NHEG EDGuide July-August-2023

ISSUE 7-8 

“Summer means happy times 

and good sunshine.” 

—Brian Wilson 

2023 

JULY - AUGUST

NHEG EDGUIDE 2 

EDITOR IN CHIEF 

PRODUCTION MAN- 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

PROOFREADERS/EDITORS 

PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THIS 

ISSUE 

Pamela Clark 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com 

Marina Klimi 

MarinaKlimi@NewHeightsEducation.org 

Laura Casanova Laura Casanova 

Frani Wyner 

Contents 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

4 

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH 

8-9 

NHEG 17TH BIRTHDAY 

10-19 

NHEG MEDIA PACK 

24-25 

MISSING CHILDREN 

26-41 

NHEG GROUP LEARNING 

ANNEX CATALOG 2023 

62-63 

VOLUNTEERS PAGES 

64-69 

NHEG INTERNET RADIO 

PROGRAM 

72-75 

NHEG FREE BOOK 

PROMOTIONS 

78-81 

NHEG BIRTHDAYS AND 

ANNIVERSARIES 

84-85 

EARN BOX TOPS 

90-121 

FEE ARTICLES 

122 

HSLDA ARTICLES 

126-127 

GREAT COMPANIES 

128-123 

RECIPES 

134-135 

NHEG PARTNERS & 

AFFILIATES

July August 2023 

NHEG EDGUIDE July - August 2023 

Thought for the Month 

Welcome to the official 

New Heights Educational Group store. 

School choice is one of the most important 

options available to parents 

in the United States. We suggest families 

learn all they can about John 

Taylor Gatto and the true history of 

our American schools. 

https://NHEG.memberhub.com/store 

NHEG Store | New Heights Educational Group, Inc. 

Pamela Clark 

Founder/ Executive Director of 

The New Heights Educational 

Group, Inc. 

Resource and Literacy Center 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com 

http://www.NewHeightsEducation.org 

Learning Annex 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

A Public Charity 501(c)(3) 

Nonprofit Organization 

New Heights Educational Group 

Inc. 

14735 Power Dam Road, Defiance, Ohio 

43512 

+1.419.786.0247 

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The New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) recently celebrated its 17th 

birthday and held its annual Recognition Day, when it announced its 

Volunteers of the Year. Volunteers recognized on the day were as follows: 

• Marina Klimi, Production Manager of the Year 

• Frani Wyner, Photographer of the Year 

• Padmapriya (Priya) Kedharnath, Accountant of the Year 

• Javier Cortés, Online Meeting Manager of the Year 

• Laura Casanova, Proofreader/Editor of the Year 

• Nina Le, Most Certificates Earned (6), Tutor of the Year - Live Lessons 

• Sarika Gauba, Content Builder of the Year 

• Rhone-Ann Huang, Reading Ambassador of the Year 

• Julia Landy, Graphic Designer of the Year and New Media & Video Editor of the Year 

• Victor Rodriguez, Social Media and Marketing Assistant of the Year 

• Chloe Gebers, HR Coordinator of the Year 

• Rachel Mathurin, Grant Writer of the Year 

• Jackson Hochstetler, Cartoonist of the Year 

Congratulations to these volunteers, who have all done an outstanding job 

supporting NHEG! 

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NHEG EDGUIDE 

July - August 2023 


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Have professional 

genealogy research 

done for only 

$ 

65 

per hr 

Genealogy costs cover the genealogist’s time 

and there may be extra charges for expenses 

that include photocopies, travel, website fees 

(Ancestry, MyHeritage, and public library fees) 

and postage if necessary. 

For more information, please visit https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/affordable-genealogy/ 

To sign up: https://NHEG.MemberHub.com/store/items/838457 

New Heights Educational Group is now offering pre-recorded 

Genealogy and DNA courses 

Genealogy & Education 

In this free course, students will explore the history of genealogy 

and be inspired to learn about their family history 

and its connection to their community. 

Course topics: 

• History of genealogy 

• Family history and its ties to their environment 

• Significance of learning about family history 

• Steps to researching family history 

• Sites to help organize a family tree 

• Steps to downloading and moving a family tree 

DNA & Education 

In this free course, students will explore the world of genetics 

and DNA testing and be inspired to learn about their 

genetic makeup and their connection to others. 

