Enjoy some more great news in the conservative counter-revolution. Florida is leading again. Politico ran the story yesterday headlined, “‘Microschools’ could be the next big school choice battle. Florida is on the cutting edge.” The sub-headline explained, “Florida just enacted a little-noticed provision that would make it much easier for these schools — which typically have less than 30 students — to get established.”
A concept developed during the pandemic, which we were calling “pods” or “co-ops,” this homeschooling alternative involves a pack of parents banding together and hiring a full-time teacher to teach a small, multi-age group of kids at places like someone’s house, business, church, or rented movie theater.
Politico called the new Florida law referenced in the article “quiet” because it was just a zoning change. It pre-empts local government zoning regulations, allowing small private schools to use existing spaces at places like movie theaters, homes, and churches without having to get local permits or approvals.
Two years ago, Florida passed laws transferring state public school funds to parents, to use for private school tuition and expenses. The funds can also be used for pods, now widely called “microschools.” Politico reported that participation in these state-funded scholarships boomed to an estimated 217,000 students since Florida opened the new voucher program to all students regardless of income.
In a micro-school scenario, parents hire their pod teachers based on merit, not diversity. Microschool teachers reportedly earn +25% more on average than when they worked at comparable public school positions, with less work, fewer students, better students, no unions, and zero politics.
At least in Florida, public schools are being forced to compete. They may soon have to start hiring better teachers and treating them well.
The Empire has not been idle in the face of this new free-market threat. Local governments across the country have weaponized zoning regulations against homeschoolers to defeat homeschool pods, making it illegal to operate them anywhere. But Florida and Utah have both now deleted that tool, leading the nation in re-establishing the country’s original school format, the one-room schoolhouse.
Florida’s just-passed law would also allow private schools to expand, growing into alternative locations to allow more students, bypassing local regulations.
It would be an understatement to say this one new law could finally trigger the long-awaited revolution in education. Progress, and lots of it.
