LiberatED Podcast

There is a vibrant and growing hub of education entrepreneurship and alternative learning models in New York City, and our guests today are a part of that. Jacob Greebel and Melissa Sornik, both licensed social workers and experienced therapists, founded Acton Academy Seacliff in 2020 in Seacliff, New York on Long Island, but decided to move their Acton Academy into the heart of Manhattan. In their private practice, they see mounting school-related youth anxiety and believe that alternative education models, and the Acton model in particular, can be a beneficial antidote. Jacob and Melissa are planning to open the doors on Synergy: An Acton Academy in New York City this fall. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Dr. Natalie Summerville taught for over 20 years in the Virginia public schools before first launching The Grand Magnolia School, a microschool in Richmond, Virginia that her grandchildren and others attend. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Today's guest is Yesi Sol, a former New York City public school teacher and founder of The Joyful Learning Academy. Joyful Learning is a learning center for homeschoolers in the DUMBO (down underneath the Manhattan Bridge overpass) area of Brooklyn, New York that also provides after-school enrichment and tutoring services to local learners. I had the chance recently to meet Yesi and visit her beautiful learning center and am excited for her to share more about her journey toward alternative education and education entrepreneurship. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement for over 30 years. In addition to his 17 years as a public and independent alternative school principal and teacher, he has also helped to found more than one hundred public and private alternative schools and organizations. In 1989, he launched the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) and since then has served as its director. He is the author of the 2017 book, School's Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education . Register here for the 2023 AERO Conference! Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Wade Moore runs Urban Preparatory Academy in Wichita, Kansas, a private K-8 school where most of the students attend tuition-free through the state's low-income tax-credit scholarship program. Pastor Moore has been a longtime advocate for expanding education choice programs to enable more children to have access to the best educational fit for them. "It's life and death to students," he says. Urban Prep was a 2022 finalist for the prestigious Yass Prize, winning a $500,000 grant to expand Urban Prep to a second location in the Wichita area and serve more students. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

In the small town of Abbyville, Kansas, located an hour outside of Wichita with a population of 83 people, lies Re*Wild Family Academy, a microschool run by our guest today, Devan Dellenbach. Devan was a certified elementary school teacher in Kansas public schools for five years before leaving the classroom to be a stay-at-home mom to her two children. Stay-at-home parenthood evolved into homeschooling for Devan and now into microschooling, as she attracts other families to the personalized, nurturing, and tranquil learning space she has created in her home. I had the chance to see Devan's microschool up close when I visited her rural Kansas community earlier this month. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

One of the high-quality virtual learning platforms that I am especially enthusiastic about is Great Hearts, which is expanding this year into a national online private academy with a Classical education focus. A network of public charter and tuition-based private schools and microschools, with both brick-and-mortar and virtual offerings, Great Hearts is the largest provider of liberal arts classical education in the country, serving more than 26,000 students at 33 schools across the US. Our guest today is Kurtis Indorf, Chief Innovation Officer for Great Hearts America, and the Founder and President of Great Hearts Nova. Apply here for the 2023 Ed-Prize Awards for education entrepreneurship and innovation! Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

When Emily Williams told her parents that she was leaving her job as a certified public school teacher to launch a microschool, they thought she was crazy. Both longtime public school educators themselves, they couldn't understand why Emily, who taught in Mississippi public schools for more than a decade, would want to give up a good district salary, insurance, and retirement benefits to become an education entrepreneur. Emily, however, felt drawn to create an educational environment that would emphasize individualized learning, personal autonomy and mutual respect. She launched Micah's Mission, a low-cost, faith-based microschool located in Vicksburg, Mississippi that serves about 50, K-12 students, including several students with significant disabilities and special needs. Read more about Emily in my Forbes article: "Former Public School Teachers Are Earning More As Education Entrepreneurs" Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Self-directed education is a tough concept for many people to grasp. It challenges the ways in which many of us were educated, and the ways many of our children continue to be educated, by flipping the entire idea of education as a top-down model of coercive schooling to a bottom-up model of individual agency and self-determination. My 2019 book, Unschooled: Raising Curious Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, details the history and philosophy of non-coercive, self-directed education tied to one's individual interests, goals, and life pursuits. One place that has become a beacon for parents and educators interested in the philosophy and practice of self-directed education is the Sudbury Valley School, that I write extensively about in Unschooled. Sudbury Valley was founded in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1968 and continues to flourish today more than 50 years later. It has also inspired the creation of dozens of democratic, Sudbury-model schools around the world, as well as various unschooling programs. If you remember back to episode 39 in October, I interviewed Sudbury Valley School cofounder, Mimsy Sadofsky, and explained why my husband and I decided to send our children there instead of continuing with homeschooling. But today I thought it would be interesting and insightful to hear from another parent, Nick Warren, who pulled his two children out of public school in 2021 and enrolled them at Sudbury Valley. Like us, Nick and his wife drive a long distance each way every day so that their kids can attend Sudbury Valley, but it's totally worth it. We talk more about why that is in today's show. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

