up with microgrant and scholarship programs. Together, the two states have invested $75 million in microgrants and scholarships to provide students with tutoring, devices, connectivity and other resources for learning. Establishing universal school choice In groundbreaking action, Arizona became the first state in the nation to pass legislation to create a universal Education Scholarship Account program, making more than 1.1 million students eligible to use a scholarship toward tuition or fees, supplemental education materials, tutoring and other educational services. Closing the transportation gap Arizona again became a model for states expanding an innovative program that modernizes transportation options and provides more flexibility to transport students to and from the public school of their choice. Florida and Indiana also passed laws to expand transportation options for students, and Colorado established a targeted microgrant program for parents to help with school transportation. Expanding flexibility for learners Kansas passed legislation to create new enrollment options for schools and students, allowing public and charter schools to serve more children, including those in home school and private school. Students can now enroll part-time in any public school to access courses they need. Read more in ExcelinEd in Action’s 2022 Legislative Impact-In Brief highlighting student-centered programs in states around the nation.

 

Editor’s note: This article appeared today on newhampshire.bulletin.com.

Nearly two years after creating the “education freedom account” program, a growing number of New Hampshire Republicans are looking toward expanding who can access it.

During an Oct. 25 Bulletin/NHPR debate, Gov. Chris Sununu said he would support raising income caps on the program. In a Tuesday WMUR debate, he repeated that position. And one Republican lawmaker has already filed two pieces of legislation to do it.

“I would be open to expanding it if (lawmakers) want to do that,” Sununu said at a press conference Wednesday. “It’s because there’s such a high demand. We’ve created a product – we’ve created an opportunity for families, and more families than we anticipated want it.”

Any increase in income limits would be a transformative expansion for the program. And any effort to do so will likely reignite fierce ideological debates over the program – regardless of who controls the State House.

Created in 2021 as part of the two-year budget, the EFA program allows parents to access a portion of public education funds and use them toward nonpublic school expenses such as private school and home-schooling costs. Families that participate receive the per-pupil adequacy grant that would have been given to their local public school, which averages around $4,600 per student.

The program is currently targeted toward lower-income families: Families must demonstrate that they make below 300 percent of the federal poverty level in their first year. This year, that level is about $83,000 for a family of four.

Now, after a higher-than-expected initial take up, Republicans are proposing raising that income cap. A bill filed by Rep. Alicia Lekas, a Hudson Republican, would raise the cap from 300 percent to 500 percent of the federal poverty level – increasing the limit for a family of four to about $139,000.

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Public schools historically have been defined by their location. Whether one’s home is in a “good school district” matters. But the last few years have raised important questions about whether tying children to a particular building is wise policy.

Zoning laws may have made some sense decades ago, but today, they serve little purpose other than protecting established interest groups at the expense of children and families.

Some parents have lofty goals for their child’s school. Yet everyone wants his or her child to be able to read, write, and solve math equations proficiently. Parents need to know that their local public school can teach the basics. Unfortunately, some public schools across the country are failing to meet this rudimentary requirement.

Recent studies show that test scores have plummeted in public schools across the nation during the pandemic. Math scores have decreased in every state. Reading scores fell by the largest amount in more than 40 years. In addition to these poor numbers, many public schools have failed to help students socially and emotionally during these turbulent times. Isolation and depression are up, especially for those in high school.

Despite warnings that this might happen, teachers’ unions argued repeatedly that kids could learn from anywhere. Maybe we should take that claim seriously.

Obviously, kids can learn from home, but children should also be able to learn at the institution that suits their needs. Remote learning, charter schools, micro-schooling, also known as  small, personalized private schools,  and homeschooling all point to the same question: What is preventing students from learning in the environment of their choosing?

For most kids, the answer is school zoning laws. School zones give local schools a quasi-monopoly over the local area. One of the functions of zoning laws is that they ostensibly ensure that children go to a school near their house; unfortunately, even in that most basic function, zoning laws repeatedly fail.

In Hillsborough County, Florida, for example, possible changes in school boundaries are upsetting some parents, while others hope changes will result in their kids being sent to more highly rated and conveniently located schools.

More perniciously, these regulations stifle innovation and heighten inequality. Public schools in many parts of the country get a substantial amount of funding from local property taxes, which may make financial sense, but it starkly disadvantages low-income children. Parents in low-income school zones have to send their kids to the local school, which typically has significantly worse educational outcomes.

Zoning laws don’t help schools or administrators much either. The system makes schools beholden to teachers’ unions, locking parents and students out of the reform process. This, in turn, breeds an unhealthy lack of trust between parents, teachers, and administrators.

Furthermore, the funding system means that “bad” schools have little ability to financially compete with “good” schools, making things difficult for reform-minded administrators.

