Why Some Families Are Leaving Public Schools For Other Options

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📝 usncan Note: Why Some Families Are Leaving Public Schools For Other Options

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It was the pornography that did it. Randy and Cheryl Mynatt had been considering pulling their grandson Gabe, of whom they have custody, out of his local public school in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri. When the middle schooler came home one day and said that students in his gym class were looking at pornography while the teacher ignored it, the Mynatts knew they had to act.

Gabe’s grandmother began homeschooling him with the help of a public virtual school. It was then that she realized how academically far behind Gabe was. He made significant improvement at home, but it was tiring for Cheryl. She needed a different option for Gabe’s high school years. The family explored a traditional private Christian school, but the school would not take Gabe. The Mynatts suspect it was due to his ADHD and related anxiety issues. They were out of options until a friend told them about Refine KC, a new faith-based K-12 microschool in Kansas City focused on personalized learning.

Refine KC is one of the thousands of innovative schools and learning spaces emerging across the U.S., as more families seek alternatives to a traditional classroom and more entrepreneurial parents and teachers create those alternatives. It is also one of the dozens of schools and spaces featured in my new book, Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling.

Refine KC was founded in 2022 by a quartet of parents who were dissatisfied with the educational options available for their children. One of the founders, Matt Barnard, had been a high school mathematics teacher in Missouri public schools for nearly 30 years. As his son approached high school, Matt knew that he didn’t want his child to attend the school where he had long taught. “We felt very strongly that this was not a safe place for him to enter into,” he said, explaining that he and his wife Amy, also a former teacher, were concerned for their son’s well-being academically, physically, and spiritually.

Along with two of their friends, the Barnards launched Refine KC with 15 students and a vision of education tailored to the individual child. Unlike the one-size-fits-all approach of conventional schooling, Refine KC’s educators curate curriculum and adapt their teaching based on the needs and abilities of each student.

When the Mynatts discovered Refine KC a year after it opened, the school had grown to 40 students and six teachers—including Matt, who left the public school system to lead the microschool. Within a few weeks at Refine KC, the Mynatts noticed a huge difference in Gabe. He was happier and less anxious, and his behavioral issues subsided. They were able to wean Gabe off all the medications for ADHD and anxiety he had been taking since childhood. “He loves to go to school,” Cheryl said.

The Mynatts are among the rising ranks of parents and caregivers frustrated by one-size-fits-all schooling who are seeking something more aligned with their values and viewpoints—whether progressive or conservative. This is getting easier to do. Families in more than a dozen states now enjoy universal-eligibility school choice, enabling them to access a portion of education funding to use toward their preferred educational setting. In several states, these choices include microschools and other creative schooling options. Low in cost and lean in operations, tuition at these new schools is often fully covered by education savings accounts (ESAs) and similar school-choice programs.

With only a tiny tax-credit ESA program, Missouri has lagged behind other red states in enacting robust school-choice policies. Earlier this year, state legislators tried to catch up by voting to significantly expand the ESA program to include more students. The teachers union filed a lawsuit to halt it, but this month a Missouri court blocked that effort.

Microschools like Refine KC help to broaden education options even in the absence of legislated choice programs. With an annual tuition of $6,400, Refine KC is half the cost of traditional private Christian schools in Kansas City, and significantly less than the roughly $15,000 per student that the Kansas City Public Schools spend each year.

“We need more school choice in Missouri,” said Amy Barnard. Thankfully, founders like her are creating those choices.