The Pod Advantage
Schoolteaching is the next area to be "disrupted" -- starting now.
It shouldn't have taken a pandemic, and it didn't -- for a few wealth families in LA who hired a teacher I know to home-school their kids in a small group (like a handful).
But for the rest of the country, the pandemic was the impetus.
And it's finally a way for great teachers to win on merit, and for kids to win in the wake of that.
The problem will surely be teachers unions pressing to have funds for each student's schooling tied to public schools rather than following kids to the schooling of their choice. If funding could follow the kids, kids from poor families would have school choice, too, and access to schooling situations that allow their parent or parents' to work outside the home.
Kerry McDonald writes at FEE about the latest in this area:
Some parents are hiring tutors to augment their homeschooling experience this fall, and entrepreneurial teachers are serving that need and cashing in on the opportunity. One high school English teacher in Illinois, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that she made $49,000 a year teaching 9th grade and AP English, but several families have approached her for private tutoring and she realizes she can make more money as a private tutor, with fewer hours and more flexibility.In addition to homeschooling, some parents are forming pandemic "pods," or home-based microschools that allow a handful of families to take turns teaching their children or pool resources to hire a teacher or college student. The Wall Street Journal reports that these pods are sprouting throughout the country, fueled by parental unrest at school reopening plans and facilitated by informal Facebook groups connecting local families.
Recognizing this mounting demand for schooling alternatives this fall, entrepreneurial educators are helping to create more options for families. In Maryland, longtime educators Steven Eno and Ned Courtemanche created Impact Connections, a microschool enabler connecting educators and parents and providing learning support.
"COVID-19 exposed so many of the shortcomings we already knew about in education but also presented new opportunities to step up and help parents and their kids," Eno told me in a recent interview. "Microschools offer a powerful, and largely untapped, opportunity to educate our kids in the COVID era and beyond. The best microschools offer highly-personalized instruction that is free of curricular red tape for a fraction of the price...," he says.
The legality of these pandemic pods and microschools is sometimes unclear. As a new model that blends features of homeschool co-ops with small, private schools, regulations in many places haven't caught up. Additionally, the sheer numbers of parents choosing not to send their kids back to school this fall, and the pandemic's overall disruption, may make enforcement of any existing regulations more difficult.
This presents an ideal moment for what Adam Thierer calls "evasive entrepreneurship," where entrepreneurs push boundaries and challenge existing systems. Thierer writes in his book, Evasive Entrepreneurs:
Increasingly today, evasive entrepreneurs-innovators who don't always conform to social or legal norms-are using new technological capabilities to circumvent traditional regulatory systems, or at least to put pressure on public policymakers to reform or selectively enforce laws and regulations that are outmoded, inefficient, or illogical. Evasive entrepreneurs rely on a strategy of permissionless innovation in both the business world and the political arena. They push back against 'the Permission Society,' or the convoluted labyrinth of permits and red tape that often encumber entrepreneurial activities. In essence, evasive entrepreneurs live out the adage that 'it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission' by creating exciting new products and services without necessarily receiving the blessing of public officials before doing so.
It's probably the only way to possibly get around the power of teachers unions to stop kids from getting an education when it cuts them out of the deal.
The disruption of education continues, and covid is merely speeding up the process.
I R A Darth Aggie at August 5, 2020 6:00 AM
The real losers in this disruption will be the kids whose parents don't have the resources - physical, mental, or financial - to create a pod school for their children. Not that the public education system has served them any better; if anything it was worse.
They're the ones that really need to be back in a structured learning environment.
Conan the Grammarian at August 5, 2020 7:39 AM
"...regulations in many places haven't caught up"
Isn't it sick to imagine that everything needs to be regulated? I think it is. Embrace your outlawry. Assume liberty.
Kent McManigal at August 5, 2020 8:24 AM
Socialists care about money, yes. But what they really value--what they want to make more precious by making it scarce and subject to constant control from above--is PERMISSION.
"Permissionless" is a word that sends cold chills down the spine of socialists and progressives everywhere. Let's start using it every day.
Gene at August 5, 2020 8:43 AM
Wasn't it Reagan who said, "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
Conan the Grammarian at August 5, 2020 10:41 AM
Here's some actual data, nicely summarized, about school reopening polities and results in several different countries.
https://globalhealth.washington.edu/sites/default/files/COVID-19%20Schools%20Summary%20%28updated%29.pdf
David Foster at August 5, 2020 4:22 PM
This may be a tipping point, at least in some regions a/o districts. I have the sense that frustration with public ED has really intensified over the past few years, and among people who are otherwise pretty mainstream in their views.
A lot of it seems to be a response to changes in how many schools and teachers see their 'mission'. They've shifted towards a public health / social work orientation and become much more aggressive in pushing certain attitudes and beliefs. This also seems to correspond with a shift in the sort of people who have been entering teaching.
You can see the effect in parents groups on Facebook and other sites where the discussions increasingly concern some policy or incident where a school or specific teacher has gone too far. Much of that has concerned sexuality, and people now worry that 'anti-racism' will be added'. They're probably right.
Mona at August 5, 2020 8:36 PM
my co-worker was involved in something like this a long time ago. 15 years or more. Several families went together and shared teaching responsibilities. I know it was considered home schooling and if i recall correctly it was called "cooperative home schooling" There were limitations on things like home people could be involved and how much teaching could be done by an outsider (very little). It seemed to work well for his family.
I have seen some teachers trolling on reddit for something that sounds like these pods to teach at or tutor.
The Former Banker at August 5, 2020 10:47 PM
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