Of course, zoning laws don’t prevent all competition. Charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling allow some flexibility. But the success of these programs indicates that the typical defenses of school zoning don’t hold much weight. Kids at charter schools make friends despite not living next to each other. Competition for school choice scholarships would drive down the need to rely on local property taxes.

School zoning laws are a relic from a bygone (and segregated) time without any school choice. In today’s era of dynamism, the downsides to zoning laws far outweigh their benefits. Parents are looking for change. We should give it to them by eliminating the archaic school zoning law requirements holding children back.

DANIA BEACH, Fla. – While millions of American students sat in rows of desks under fluorescent lights, 40 kids in Take Root Forest School began their day in a state park on the edge of the Atlantic.

Their classroom: Tan sand. Blue water. Sea breeze rustling through cabbage palms. Over the next few hours, the students ages 6 to 12 climbed sea grape, hunted millipedes and, with their bellies on the beach, did their best impression of nesting sea turtles heading back to the surf.

Did your day start off that well?

When you learn outdoors, “you develop an appreciation for where you are,” said Take Root Forest School co-founder Christy Schultz. “You learn the plants. You learn the animals. You learn the subtleties.”

The students “grow to be stewards of where they live,” Schultz continued. “They respect where they live. They know the history. They become more aware of their surroundings, and of other people.”

This way of learning, she said, “transforms people.”

Take Root Forest School would be a sweet story even if it were as rare as a pond apple in what’s left of wild Florida. But as it happens, this humble homeschool enrichment program represents multiple education trends budding at once.

Take Root is a prime example of the growth in outdoor learning and forest schools. It’s a testament to the spike in homeschooling. And it’s another vibrant example of the kinds of nontraditional education providers that are emerging as parental choice re-shapes the landscape.

It also happens to be taking root in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in the shadow of two of the biggest school districts in America, along with a fascinating list of other home-grown innovators like this one and this one and this one.

(For what it’s worth, no big urban district in Florida has seen a bigger jump in homeschooling than Broward; it had 10,412 home schoolers in 2021-22, up 151% over five years.)

For the (Barbados) cherry on top, Take Root’s founders also happen to be former public school teachers, a growing force in education entrepreneurship, especially in choice-rich states like Florida.

“Providing a sense of community was really important to me, but (in a traditional classroom) it was difficult to truly connect,” said Take Root’s other co-founder, Emily Feldman, who taught in public schools for seven years. “I felt disconnected from the students because my time was spent doing other things like grading or testing. I was limited in providing for the child’s individual needs.”

“I left thinking I’d never go back,” Feldman said.

But in a way, Feldman did go back.

On her terms.

She and Schultz both founded their own homeschool enrichment programs before joining forces to create Take Root in 2020. Their enrollment has more than doubled since then, and they now serve about 80 students, with an operation that includes eight teachers.

Their timing turned out to be perfect.

“When Covid hit, we blew up,” Feldman said.

Families wanted their kids to have the social interactions that were stymied by social distancing. Playing and learning outside turned out to be the short-term remedy and, for many families new to homeschooling, a pleasant eye opener about longer-term solutions.

Take Root students routinely meet in local nature parks, like the one where the kids were mimicking sea turtles. They also take more immersive trips to places such as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.

The teachers combine math, science, reading and other traditional subjects with hands-on, place-based activities. The school incorporates elements from Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio Emilia learning systems. And it makes no bones about its environmentalist bent.

Its mission, its website says, is to “provide outdoor learning experiences that inspire the curious mind, instill love and appreciation for nature, and nurture positive and holistic living.”

The result is about more than academics, narrowly defined.

“The students gain confidence,” said Shultz, who taught outdoor education for the state park system in California. “They also have to learn to play together, to cooperate, to work together.”

Jessica Goldman-Ortiz has two children at Take Root: Marco, 9, and Analia, 6.

A former public school teacher, Goldman-Ortiz wanted something different than a traditional school for her children, especially Marco, who was a bit reserved. So, five years ago, she enrolled Marco in Feldman’s program. It was the only pre-school she could find that would allow her to stay with her son until he was comfortable on his own.

Then, once Marco reached that stage, the school was good with him sitting under a nearby tree until he was comfortable enough to join his classmates. It took a few months, but Marco eventually did just that.

“He was given the space and time he needed,” Goldman-Ortiz said. “They’re respectful of the child.”

Parents have the option of sending their kids to Take Root either two or three days a week. A handful pay for academic services affiliated with Take Root using state-funded education savings accounts (ESAs).

Unlike traditional school choice scholarships, which are limited to private school tuition, ESAs can be used for tuition, therapies, tutoring, curriculum, and a wide range of other state-approved uses. Arizona recently made ESAs available to all families, and West Virginia’s new ESA is nearly as expansive. In Florida, they’re limited to students with special needs.

