Mary Jo Fairhead felt that something was missing at the South Dakota public schools where she taught for over a decade, so she quit and started one in her home.
The main challenge she’s working to solve at her school, Onward Learning, which launched in 2022, is individual attention. She said each teacher has about 10 students. Schools nationally, by contrast, have an average of 15 students per instructor.
“We know every one of our kids on a very personal basis,” Fairhead said. “I know when they walk through the door if something’s off, and I need to check in with them.”
Onward Learning is part of the growing “microschool” movement in the US. These schools have fewer than 20 students total on average and tend to employ an alternative learning environment that focuses on personalized lessons for each student. Demand for them is growing due to parents’ desires to have a greater say in their kids’ educations and have more options beyond the public schools in their district.
Their popularity comes as the Trump administration is seeking to expand school voucher programs and has proposed redirecting federal funds from public schools to private schools, which could boost microschools’ resources.
Critics worry that the category is poorly defined — it could encompass a homeschool or a group facilitated by a teacher in a church, allowing for minimal state and federal regulation. Microschool advocates said kids learn best when education is tailored to best suit their needs.
“It’s my opinion that this type of learning could be beneficial for any child, but especially those kids that just need a little more space, either space to learn, space to run, and just a little less pressure,” Fairhead said. “If you’re the type of parent who wants a very structured day, lots of testing, and all of that, then my type of school is probably not the right fit.”
‘A new version of a one-room schoolhouse’
Given the lack of definition, it’s difficult to predict the number of students enrolled in a microschool at any given time. The RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan research organization, said in a March report that “the best currently available estimate” for the number of kids enrolled in a microschool full-time is between 1 million and 2 million, with “many more” enrolled part-time. Some microschools partner with religious institutions for funding and other resources.
Fairhead said that her school enrolled 12 kids in its first year, and she just finished the third school year with 37 students from kindergarten through 8th grade and a “pretty long” waitlist. The days are typically structured with a few hours of learning core subjects in the morning, like science and math, and the rest of the day is focused on “experiential learning,” like art, music, and outdoor activities.
She also incorporates Lakota language — the indigenous language of the reservation near the school — into the students’ curriculum.
“If a child’s struggling and they need something more personalized, we find it for them,” Fairhead said. “Or if they’re excelling and they need something that’s going to challenge them more, we find that for them.”
Interest in microschools started to grow during the pandemic as families looked for ways to keep students together while schools were closed, Paige Shoemaker DeMio, a senior analyst for K-12 education policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, told BI. She called it “a new version of a one-room schoolhouse.”
The National Microschooling Center — a nonprofit that works to advance the microschool movement — released an analysis of the sector in May. Using data from interviews and online questionnaires with 800 microschools across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the analysis said that 74% of microschools have annual tuition and fees at or below $10,000. It also said that 41% of microschools rely on state-provided school choice funds to operate.
Fairhead said that she partners with the local tribe for funding. She also received a $200,000 grant as a semifinalist of the Yass Prize, founded by billionaire Jeff Yass to award high-impact education initiatives.
Don Soifer, CEO of the National Microschooling Center, told BI that the majority of microschool founders and teachers also have certified teaching experience.
“Microschool leaders come from a background as experienced educators themselves who are excited at the opportunity for professional growth in no longer being bound by the requirements of the rigidities of a public school system,” Soifer said.
Soifer added that the goal of microschools is not to replace the public school system. Rather, it’s to give families another option where their kids can be in a much smaller setting, and parents can be more clued into what their child is doing on a day-to-day basis.
“We all have friends who are working in the public schools, making important progress on improving them, and more power to them for having the patience to do that,” Soifer said, adding that he spent years doing the same. “But there are families that can’t wait 20 years, 25 years for the public schools to make the improvements that are going to be able to help our kids who are in school right now.”
Different regulations from state to state
Regulations for microschools vary by state. An analysis by the National Microschooling Center found that over half of microschools follow their state’s homeschooling requirements, while the rest either follow their state’s nonpublic school guidelines or operate in a state with a defined microschool statute.
West Virginia, for example, codified the legal definition of a microschool in 2022, which says that one or more teachers can create a school that charges tuition and is an alternative to public, private, and homeschool enrollment. Georgia codified the legal definition of a learning pod one year prior, which could include a microschool structure.
Having those legal definitions allows regulators to ensure microschools are meeting the necessary requirements, Shoemaker DeMio said — and the lack of definitions from other states raises concerns on how to best hold those schools accountable. Lack of accountability could give rise to misuse of funds and inability to track whether kids are effectively learning the curriculum, she said.
“If we have a way that we can categorize certain schools as microschools, then we’re able to actually break down the data and we’re able to better understand who these students are serving and what quality of education they’re receiving or how they’re achieving,” she said.
Some microschools have been investigated for accusations of misusing funds. Arizona’s attorney general launched an investigation in 2021 into a microschool company, accusing it of collecting charter school funding from the state without actually providing any curriculum. In West Virginia, the state’s treasurer included a microschool in an investigation following complaints from parents that their tuition was not being used to teach their children.
Fairhead said that she doesn’t think more regulations are necessary and that they could diminish teachers’ passion. She said that parents hold her accountable: “They ask questions. They want to know what we’re teaching and what our kids are learning. And I prefer them to be my accountability over somebody who doesn’t know my kids, doesn’t know our area, and doesn’t know me.”
Shoemaker DeMio said that absent clear guidelines, data on microschools and student outcomes will remain minimal.
“If we can get specific regulations and guidance at the state level, that would be really helpful. It can provide us with data so that we could better track the schools,” she said. “But at the same time, it would also be helpful for people interested in starting microschools if they have a better understanding, if they have better guidance from the state on how to go about this.”
Do you have experience with microschooling or alternative forms of education? Share your story with this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.
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