For Becky Elder, education entrepreneurship is nothing new. In 1963, her parents founded a private school in Wichita, Kansas. Becky then homeschooled her own children even before the practice was legally recognized. In 1993, she helped to launch Northfield School of the Liberal Arts as a small, classically-oriented school for approximately 50 middle and high school students in Wichita. Dalena Wallace is a next-generation education entrepreneur, following in Becky's footsteps. She is a homeschool mom of 6 children ages 8-15 who lives in a small rural community about an hour outside of Wichita. Dalena has been running a popular homeschool co-op for several years and received a microgrant from the VELA Education Fund which helped to connect her to other local education entrepreneurs in the greater Wichita area, including Becky. Dalena and Becky, along with some of the other Wichita education entrepreneurs I have had on the podcast, created the group WISE - Wichita Innovative Schools and Educators— to support the growth and success of more microschools, low-cost private schools, learning pods, homeschool collaboratives, and other innovative K-12 education models. Check out my case study of education entrepreneurship in Wichita! Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Sean Harrell is the president of Integration Charter Schools (ICS) on Staten Island in New York City. ICS is a collection of four charter schools focused on fully integrating students with special needs (about 40%)and general education students. Sean has worked as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and school district administrator for more than a decade. He founded and serves as executive director of the Progressive Educators Group, and is also an edtech entrepreneur who launched the teacher recruitment app, EdSwipe!, in early 2022. I had the chance to meet Sean and visit ICS during my recent trip to the Big Apple to uncover innovative learning models there. Check out my latest New York Post article featuring Sean, ICS, and other innovative learning models in NYC. Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Despite his MBA and a B.S. degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as a prestigious career as a naval officer and flight test engineer, James Lomax was prohibited from opening a secular private school in the state of Nevada due to occupational licensing regulations. Read more in my latest Forbes article: "Why Can't A Retired U.S. Navy Officer And Engineer Open A Private School In Nevada?" Sign up for my free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Our guest today is Dr. Lisa Scott, founder of The Art of Words Community School, a small private school in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, NY. Lisa earned her PhD in Education from Claremont Graduate School and taught classes in the history and philosophy of education at both CUNY-Queens and Hunter College before leaving to launch her microschool in September 2020. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Today's guest is Michael Strong, a longtime education entrepreneur and innovator and now founder of The Socratic Experience, an online school that emphasizes personalized and purpose-driven education, which I highly recommend. Michael is the author of the 2009 book, Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems, which includes a Foreword by John Mackey, the cofounder and former CEO of Whole Foods Market, with whom Michael has collaborated on initiatives related to conscious capitalism and entrepreneurship. Michael is also the author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice, and we'll hear more about what that looks like in his new online school focused on Socratic principles. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Turan Rush grew up in West Virginia on Charleston's West Side and was a star football player at Capitol High School, going to on to play at the collegiate level at Eastern Michigan University. He decided to come back to Charleston after graduating in 2021 to make a positive impact on the youth in his neighborhood. He teamed up with Jeff Biddle, a pastor and mentor to Turan, to open a thriving, sports-focused, youth after school program in Charleston. The duo now has their sights set on opening a low-cost private school in the same location as their after school program to provide greater learning opportunities to Charleston's young people. "Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline, One Microschool At A Time" (Forbes.com) Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

