By Kerry McDonald, State Policy Network Velinda Jonson Family Education Fellow

When I attended graduate school at Harvard at the turn of the millennium, if a student was interested in school choice or alternative education options, charter schools were the place to focus. Curious about these topics, I began exploring the local landscape and a professor recommended I connect with the Pioneer Institute in Boston. 

Pioneer was leading the way on charter school activation. A few years prior, it established the Building Excellent Schools program which helped to incubate new charter schools by providing training and support to founders. (Building Excellent Schools later spun off as a separate non-profit organization.) I remember being so impressed with the program and the entrepreneurial educators who were committed to launching high-quality, innovative charter schools across Massachusetts. 

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, charter schools were largely living up to their promise as autonomous settings for creativity and experimentation. Over the years, they have become more constrained by regulations, but there are still charter school leaders, such as Sean Harrell of Integration Charter Schools in New York City, who hold on to the original vision of charters as laboratories of education innovation. 

“Let’s look at the regulation and let’s look at what the regulation does not say because that’s where schools can do some really awesome things,” Harrell told me. “It’s thinking in that gray space, because that’s where the beauty is.” 

While it’s great to see some charter schools continuing to pursue a spirit of permissionless innovation in education, many have seen their imaginative intentions stifled over time. The good news is that emerging learning models, like microschools, now enjoy the freedom and possibility that charter schools once did. In fact, Shaka Mitchell of the American Federation for Children recently wrote at The74 that frustrated charter school founders may want to seriously consider running private schools instead, particularly in states with robust Education Savings Account (ESA) programs.

Microschools, or intentionally small, mixed-age, low-cost private schools with a highly personalized curriculum, are sprouting across the country. These microschools, which in some ways resemble the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear, were gaining popularity before 2020, but interest has surged since then. 

Recognizing the growing parent demand for conventional schooling alternatives, another SPN partner, Empower Mississippi, is doing today for microschool founders what the Pioneer Institute did for charter school founders two decades ago. Through its program Embark, Empower Mississippi is helping to identify and support new and aspiring microschool founders throughout the state. 

“Embark is working with approximately 15 microschool founders and prospective founders who are preparing for launch, developing their microschool concepts, or exploring next steps,” said Elyse Marcellino, the director of Embark, who also deepened her interest in school choice and education innovation while in graduate school at Harvard. “We’re also building new relationships with microschool leaders who have launched microschools in the past 2-3 years and are eager for community and the opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences,” she added.

Embark also helps to support charter school founders in the state, but that sector has remained stubbornly small. Marcellino encounters many families who want new and different education options for their children right now. “Demand for more and varied education options is high, and education entrepreneurs are responding,” said Marcellino. “Embark’s goal is to find these entrepreneurs and help them develop their ideas and overcome challenges so that more microschools ultimately open their doors and open them faster.”

I recently profiled some former Mississippi public school teachers who left their school districts and launched microschools, and shared how others are earning even more money than they did as conventional educators. These founders all work with Embark. 

As more network partners consider ways to expand education options for families and encourage education entrepreneurship in their states, Embark is a program worth emulating. Committing time and resources to accelerating the supply of new and varied educational models can have a sizable impact, both in states with school choice policies and in states without those policies. The more options that are available to families, the more likely children will be to find the best educational fit for them.

Marcellino urges more network partners to create school incubator programs like Embark. “Part of accelerating new school growth is creating an environment that is friendly and supportive – an environment that assures entrepreneurs they are not alone and gives them confidence to continue moving forward,” she said. “Funding and training opportunities as well as networking and mentorship opportunities are crucial, and an organization dedicated to facilitating those opportunities is just as necessary.”

From catalyzing the growth of the charter school sector more than two decades ago, to activating new microschools and similar learning models today, SPN partners are leaders in championing education entrepreneurship and innovation.

Kerry McDonald is the Velinda Jonson Family Education Fellow at State Policy Network, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, and host of the LiberatED podcast.