Course topics: 

• Significance of learning about family history 

• Introduction to genetic testing 

• Overview of DNA 

• DNA testing options 

• Steps to take after DNA testing 

• Value of adding DNA results to other websites 

• Using Gedmatch 

• Comparing DNA in multiple systems 

• Comparing DNA relatives 

• DNA results and social media 

For more information, please visit https://School.NewHeightEducation.org/online-courses/genealogy-dna-course/ 

Contact Us 

419-786-0247 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com • http://www.NewHeightsEducation.org 

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NHEG EDGUIDE July - August 2023


https://www.readandspell.com/home-course 

Discount: NHE10


New Heights Educational Group Named Best Children & Adults Literacy Group 

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) has been named a U.S. winner in Acquisition International’s 2022 Non-Profit Organisation 

Awards. NHEG was awarded Best Children & Adults Literacy Group – Ohio. 

This is the second win for NHEG from Acquisition International, a monthly digital business magazine with global circulation 

published by AI Global Media Ltd, a publishing house based in the United Kingdom. 

Pamela Clark, Founder/Executive Director of NHEG stated, “We extend a warm thank you to Acquisition International for 

recognizing the work of our organization and its many volunteers. We are thankful for and appreciate your continued support.” 

More information about the NHEG award and other award winners is available via the links below: 

• Directory listing - https://www.acquisition-international.com/winners-list/?award=98329-2022 

• The official press release - https://www.acquisition-international.com/acquisition-international-is-proud-to-announce-thewinners-of-the-2022-non-profit-organisation-awards/ 

• New Heights Educational Group - New Heights Educational Group 2022 (acquisition-international.com) 

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https://NewHeightsEducation.org/NHEG-news/heroes-of-liberty-partnership/ 

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https://www.collegexpress.com/reg/signup?campaign=10k&utm_campaign=NHEG&utm_ 

medium=link&utm_source=NHEG 

More Scholarship opportunities: 

-https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/students/scholarship-opportunities/scholarship-search/ 

- https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/students/scholarship-opportunities/ 

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https://NHEG.memberhub.gives/NHEG/Campaign/ 

Details

https://nheg.memberhub.gives/nheg/Campaign/Details 

https://careasy.org/nonprofit/NewHeightsEducationalGroup 

Call: 

855-550-4483




online-courses/animation-course/ 

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https://School.NewHeightsEducation. 

org/about/NHEG-groups/ 


membership/national-csi-classes/ 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation. 

https://NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

org/online-courses/discounted-andfree-online-classes/ 

NHEG-educational-programs/virtualreading-program/ 

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VOLUNTEER PAGES 

豆豆谷 - BUSINESS 

HEBIN ZHANG - FINANCE 

YIHANG XING - FINANCE 

JIASUI WU - FINANCE 

NEW INTERNS 

Jyoti Aggarwal 

Mike Anderson 

Laura Casanova 

Javier Cortés 

Sarika Gauba 

Chloe Gebers 

Marina Klimi 

Julia Landy 

VOLUNTEERS OF THE MONTH 

Nina Le 

Rachel Mathurin 

Logan Moreland 

Victor Rodriguez 

Sheila Wright 

Frani Wyner 

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THE INTERNET RADIO PROGRAM 

FROM NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP


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NHEG July Birthday 

NHEG August Birthday 

JUL 02 

Victoria Lowery 

AUG 10 

Rachel Marie Clark 

JUL 07 

Elias Bucchip 

AUG 11 

Sheila Wright 

JUL 08 

Paul Sloan 

AUG 20 

Bruno Moses Patrick 

JUL 09 

Zachary Clark 

JUL 14 

Jody Bowden 

JUL 15 

Oliver Clark 

JUL 20 

Jeff Ermoian 

JUL 25 

Buffie Williams 

JUL 29 

Olaniyan Taibat 

JUL 30 

Victor Rodriguez 

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NHEG July Anniversaries 

NHEG August Anniversaries 

JUL 13 

JUL 14 

JUL 22 

Lakshmi Padmanabhan 

Nina Le 

Sheila Wright 

AUG 13 

AUG 28 

Terry (Greg) and Pamela Clark celebrates 35 years 

of Marriage 

Marina Klimi 

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HOW TO EARN 

BOX TOPS MAKES IT EASY 

All you need is your phone! Download the Box Tops app, shop as you normally 

would, then use the app to scan your store receipt within 14 days of purchase. The 

app will identify Box Tops products on your receipt and 

automatically credit your school’s earnings online. 