In the summer of 2019, after 15 years of teaching in the Portland, Oregon public school district, Greg Brown resigned to pursue Activate full-time. During COVID, Activate evolved into a full-time microschool with a dyslexia focus, and it continues to expand today to serve more learners in the Portland area. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Today marks one year since the launch of this podcast! It has grown so much, with inspiring stories of microschool founders and other education entrepreneurs who are building bottom-up learning models to challenge longstanding, top-down systems. I am thrilled to celebrate today's podcast anniversary with Sarah Tavernetti and Yamila De Leon, cofounders of Bloom Academy, a self-directed microschool in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Nick Lachen is a former high school physics teacher with a Master's degree in teaching who, along with his wife, decided back in 2020 to launch a self-directed Sudbury-model school in the Des Moines, Iowa area. The state told them they couldn't. Iowa has some of the most restrictive private school regulations in the US, constraining the entire private education sector there long before introducing school choice policies. Hear Nick's story, including what's next for his family, in today's episode. Iowa Enacts Universal School Choice, But Regulations Will Limit the Supply of Options for Families (Forbes.com) Planning Kit for Sudbury Schools Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Tamara Becker has been an educator for over 25 years, working in both district and virtual schools as a teacher, administrator, special education director, assistant superintendent, and most recently, as the superintendent of Primavera, Arizona's largest online school. In August 2021, she launched her first tuition-free Adamo microschool with 12 students in kindergarten through seventh grade in Fountain Hills, Arizona. In August 2022, Tamara opened her second Adamo microschool in Queen Creek, with plans for additional microschool locations in the coming months. Watch the podcast--and today's tour--on YouTube. Read Kerry's Forbes article about Adamo. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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! Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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) Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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 Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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" Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

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. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

In August, Michael Parsons opened Vandalia Community School as a microschool in Charleston, West Virginia serving about 10 students with two teachers. Infused with Montessori principles and focused on ample outside time, Vandalia serves a diverse group of learners. With the implementation of West Virginia's new Hope Scholarship Program, a near-universal education savings account for K-12 students, Vandalia and models like it are now more accessible to many more families. Read more in my latest Forbes article: In West Virginia, Microschools Come With Hope Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends and extra podcast content at fee.org/liberated.

Gayle Nagle and Maura Duignan founded the Sligo Sudbury School in Sligo, Ireland in 2018. The Sligo Sudbury School is one of dozens of Sudbury-style schools around the world that are modeled after the original Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts that was founded in 1968. Sudbury schools value freedom and autonomy, non-coercive learning, personal responsibility, and democratic self-governance. In episode 39, I interviewed Sudbury Valley School cofounder Mimsy Sadofsky, and I wrote extensively about Sudbury Valley and the Sudbury model of self-directed education in my Unschooled book. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends and extra podcast content at fee.org/liberated.

Homeschooling parents Toni and Uli Frallicciardi run Surf Skate Science in South Florida, offering weekly classes for approximately 250 homeschoolers and microschoolers in the greater Fort Lauderdale area each semester. They blend their passion for surfing and skating with their interest and background in science and engineering to create hands-on lessons for local students, as well as for young people across the U.S. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Pam McEwen is a longtime educator and former certified teacher in the public schools in Wichita, Kansas who decided to launch a tutoring center in 2019. Amidst the education disruption of 2020, parents urged Pam to turn her tutoring center into a full-time, in-person microschool. So, she resigned from the school district to run the Izora Elaine Dean Education Center full-time. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Matt Bowman began his career as a public school teacher and quickly recognized the ways in which educational technology could act as both an accelerator for education entrepreneurs and as an access point for families who want a more customized, personalized, self-directed approach to education. He launched My Tech High in 2008 and now works directly with public school districts across the country, serving 20,000 students in 10 states. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Like many educators today, including some that have been on this podcast, Jon England was a longtime public school teacher who left the classroom to pursue other education-related opportunities. He worked in the public schools for 14 years teaching 5th and 6th grades, and also worked as an elementary school administrator. Jon received his bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Utah and a master's degree in educational leadership from Western Governors University. He also spent time as a sergeant in the US Marine Corps. Today, Jon is an education policy analyst at the Libertas Institute in Utah working to support education entrepreneurship and school choice, among other policy initiatives. He and his wife also recently launched a podcast called Dimond Education which helps other parents find the best educational fit for their children. "Education Entrepreneurs Face Regulatory Challenges Everywhere. Utah Is Trying To Help." Forbes.com Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Donna Akers had been a public school special education teacher for almost 30 years when she retired in 2020 and decided to launch Ivy Greene Academy, an affiliate of the highly-regarded and fast-growing Acton Academy microschool network. Not only is Ivy Greene the only Acton Academy in all of Mississippi, it is located in the rural town of Pontotoc in an area with almost no other private education options or schooling alternatives for families. In fact, one family drives 1 1/2 hours each way from Memphis, TN just to attend Ivy Greene. What began as a desire to find a better educational environment for her son has turned into a thriving, sought-after, learner-driven microschool that now serves more than 40 children. Far from retiring, Donna is only just getting started. Mississippi Microschools Are Expanding Education Options for Families (SPN.org) Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