Many Take Root families would qualify for the state’s income-based scholarships (which along with the ESAs are administered by nonprofits like Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog). But those scholarships don’t currently have the flexibility to be used for anything except private school tuition.

If more families could access ESAs, providers like Take Root would become even more popular. Along the way, ESAs would narrow access gaps to educational enrichment that are increasingly drawing attention, as highlighted by this new report from Tyton Partners.

Carolina Graciano said she chose Take Root because traditional schools are not a good fit for her child.

Luciana, 6, was born with a rare genetic disorder called 13q deletion syndrome, which has resulted in some developmental delays. She would have been too isolated in a self-contained special education classroom, Graciano said, but too far behind in an inclusive setting with a traditional focus on academics. Take Root had the balance Graciano wanted.

“When I take her in and drop her off, she says, ‘Okay! Bye!’” said Graciano, a stay-at-home mom whose husband juggles construction work and Uber Eats. “She is happy, and I know that she is learning.”

Beth Arnold said her son, Finnegan, 9, would not have been a good fit with traditional schools, either.

Finnegan is too fidgety for a typical classroom but thrives in environments where he is free to move. At one point, Arnold, a professional writer, enrolled him in a homeschool program that was focused on classical education.

Finnegan wasn’t a fan. But Take Root turned out to be to his liking. Among other upsides, the school frequently meets on the grounds of a historic home that has been converted into a museum. Exotic gardens and a wild monkey are part of the mix.

“It’s magical,” Arnold said.

When she was considering the best options for her son, Arnold said she asked herself: “Do I want him to have a childhood that he loves? Or do I want to prepare him for an Ivy League education?”

“I decided I wanted him to have a childhood that he loves.”

Editor’s note: This commentary from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, founder and chairman of ExcelinEd and ExcelinEd in Action, appeared last week on wsj.com.

While much of the U.S. has returned to normal after the pandemic, the long-term academic harm to students endures.

This school year is the first time many public-school students returned to in-person learning without mask requirements or learning disruptions. That’s nearly 2½ years since the beginning of the pandemic. For younger children, that’s 25% or more of their lives so far.

Since March 2020, we’ve seen the largest learning loss in modern history. This catastrophe wasn’t inevitable. But what began as school closings in response to COVID-19 morphed into an intentional effort by teachers unions to block the schoolhouse door. On Monday, the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress scores will be released, and they are likely to be appalling.

(Editor’s note: You can read about the results here.)

This congressionally authorized 50-state analysis, officially styled the Nation’s Report Card, will show exactly how much U.S. students have fallen behind. Last month, the NAEP long-term trend assessment was released. That report found that between 2020 and 2022, average reading scores for 9-year-olds declined 5 points, nearly half a grade level, and math scores dropped 7 points, more than half a grade level. This is the greatest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics.

The U.S. has a choice: Give up on a generation or confront this challenge head-on.

Some adults find it easier to give up. They won’t say it out loud; they’ll simply lower expectations. Or, they’ll explain away the drop in scores, blaming the pandemic when scores had already begun to decline before Covid hit. Rather than raise the bar, they’ll dodge accountability, allowing today’s low math and reading scores to become tomorrow’s ceiling.

That is unacceptable.

We can move forward rather than back. Doing so is a priority if the U.S. is to be a competitive nation in a competitive world. It also is a human necessity, as every student has God-given potential and deserves a great education.

The solutions are simple. There are math and reading policies every state should immediately enact and there are ways parents can contribute. Start with a call to all parents, guardians, and families—those who know their children best. You were called on to step up when Covid kept kids at home. Now you are needed again to help close those learning gaps.

Any trusted adult in a child’s life—parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, whoever—should lean into this moment. Help students recover lost learning by reading for 20 minutes a day. That can be a parent reading to a child, a child reading to a parent or children reading to themselves. In addition, research has found that 30 minutes a week of extra math work can help students who are struggling or behind. If you aren’t up to writing math equations for your kids, seek out free, high-quality online math tools.

Lawmakers must step up, too. One way to help parents is eliminating the barriers students face in accessing a better education. This year, Arizona became a national model by creating a universal education savings account program with flexible, portable and customizable funding. That kind of legislation is transformative for student learning.

Early literacy is the foundation for long-term reading success. To ensure every child can read by the third grade and be ready to succeed in life, policy makers must ensure that all educators are trained in phonics and the science of reading—an evidence-based approach to teach the understanding of sounds, decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This may require changing teacher-prep programs in colleges of education as well as installing literacy coaches in every elementary and middle school.

