🎙️ Honey, I Started a School: The Microschool Revolution (#143)

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💡 THOUGHT

ORDINARY HEROES

When you picture a school founder, who comes to mind? A tweed-jacketed professor? A billionaire with a fondness for naming buildings?

Try this instead: the homeschool mom down your street.

Enter Dalena Wallace, Kansas's unofficial Microschool Maven and Queen of Customized Education. A homeschooling mom of six who had an epiphany: "Ten years in, homeschooling my kids, I realized—this is hard. I need community."

So she did what entrepreneurs do. She solved her own problem.

She opened her home. Invited a few friends. They shared teaching duties. Three families became five, became ten, became a 16-family co-op.

No education degree necessary. No million-dollar endowment. No permission slip from the Department of Education.

This isn't isolated. Across America, regular folks—moms, dads, pastors, business owners—are stepping up. They see a need, have a vision, and start building.

The revolution isn't coming from education departments or policy think tanks. It's happening in living rooms and church basements.

Turns out you don't need special credentials to create extraordinary learning environments. You just need to care enough to start.

– Isaac

📊 TREND

THE GREAT EDUCATION MIGRATION

National School Choice Awareness Foundation's latest data:

⬇️ Traditional public schools: 22% decrease
⬆️ Private/faith-based schools: 24% increase
⬆️ Homeschooling: 39% increase
⬆️ Microschooling/hybrid learning: 220% increase

No, that's not a typo. 220% jump in families considering microschools.

This isn't a pandemic blip or passing fad. It's education's tectonic plates shifting.

What's driving it? Parents want:

• Schedules that work for actual humans

• Input on what their kids learn

• Community without conformity

As Dalena put it: "We've realized traditional private schools don't have to be so expensive, five days a week, or in traditional buildings."

The freedom is contagious. One family breaks free, others notice. They ask: "Wait, we can do that?"

Yes. Yes you can.

🔨 TOOL

PRENDA: MICROSCHOOL IN A BOX

Ever wanted to start a microschool but got stuck on the how? Prenda might be your answer.

Dalena Wallace's microschool journey began here: "I opened a Prenda Microschool in my home as part of a Kansas pilot program. It completely turned me on to the idea that anybody can do this."

Think of Prenda as "microschool with training wheels." They provide:

• Ready-to-use curriculum (aligned to standards but actually interesting)

• Guide training (so you facilitate, not lecture)

• Administrative backend (handling paperwork while you handle minds)

• Community connection (because pioneers need fellow travelers)

• Funding pathways (in states with school choice or ESAs)

The formula is refreshingly simple: 5-10 kids, one adult guide, a learning space. Mix well.

What separates Prenda from DIY? They've battle-tested their model with thousands of students. They've made the mistakes so you don't have to.

It's perfect for homeschool co-ops ready to level up, or educators wanting to build something human-scale. Prenda offers the framework of an established system with the soul of a community effort.

Visit prenda.com and join the growing tribe of "regular people" creating extraordinary learning environments that would make education PhDs jealous.

What dead space in your town could become education's next hot spot? That empty RadioShack has potential... Reply and let's brainstorm!

🎓 WORD OF THE DAY

Micro·pre·neur (mī′krō-prə-nûr′)

noun: Someone who launches a tiny education revolution, typically from their living room, with a focus on personalization over standardization.

Origin: What happens when "microschool" and "entrepreneur" have a very innovative baby

Example: "The abandoned Sears at the mall now houses seven micropreneurs who've turned retail therapy into actual therapy for burned-out students."

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow.

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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