#microschooling

Pandemic pods show the remarkable ability of free individuals to self-organize to solve societal problems, without government interference. Lindsey Burke at the Heritage Foundation explains that these pods are civil society’s response to the pandemic and its impact on education. Burke recently hosted an online panel discussion to help parents and educators create more of these pods. She told me: “These pods show that parents are ready to and capable of directing their children's education, and that while too many districts are still determining whether or not to reopen schools, parents aren't waiting around any longer.”

Jason Bedrick of EdChoice, which co-hosted the pod-building webinar, agrees that these pods are a source of parental empowerment. He believes that pods are here to stay. According to Bedrick: “There’s a reason that microschooling was already taking off before the pandemic: they’re adaptable, affordable, and can provide a great deal of high-quality, personalized instruction. Most of the new ‘podders’ wouldn’t have considered this form of education but for the pandemic, but I anticipate that a significant portion of them will continue microschooling once the pandemic is over.”

According to a nationally representative EdChoice poll, learning pods have quickly gained popularity. Some 35% of parents claim they currently participate in a learning pod, and 18% of parents said that they are looking to join one.

At the same time, about 70% of surveyed teachers showed interest in teaching a learning pod. Notably, charter school teachers were twice as likely to show interest in teaching or tutoring a pod as did district school teachers.

As pods gained traction, they also attracted the attention of government officials, especially as many district schools reported declining enrollments this fall.

As a result, 19 states have either imposed new or expanded regulations that can negatively affect families’ access to learning pods.

In a recent analysis for the State Policy Network, The Heritage Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher identified states that are attempting to regulate learning pods and explained how regulations can hurt families’ access to them.

For instance, district teachers in Virginia’s Fairfax County are prohibited from tutoring “children for private compensation if the same children are receiving instruction from them in [Fairfax County Public Schools].”

Ten states have imposed especially draconian regulations on learning pods, often classifying them as a type of day care.

Illinois, for example, encouraged pod families to obtain child care licenses, which require families to show medical examinations, proof of college coursework in early-childhood development, an affidavit that participating families do not owe child support, proof of at least 15 hours of required pre-service training on specific topics, and Illinois Gateways Registry membership, to name just some of the requirements.

TLD: The First Interview

Get in, ascend. That is our motto. It is not just any tuition center we want to start, it is something more than that. We aspire not just for money. We want to make students able. From telling them what is right and wrong, we wanna ascend too. Ascending not in the sense of going up and moving forward; it is gliding through the boxes. Like ‘out-of-the-box’ they say, like that. But not just…