Twice a year, your school will receive a check and can use that cash to buy 

whatever it needs! 

DO YOU NEED TO ENROLL YOUR SCHOOL? FIND OUT HOW HERE. 

https://www.boxtops4education.com/enroll 

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PRESS RELEASE 

“It is a joy to celebrate this historic grant announcement during our 30th anniversary year,” shared Denine 

Torr, executive director of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. “For three decades, DGLF’s investment in 

community programs has created meaningful access to literacy skills for adults, children and families alike 

and exemplified Dollar General’s mission of Serving Others. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity 

and access to a quality education, and we look forward to seeing these literacy grants inspire reading and 

DOLLAR GENERAL GRANT 

New Heights Educational Group is happy to announce we have received an $8,000 grant from Dollar General 

for our Adult Literacy Pre-recorded Courses Program. This means that our website fees, Google Classroom, 

Google Drive storage, internet fees, printing and publication Costs, meeting software and Smallpdf and basic 

office supplies will be covered for the next year, bringing us to the end of May 2024. We will still need to raise 

funds for our radio show, however, and your donations to help with this are greatly appreciated. 

You can check out our free and discounted courses at http://www.NewHeightsEducation.org and click on the 

Learning Annex. 

build brighter futures.” 

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation supports organizations that increase access to educational programming, 

stimulate and enable innovation in the delivery of educational instruction and inspire a love of reading. 

Each year, DGLF awards funds to nonprofit organizations, schools, and libraries within a 15-mile radius 

of a Dollar General store or distribution center to support adult, family, summer and youth literacy programs. 

The Foundation also offers a student referral program for individuals interested in learning how to 

read, speak English, or prepare for the high school equivalency exam. Referrals to a local organization that 

provides free literacy services are available online here or through referral cards found in the Learn to Read 

brochures that are available at the cash register of every Dollar General store. 

About NHEG 

New Heights Educational Group, Inc., promotes literacy for children and adults by offering a range of educational 

support services. Such services include the following: assisting families in the selection of schools; 

organization of educational activities; and acquisition of materials. 

DOLLAR GENERAL PRESS RELEASE 2023 

-We promote a healthy learning environment and various enrichment programs for families of preschool and 

school-age children, including children with special needs. 

About the Dollar General Literacy Foundation 

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives 

through literacy and education. Since 1993, the Foundation has awarded more than $233 million in grants to 

nonprofit organizations, helping more than 19.3 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy, a 

general education diploma or English proficiency. Each year, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation provides 

financial support to schools, nonprofit organizations and libraries within a 15-mile radius of Dollar General 

stores and distribution centers. To learn more about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation or apply for a 

literacy grant, visit www.dgliteracy.org. 

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) Receives $8000 ,Grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to 

Support Adult Literacy 

Defiance, Ohio – May 2023 – The Dollar General Literacy Foundation recently awarded NHEG an $8,000 grant 

to support adult literacy. This local grant is a part of the Foundation’s largest, one-day literacy donation of 

more than $13 million throughout the 47 states in which Dollar General operates to support adult, family and 

summer literacy programs. 

NHEG Executive Director Pamela Clark stated, “This is the first grant we’ve received from Dollar General, and 

we are thrilled to have them partner with us on the very important effort of educating Adult learners via our 

free, pre-recorded online classes. 

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VEDDER PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT 

LETTER OF RECOGNITION NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP 

Pamela S. Clark 

NHEG announces partnership with Vedder Therapy 

Introducing Vedder Therapy! We are an in-home pediatric speech language therapy private practice. We are 

based in Wood County, Ohio but provide services to surrounding counties as well. We come to you! We provide 

services from birth to 17 years of age. We are currently private pay. 

Families can use FSA/HSA accounts and a superbill can be provided if they would like to submit it to insurance in 

an attempt to get some reimbursement. 

Visit https://www.vedderslp.com/ for details and mention NHEG sent you. 

Founder/ Executive Director 

New Heights Educational Group, Inc. 

