Friday Feature: Encouraging Education Entrepreneurship

Colleen HroncichWhen we first started homeschooling, I was fortunate to live in an area with plenty of opportunities for my kids —from traditional academic subjects to diverse enrichment classes. At the time, it never occurred to me that the parents who started these programs were entrepreneurs. But in retrospect, that’s exactly what they were. They saw a need in the homeschool community, and they stepped up to create something new to meet that need.In recent years, education entrepreneurship has exploded, aided in large part by school choice policies.Education savings accounts, which can be used for a variety of education ‐​related purchases rather than only tuition, have been particularly helpful in this regard. Most weeks, the Friday Feature profiles one of these entrepreneurial endeavors—including microschools likeSafari Small Schools, homeschool programs likeValley Troubadours, and full ‐​scale private schools likeDeeper Root Academy.Beyond school choice programs, there are other policies that make a state more or less friendly for potential providers who want to launch new education alternatives. State Policy Network (SPN) Education Policy Fellow Kerry McDonald, who is also a Cato Institute adjunct scholar, recently released a report delving into several policy proposals that states can use to encourage education entrepreneurship.Kerry has spent years researching and writing about the growth and diversification of the homescho...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs