Episode 14: School Choice: The Future of Education with Kerry McDonald
Sep 12, 2023
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Kerry McDonald, Senior Education Fellow at FEE, discusses the transition to alternative education and the significance of the school choice movement. Topics include education entrepreneurship, micro schools, nurturing creativity and curiosity, and personal influences on education.
School choice policies like education savings accounts and tax credits promote higher-quality education, innovation, customization, and parental autonomy.
Education entrepreneurs are creating alternative learning models outside of traditional schools, such as micro schools and personalized curriculum options.
Deep dives
Podcast Overview
In this episode of Kindled, the podcast explores the importance of school choice and alternative education options. The host, Carrie McDonald, discusses the value of personalized and individualized learning models that empower parents and educators to meet the unique needs of each child. She highlights the benefits of education savings accounts (ESA) and tax credit programs that enable families to choose innovative education options. The podcast also features stories of education entrepreneurs, including teachers who have left the conventional school system to create micro schools or homeschooling options. Overall, the episode emphasizes the importance of fostering curiosity, creativity, and entrepreneurship in education.
Benefits of School Choice
Carrie McDonald discusses the positive impact of school choice policies like education savings accounts (ESA) and tax credits. These programs empower families to choose education options that best suit their children's needs. By increasing marketplace competition, school choice promotes higher-quality education, innovation, and customization. These policies also offer flexibility and autonomy, enabling parents to take an active role in their children's education outside of traditional school systems. Furthermore, these programs foster entrepreneurship among teachers and parents, encouraging the creation of innovative learning models like micro schools and learning pods.
Education Entrepreneurship Stories
The podcast highlights inspiring stories of education entrepreneurs who have launched innovative learning models outside of traditional schools. One such example is Jill Perez, a former public school teacher who created a pandemic pod during the COVID-19 school closures. Encouraged by its success, she went on to establish a full-fledged micro school with customized curriculum and mixed-age classrooms. Another story features James Lomax, a retired Navy officer and engineer, who founded a unique education option, Life Acts and Academy, to provide self-directed education for his young child. These stories showcase the power of parental and educator initiative in creating alternative educational paths.
Challenges and Debates
Carrie McDonald acknowledges that the school choice movement faces resistance from proponents of the traditional schooling system. However, she argues that the push for individualization, personalization, and family empowerment is strong. The podcast explores various policy debates surrounding school choice, acknowledging concerns about potential regulatory capture and the impact on homeschooling communities. Despite these challenges, school choice policies continue to gain momentum, with more states introducing or expanding programs like education savings accounts (ESA) and tax credits to provide families with greater educational options.
In Episode 14 of The KindlED Podcast, hosts Kaity and Adriane are joined by Kerry McDonald. Dive deep into the world of alternative education as they discuss the impactful transition from traditional schooling to individualized, entrepreneurial models. This episode underscores the significance of the school choice movement. Tune in to understand the evolution towards decentralized, personalized educational systems and the promising future they hold.
👤 ABOUT THE GUEST 👤 Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and host of the weekly LiberatED podcast. She is the author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019). In addition to her role at FEE, Kerry is also the Velinda Jonson Family Education Fellow at State Policy Network, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and a regular Forbes contributor.
Kerry's research interests include homeschooling and schooling alternatives, self-directed learning, education entrepreneurship, parent empowerment, school choice, and family and child policy. Her articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Newsweek, NPR, Education Next, Reason Magazine, Washington Examiner, City Journal, Entrepreneur, and the Journal of School Choice, among others. She has a master’s degree in education policy from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bowdoin College.
Kerry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and four children.
About the podcast: The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.
Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question? We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!
Interested in starting a microschool? Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool
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