Literacy practices and curricula that fail to teach students how to decode words should be banned. Teaching models that include the “3-cueing” approach, which asks students to look at pictures and guess instead of sounding out words, should be scrapped. It’s a failed approach.

Every state should require that students be screened in reading three times a year in grades K-3 and offer assistance to those struggling to learn to read. These critical years are too often ignored until it’s too late to catch up.

The same is true for math instruction. States should ensure that students have access to trained, effective math teachers. That may mean not all elementary teachers should teach math, only those who specialize in it.

Students graduating from high school should have mastered at least Algebra I. Curriculum should have high-quality content focused on procedural and conceptual problem-solving skills and knowledge of whole numbers, fractions and geometry. Students who are behind need personalized math support, including tutoring two to three times a week.

Overcoming the pandemic-related education crisis is possible. For the next generation, we must abandon failed practices, rally around education excellence, and commit to helping children reach their full potential.

Editor’s note: This first-person essay from New Mexico mother Ashley Guerra was adapted from the American Federation for Children’s Voices for Choice website. You can learn more about Guerra’s family and her education choice journey by listening to a reimaginED podcast at https://nextstepsblog.org/2022/10/podcasted-new-mexico-siblings-enjoy-customized-education-thanks-to-multiple-choice-mom/.

Education has always been a priority in our family. I was raised to value opportunities and work diligently to pursue areas that would allow me to contribute successfully to our community. As I grew up and became a mother, education remained an integral component of my life and a central focus in our family.

But our educational journey was interrupted when I was unexpectedly diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia during the summer between my son’s kindergarten and first grade years. Because of the aggressive nature of my specific type of leukemia, the intensive treatments would last for years, and we knew we needed to identify a new school model for our son.

We needed an educational environment to help him learn and keep me safe while my treatments continued. We were grateful to discover a new virtual public charter school, Pecos Cyber Academy, and enrolled him in this program.

We discovered this brand-new virtual public charter school that could be attended from anywhere, including our home in New Mexico, from a local public television commercial. The school featured a state-certified and nationally recognized curriculum that gave us access to incredibly talented, knowledgeable, and experienced certified teachers.

We chose this option because we felt confident it would provide our son with an excellent academic experience while ensuring he achieved the academic progress expected of him and his peers. We also were impressed with the flexibility it provided us to work around my treatment requirements and medical appointments.

Our son completed five years at Pecos Cyber Academy. In the years that followed, our daughter attended, and she now is starting her sixth year. Witnessing our children develop areas of specific interest, identify their subject strengths, learn personal accountability, and develop resilience in their learning process has been a true joy.

As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Each child is unique, their circumstances are distinct, and our education system should empower all to capitalize on their potential.

Providing academic options enables families to select for their children the school that will create the greatest opportunity to learn, grow, and become contributing members of our society. I believe that families should have the opportunity to seek out the best education option for their children and their circumstances.

The power to select your child’s educational structure creates equity in education and competition within the school system. As educational entities evolve through various academic models, school systems will promote even newer education models to their communities.

This will allow families to access a uniquely specific school program, resulting in a relationship of accountability and partnership between the school institution and the family/child. With this model, everyone wins – students, families, teachers, and the community.

We are grateful for this educational option and the positive results we’ve seen in our children’s academic learning, growth, retention, and enjoyment in the learning process.

Editor’s note: This article from Kerry McDonald, an education policy fellow at State Policy Network and senior education fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, appeared last week on forbes.com.

A common criticism regarding microschools, learning pods, unschooling approaches and other non-traditional educational models is that they don’t work well for, or exclude, neurodiverse learners, including those on the autism spectrum or those who have dyslexia, ADHD or other special learning needs.

The reality is that these more personalized learning models can work well for most students, and may be especially valuable for students with learning challenges or special needs.

This has certainly been the experience of Molly and Noah Stephenson of Wichita, Kansas. As parents of neurodiverse children who didn’t fit well into conventional schooling, including school-at-home versions of homeschooling, they discovered early on that providing maximum freedom and autonomy for children often leads to the deepest, happiest and most enduring learning.

Their older daughter, who is now 21, still carries with her the painful memory of a kindergarten year in public school that her mother refers to as a “fantastic disaster.” According to Molly: “We realized at the end of kindergarten that she had dyslexia and our public school system was not well-equipped at that time to help her be successful.

“She felt that she wasn’t smart. It was unacceptable to us to have kids that, just because their brains were different, felt like they were not intelligent. We didn’t want to see the love of learning taken away from our kids.”

The Stephensons took their daughter out of school and began homeschooling her and her younger siblings through a virtual school, with a set curriculum and standard performance expectations. Things got better, but they soon realized that their son was also severely dyslexic and that a rigid curriculum didn’t work for him. “He would run and hide,” Molly said of her son’s aversion to schoolwork.

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