When Stephanie Harper decided to open Harper Learning Academy in Byram, Mississippi in August, her goal was to create a small, personalized educational setting in which her daughter would thrive. Conventional classroom environments weren't a good match for Harper's child. They also weren't working well for the daughter of Harper's colleague, Tekeeta Funchess. Harper and Funchess had been longtime teachers in the Jackson Public Schools before they left their jobs to provide educational consulting services to public school districts through the firm Harper founded in 2016. As they worked together, they realized their daughters were experiencing similar challenges in standard school settings. So, they decided to build what they couldn't find and create a warm and welcoming microschool where children can thrive. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much to be grateful for.

Maria Casco is a former Montessori teacher who launched a microschool, CASCO Learning, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her journey toward education entrepreneurship began in 2020 when some local parents urged her to create a "pandemic pod." That pod has now evolved into an established learning center for homeschooling students of all ages, with a focus on Spanish language immersion, self-directed learning, and enrichment opportunities. Additionally, Maria also hosts international family travel expeditions for her microschooling community, and provides parenting workshops and coaching. Demand for her educational offerings continues to grow. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Kelly Smith launched the first Prenda learning pod in his Arizona home in early 2018 with 7 children, including his son. Today, Prenda has reached over 10,000 learners in hundreds of pods, with the help more than 1,000 educator-guides in 5 states. On today's episode, Kelly talks about the growth of Prenda, the rising popularity of microschools and learning pods, and why aspiring education entrepreneurs should just jump in. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

I'm sure many parents will relate to the story of my guest today, Elizabeth McMeans. Elizabeth's pathway to education entrepreneurship stemmed directly from her efforts to find a more nurturing, personalized educational environment for her son as he approached kindergarten age. He would have been one of the youngest in his kindergarten class, and that concerned Elizabeth as she saw the ways in which today's kindergarten classrooms are more rigid and less play-based than they were even a few decades ago. She discovered the idea of hybrid homeschooling and eventually launched her own Prenda-affiliated learning pod in Wichita, Kansas. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Acton Academy was one of the very first national microschool networks to get started back in 2010, before microschools, or small, mixed-age, personalized learning environments, became one of the fastest-growing and most popular educational trends of the 21st century. Founded in Austin, Texas by Laura and Jeff Sandefer, Acton Academy now has about 280 independently run but Acton-affiliated schools in more than 30 states and 25 countries. Its growth and impact is continuing and accelerating, as Acton gains notoriety among parents, learners, and entrepreneurial educators. One of the latest Acton microschools to open is Acton Academy Fort Lauderdale, that was launched recently by our guest today, Tobin Slaven, along with his wife Martina. Rising Demand for Learner-Driven Education Spurs Acton Academy Growth (Forbes.com) Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