14735 Power Dam Road 

Defiance, Ohio 43512 

Dear Ms. Clark, 

On behalf of The Fort Wayne Civic Theatre I would like to thank you and New Heights 

Educational Group, Inc. for 19 years of coordination and partnership with our In The 

Wings Arts In Education Program. It is community partners like you who enable us to 

bring the joy of theater and the arts to the lives of youth who may not otherwise 

have the opportunity to experience it. 

We look forward to many more years of partnership with your organization. 

Sincerely, 

Danielle Andersen 

Education Director 

Fort Wayne Civic Theatre 

Direct:(260)422-8641 Ext. 226 

303 East Main Street ● Fort Wayne, IN 46802 ● www.fwcivic.org ● Business Office: (260) 422-8641 ● Box Office: 

(260) 422-5220 

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Like Rattray, Compass’s Suarez had 

been a classroom teacher early 

in her career and then worked as 

an executive administrator for a 

Florida charter school management 

company before deciding to 

become an education entrepreneur. 

“Teachers in traditional schools 

were stifled. They had no time to 

be creative,” said Suarez, who had 

begun tutoring homeschoolers 

in 2014 before opening her 

microschool a few years later. “I 

took my leap of faith in wanting to 

try something different. My kids 

were grown and once I had the 

chance, I wanted to do my own 

thing. I wanted to create.” 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2022 

KERRY MCDONALD 

How Microschools Are Reshaping K-12 Education in South 

Florida 

Nestled in a warm and colorful classroom space in a 

sprawling Salvation Army building in Fort Lauderdale is 

Permission To Succeed Education Center, one of more 

than two dozen private microschools and similarly small, 

multi-age, co-learning communities in South Florida. 

Felicia Rattray decided to launch Permission To Succeed 

in the summer of 2020 after schools shut down due to 

the pandemic and the shift to remote schooling gave her 

an up-close look at her nephew’s classroom. 

Her sister had died in a car accident when Rattray’s 

nephew was just eight days old and he then lived for 

several years with his grandmother until she grew too 

frail. Rattray and her husband Amnon assumed care 

of the boy, who was a third grader in a nearby public 

school. A certified teacher, Rattray had been working as 

a social studies teacher and school counselor in public 

and charter schools in Florida since 2007. She knew her 

nephew was behind in school, and had worked with him 

one-on-one during the afternoons and weekends to help 

him catch up, but Covid changed everything. “During the 

pandemic, that’s when I saw just how behind he was,” 

said Rattray. “The spotlight was on it enough for me to 

see just how much he was suffering in the classroom.” 

Rattray decided to create a microschool that would help 

students like her nephew, whom she discovered was 

Parent demand for personalized learning options, along with a collaborative, entrepreneurial 

atmosphere, is contributing to a surge of microschools in South Florida. 

90 

working at a kindergarten grade-level, to have a more 

personalized, mastery-based learning environment. “The 

public schools can’t slow down the curriculum enough for 

the kids to catch up,” she said. “I’ve always had the desire 

to marry school counseling and education my way, my 

non-traditional way. In our microschool, each one of our 

students has a different curriculum that’s customized. 

I purchase different math curriculum, different reading 

curriculum depending on what is right for each child.” 

Parents are increasingly seeking a more individualized 

educational environment for their children, with tailored 

instruction to meet each learner’s distinct needs. “We’re 

attracting the families who want a truly personalized 

experience,” said Rattray, who sublet space for her 

microschool from Laurel Suarez, another microschool 

founder who opened Compass Outreach and Education 

Center in 2019 with a small group of children. Now, 

Suarez has 48 students with eight teachers, as well as 

supplemental instructors. 

She also wanted to help others 

create. “I’ve always wanted to 

do something on my own, and 

help others start their own 

businesses,” said Suarez, who was 

Laurel Suarez, founder of Compass Outreach and Education Center | by KERRY MCDONALDlaurel-suarez.jpg born and raised in the U.S. Virgin 

Islands. Helping young people develop a creative, entrepreneurial mindset is also a big part of the Compass learning 

community which, like Rattray’s microschool, prioritizes individualized, mastery-based learning and ample outside 

time. 

Her students do take traditional standardized tests to identify academic strengths and areas for improvement that 

help the teachers to tailor learning plans accordingly, but there is no teaching to the test and no student stress 

surrounding assessments. Still, Suarez finds that her students quickly accelerate and often score above grade level. 

