There are many more ways to educate children than the few you mention, and new private schools would pop up if families had the funds to pay for them. They can take over existing buildings, which do not have to have been built to be schools. It's the free market at work. Micro-schools are one exciting alternative, since they benefit the …
There are many more ways to educate children than the few you mention, and new private schools would pop up if families had the funds to pay for them. They can take over existing buildings, which do not have to have been built to be schools. It's the free market at work. Micro-schools are one exciting alternative, since they benefit the teachers as much as the students and families. In this model, say 10 families pool their school choice funds to pay a teacher to teach their 10 children. In Florida, that would amount to $80,000. The 'school' could be in a home of a family or the teacher, or rotate between them. Your budget has ballooned because of government; that's what government budgets and bureaucracies do.
True, mine are grown, so haven't dug into options as much as those with school age kids. Do have friends who are in a home school co-ops run in a couple of local churches, one has 300 kids. MO has fairly lax homeschool regs, but think the teacher pooling you describe is technically not legal, although heard of some creative end-arounds in the shutdowns of 2020 ad 2021 years. I am involved because so goes the schools, so goes the community. Twenty years ago, our school district was the heart of our community. Highly engaged parents, lots of volunteers from the community, support from local businesses, and high academic standards. Home values are higher than districts with failing schools, a lot higher. But politically, lots of inertia and few conservatives paying attention as leftists, who have mastered the long game, infiltrated committees, city council, school boards, etc. I ran for council trying to sound the alarm and lost in 2018. 10% turnout. Two disastrous superintendent hires in a row right after my youngest graduated a decade ago. Race baiting, focus on equity and ignoring discipline issues. Lots of apartments being built, admin looking the other way as students from surrounding failing districts coming in with sketchy residence documents, especially if they are good at sports. Test scores dropping, violence making headlines, and some are bailing for the exurbs. Can't convince hubby to move, so guess we are staying and fighting.
If micro-schools are unlawful currently, work to change the law. You said "so go the schools, so goes the community," and that's exactly why the Left started their highly successful "long march through the institutions" so many years ago. Keeping them as government schools simply keeps them as a fat target. No one can control thousands of parents making private decisions about education, in thousands of forms and venues. It's not just lower grades, either. I have in the past and my husband will be in the upcoming year teaching a group of high school homeschoolers in history, literature, religious doctrine and theology, and logic. When our son was in first grade, neither of us could be home full time, so I taught him on evenings and weekends and my husband did during the times he was neither in class nor teaching. The homeschooling families where I live are mostly single income (and not a very big income - it's a rural area) traditional families, who decided that their children's moral lives and educations were worth whatever it took to keep them out of government schools.
There are many more ways to educate children than the few you mention, and new private schools would pop up if families had the funds to pay for them. They can take over existing buildings, which do not have to have been built to be schools. It's the free market at work. Micro-schools are one exciting alternative, since they benefit the teachers as much as the students and families. In this model, say 10 families pool their school choice funds to pay a teacher to teach their 10 children. In Florida, that would amount to $80,000. The 'school' could be in a home of a family or the teacher, or rotate between them. Your budget has ballooned because of government; that's what government budgets and bureaucracies do.
BEAUTIFUL goal plan, Fla Mom - preach it every chance you get!
True, mine are grown, so haven't dug into options as much as those with school age kids. Do have friends who are in a home school co-ops run in a couple of local churches, one has 300 kids. MO has fairly lax homeschool regs, but think the teacher pooling you describe is technically not legal, although heard of some creative end-arounds in the shutdowns of 2020 ad 2021 years. I am involved because so goes the schools, so goes the community. Twenty years ago, our school district was the heart of our community. Highly engaged parents, lots of volunteers from the community, support from local businesses, and high academic standards. Home values are higher than districts with failing schools, a lot higher. But politically, lots of inertia and few conservatives paying attention as leftists, who have mastered the long game, infiltrated committees, city council, school boards, etc. I ran for council trying to sound the alarm and lost in 2018. 10% turnout. Two disastrous superintendent hires in a row right after my youngest graduated a decade ago. Race baiting, focus on equity and ignoring discipline issues. Lots of apartments being built, admin looking the other way as students from surrounding failing districts coming in with sketchy residence documents, especially if they are good at sports. Test scores dropping, violence making headlines, and some are bailing for the exurbs. Can't convince hubby to move, so guess we are staying and fighting.
If micro-schools are unlawful currently, work to change the law. You said "so go the schools, so goes the community," and that's exactly why the Left started their highly successful "long march through the institutions" so many years ago. Keeping them as government schools simply keeps them as a fat target. No one can control thousands of parents making private decisions about education, in thousands of forms and venues. It's not just lower grades, either. I have in the past and my husband will be in the upcoming year teaching a group of high school homeschoolers in history, literature, religious doctrine and theology, and logic. When our son was in first grade, neither of us could be home full time, so I taught him on evenings and weekends and my husband did during the times he was neither in class nor teaching. The homeschooling families where I live are mostly single income (and not a very big income - it's a rural area) traditional families, who decided that their children's moral lives and educations were worth whatever it took to keep them out of government schools.
Beautifully shared, Fla Mom!!