New School Options in the Heartland: Hybrid and Micro Schools

School-choice policies open the door for a variety of schooling options to take root.

During the COVID-19 pandemic many families formed small learning communities. These “pandemic pods,” as they were often called, caught the nation’s attention and were the subject of numerous stories in the New York Times and elsewhere. Now, though the pandemic is over, many have realized the benefits of alternative learning environments. With the expansion of school choice programs throughout the United States, new schooling options seem to be sprouting up everywhere.

Recently, I had the pleasure to attend the Heartland Hybrid and Micro Schools Summit where we heard from entrepreneurs who have started new schooling options in Kansas. It was exciting to see the possibilities that are opening as parents, educators, and entrepreneurs create unique schooling options to meet the needs of students and their communities.

Hybrid schools are schools that meet on an alternative schedule, blending school and home education. A hybrid elementary school, for example, might meet in person twice a week. The other three days, they will have intentional learning activities or experiences for students to engage in at home with their families. Some have called this hybrid-homeschooling, and it operates similarly to many of the homeschooling co-ops families have used for decades.

Micro schools are what they sound like, small schools. Often, students are taught in multi-age or mixed-grade classrooms. Some micro schools are intentionally small, with maybe 10 to 50 students enrolled. Other micro schools are startups that may grow into full-size schools at some point in the future.

Entrepreneurs are starting these schools for a variety of reasons. Some are concerned about the values taught in the local public schools, others want different teaching practices, and some find themselves as school founders almost out of necessity. In many cases, teachers themselves are the ones starting the schools.

• Josiah Enyart taught in the Shawnee Mission School District. He disagreed with school policies related to mask mandates during the pandemic and the district’s focus on critical race theory. After more than a decade in the classroom, he left and started Freedom Learning Academy.
• Madeline Herrera too was a veteran public school teacher. She loved leading her students through engaging, project-based learning activities. After a frustrating experience where her public school stymied her efforts with her class to engage in meaningful changes at the school, she started Limestone Community School in Lawrence, Kansas. She has made project-based learning the cornerstone of the school.
• When the Prairie Hills School Board voted to close the district school in Wetmore, KS, population 368, Analyssa Noe and other concerned community members jumped into action. They purchased the school building and started a new school, Legacy Learning Academy.

While this type of entrepreneurial activity is somewhat new in the heartland, it has been going on for a while in places with more generous school choice policies. In 2022, I contributed to a report, Leaving the Classroom but Starting a School, published by Step Up for Students, Florida’s major school choice organization. Our report highlighted the findings of focus groups conducted with 10 former public school teachers who founded private schools. The school founders in that report sounded a lot like the school founders I met at the Heartland summit. They were passionate educators who cared deeply about kids and had a vision for how schooling could be done better.

Hybrid and micro schools embody exactly what Show-Me Institute analysts have been writing about for nearly 20 years—when you empower educators and students with educational options, you unleash the creative and entrepreneurial spirit in education.