During my recent visit to the flourishing hub of microschools and education entrepreneurship in South Florida, my first stop was at Compass Outreach and Education Center, a microschool run by our guest today, Laurel Suarez. Suarez was one of the first microschool/hybrid school founders in the greater Fort Lauderdale area, launching her microschool in 2019, and she has become a mentor and source of support and encouragement for many of the other microschool founders who have created or expanded their programs over the past few years. In South Florida, Microschools Are Reshaping K-12 Education (Forbes.com) Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Tucked inside her beautiful farmhouse on her sprawling farm property in Wichita, Kansas is Jessica Ramsay's cozy classroom where she offers one-on-one tutoring to local children. A longtime teacher in the public schools, Ramsay decided to resign from the district in 2021 to become an education entreprenuer. She opened Farmhouse Phonics, which is now so successful that she is actually earning more money as a tutor than she was as a public school teacher. She is also able to see real, sustained success in helping children in her community to read and gain academic proficiency that they were previously lacking. Former Public School Teachers Are Earning More As Education Entrepreneurs (Forbes.com) Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Today's podcast guests are Molly and Noah Stephenson. They have experienced the benefit of small-scale, personalized learning first-hand, initially as unschooling parents and now as founders of the Wildflower Community School, a microschool in Wichita, Kansas. Only about 4 out of their current 35 students would be considered neurotypical, with most of their students having specialized learning needs, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and so on. For Neurodiverse Children, Microschools Can Be An Ideal Learning Environment (Forbes.com)

Joe Connor founded Odyssey to help connect families to the available education choice programs in their respective states, ensuring that all eligible families are able to access these choice programs. His work also helps to inspire and activate entrepreneurial parents and teachers who are looking to create new education solutions in their local communities. This week, Odyssey announced a $4.75 million seed funding round with the prestigious venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz. Sign up for Kerry's weekly email newsletter at fee.org/liberated for a deeper dive into podcast topics and related educational trends.

Our guest today created her thriving, award-winning microschool for her own son. He was the catalyst. Like any entrepreneur, especially a "parentpreneur," Iman Alleyne saw a gap and set out to fill it. She built the Kind Academy microschool located in Coral Springs, Florida, which has received philanthropic support from the VELA Education Fund and has recently been named a semi-finalist for the prestigious million-dollar Yass Prize. But Iman isn't resting on her laurels. She has big plans for the future and for expanding Kind Academy to many more people and places. '100 Schools in 10 Years', Award-Winning Microschool Founder Shares Her Vision (Forbes.com)

There is something extraordinarily special happening in South Florida these days. It has become a hub of education entrepreneurship and emerging K-12 learning models, creating increasingly more abundant and diverse education options for families. I recently had the opportunity to spend several days in the Fort Lauderdale area gathering with these incredible microschool founders. Shiren Rattigan is one of them. She runs Colossal Academy, a beautiful and inviting microschool for middle schoolers. Shiren also does an incredible job of connecting local founders and other education entrepreneurs with each other and with the greater community, sharing resources, hosting gatherings, offering support and encouragement, and really helping to accelerate this entrepreneurial cluster of innovative learning models and schooling alternatives. Colossal Academy is a VELA Education Fund grant recipient, as are many of the other microschools in the South Florida area. VELA is a non-profit, philanthropic organization that offers grants to education entrepreneurs who are creating non-traditional learning options and other schooling alternatives, including microschools, homeschool collaboratives, learning pods, etc.

The Sudbury Valley School is legendary in alternative education and unschooling circles. Founded in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1968, Sudbury Valley has become a beacon for parents and educators interested in non-coercive, self-directed education, and has inspired the creation of dozens of Sudbury-style schools around the world. Our guest today is Mimsy Sadofsky, one of the original founders of the Sudbury Valley School who continues to work at the school as a full-time staff member. This episode is also personally very special because I wanted to share with you our family's journey toward enrolling at Sudbury Valley School. Episode-related links: Sudbury Valley School open house Planning kit for starting a Sudbury model school Award-winning filmmaker and Sudbury Valley School alumna, Laura Poitras American Journal of Education research paper on SVS graduate outcomes Free At Last, by SVS cofounder Daniel Greenberg Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life, by Peter Gray Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, by Kerry McDonald

It's been a hope-filled week in West Virginia! Yesterday, the West Virginia Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling against the Hope Scholarship program and lifted the injunction on the scholarship to enable West Virginia families to immediately take advantage of this expansive education choice program—which is the second most comprehensive education savings account (ESA) program in the US, after Arizona's sweeping school choice legislation was passed and upheld this year. Today's BONUS episode of the podcast features Jamie Buckland of West Virginia Families United for Education (WVFUE), and Katie Switzer of the Monongalia Forest School. "How One State Went From Bottom to Top in Education Choice and Innovation" (fee.org)