Mara Linaberger worked for 25 years as a public school educator, teacher trainer, and administrator. She has a doctorate in Instructional Technology and has become a leader in the microschooling movement, launching her organization, Microschool Builders, in 2018 that helps to support microschool founders around the world. Mara's book, The Micro-School Builder’s Handbook, is a wonderful resource for current and prospective founders.

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Melissa Mohr worked for 17 years as a teacher and an administrator in a traditional private school in West Virginia, but last year she and some of her colleagues decided to venture out on their own to create a microschool. Her City on a Hill microschool opened in Bridgeport, West Virginia in September 2022 with about 50 kids and continues to attract families who want an alternative to a conventional public or private school. City on a Hill blends the freedom, flexibility, and personalization of homeschooling with the structure and support of a classroom experience. West Virginia's new microschool legislation helped to carve a pathway for founders like Melissa.

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Amar Kumar, founder of KaiPod Learning, recently introduced a new program called KaiPod Catalyst which helps entrepreneurial parents and educators to launch a microschool in their local community. One of the entrepreneurial parents who has teamed up with KaiPod is Ben Ashfield, who was on the podcast in September talking about his New Jersey microschool, The Village Electric. In this episode, Ben updates us on his microschool while Amar shares more about KaiPod Catalyst and how it can help aspiring education entrepreneurs to launch a microschool this year!

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JeVonne Tanner worked as a public high school biology teacher but she and her husband Paul grew increasingly frustrated by the constraints of a conventional classroom, including for their own children. They began to look for something different and discovered Acton Academy, a network of independently-owned and operated microschools that was launched in 2010 and now have more than 280 affiiliated microschools worldwide. At the urging of their children, JeVonne and Paul launched CHOICE Acton Academy in Utah in 2020.

Education Entrepreneurs Face Regulatory Challenges Everywhere. Utah Is Trying To Help. (Forbes.com)

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After many years of stay-at-home motherhood and homeschooling her 6 children in Florida, Candace Lehenbauer wanted to do something different. She decided to create Tapestry Academy, a home-based microschool in Boca Raton. Candace also runs MicroschoolFlorida.com, a resource directory of microschools in South Florida.

Case study of South Florida education entrepreneurship, produced for the VELA Education Fund 

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Today's guest is Susan Safra, founder and director of Flex Learning Academy, a microschool in South Florida and one of the many innovative education options that are sprouting in that area. 

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Before joining Empower Mississippi and spearheading Embark, a microschool accelerator, Elyse Marcellino helped to launch a classical charter school in Georgia, worked as a classroom teacher for several years, and earned a graduate degree in education from Harvard University. Today, she is helping to activate microschools in her home state of Mississippi, while creating a blueprint for others to follow.

"MISSISSIPPI MICROSCHOOLS ARE EXPANDING EDUCATION OPTIONS FOR FAMILIES" 

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Cassidy Younghans taught in conventional schools for 5 years before shifting her focus toward self-directed education. She interned at several prominent self-directed learning settings across the U.S. before becoming a cofounder of a full-time, self-directed learning center in Dallas. She learned a lot from that initial entrepreneurial experience, and in 2021 founded Wild Roots, a grassroots self-directed learning community in Dallas.

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Jenny Clark is an Arizona mother of 5 who has been working vigorously over the past several years to expand education options for families, as well as help parents across the country gain a better understanding of the various options available to them. She is the creator of LoveYourSchool.org which is a fantastic platform that highlights various education options and also provides practical learning resources and tools for families. 

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Candace Fish planned to open a microschool with just a few students, but when the former public school teacher launched her low-cost private school, Freedom Preparatory, this August, she had over 130 students signed up. Parents in Wichita, Kansas, as elsewhere, are looking for more education options, and a collaborative entrepreneurial community is creating them. 

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