“I was nothing and now I’m amazing!” exclaimed eight-year-old Justice during my recent visit to Compass. “Compass 

made me who I am!” 

“I like Compass because it’s such good quality. I love it!” added nine-year-old Daniela. 

The annual tuition at Compass is $13,500, which is less expensive than traditional private schools in South Florida but 

still financially out-of-reach for many families. Fortunately, the majority of Suarez’s students attend her microschool 

on a scholarship through one of Florida’s generous school choice programs that enable parents to have greater access 

to a variety of education options beyond an assigned district school. “A lot of our microschools thrive because we have 

these scholarships,” said Suarez. “More people, not just homeschoolers, are becoming aware of microschools. Parents 

are a lot more open-minded. They know they have choices.” 

For Many, Monopolies Are Bad… Until It Comes To Education 

Most Americans, both on the right and left, can generally agree that monopolies hurt consumers. When choice and 

competition are limited or non-existent in the private sector, we understand that companies will get away with 

inefficient practices, and consumers will be stuck with bad products and high prices. 

In a competitive market, on the other hand, the consumer has the power in the relationship between himself and the 

firm. As Ludwig von Mises’s explains in his book, Bureaucracy: 

The real bosses [under capitalism] are the consumers. They, by their buying and by their abstention from buying, 

decide who should own the capital and run the plants. They determine what should be produced and in what quantity 

and quality. Their attitudes result either in profit or in loss for the enterpriser. They make poor men rich and rich men 

poor. They are no easy bosses. They are full of whims and fancies, changeable and unpredictable. They do not care a 

whit for past merit. As soon as something is offered to them that they like better or is cheaper, they desert their old 

purveyors. 

91



For Rattray at Permission to Succeed, making sure families could access her new microschool in 2020 was a crucial component 

of her launch strategy. She knew that in order to be a recognized provider for the state’s scholarship programs 

she would need to have a building that met certain requirements. Working out of an extra classroom space at Suarez’s 

microschool provided Rattray the ability to open her microschool quickly and begin serving students right away. “If I 

had not had her space to start the process, this school wouldn’t have ever happened because I needed a building to 

accept scholarships,” said Rattray, who incubated her program at Compass for one year before moving to the Salvation 

Army space less than two miles down the road. 

Rattray’s microschool tuition is $700 a month, but most students only pay about $50 a month or nothing at all due to 

school choice programs. “Without those scholarships, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing with our students, 

except for maybe two students,” she said. Instead, Rattray now serves about 20 students in kindergarten through middle 

school in two classrooms with four teachers. She has additional high school students who choose to learn virtually. 

While Rattray believes that the benefit of microschools is their small size and personalized learning approach, she 

thinks small is scalable and has her sights set on spreading Permission To Succeed microschools throughout the state. 

“My goal is to have these small schools all over Florida, one in every county,” she said. 

To help reach this goal, Rattray was recently encouraged by Compass’s Suarez to apply for a microgrant through 

the VELA Education Fund, a nonprofit philanthropic organization that seeks to support the growth of microschools, 

co-learning communities, homeschooling collaboratives, and similar non-traditional education models. Suarez received 

a VELA grant that offered financial resources and recognition for her efforts with Compass, while also connecting her to 

the growing ecosystem of education entrepreneurs in the greater Fort Lauderdale area. 

“Through the VELA grant, I just fell into this community,” said Suarez, who finds that rather than being competitive, 

local microschool founders frequently connect and collaborate with each other, share resources, and even refer families. 

“I’ve referred families to other microschools. Nothing can be done alone. There is a lot of sharing, collaborating, 

copying. I want to see everyone thrive,” she said. 

Suarez thinks that this collaborative, entrepreneurial atmosphere is what is leading to the surge of microschools in 

South Florida. When it becomes clear to more people that microschools and similar non-traditional learning models 

are flourishing, and their students are happy and successful, it prompts more education entrepreneurs to create these 

microschools and more parents to seek them. “Parents now are looking out for the well-being of their child. They want 

a holistic approach to education because they realize how much better off they would have been,” said Suarez. 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2022 


Are Innovative K-12 Education Models Coming To Your 

Community? It Depends On Where You Live 

Chris Turner is inventing an entirely new category of 

education. It’s not school and it’s not homeschool, and 

it doesn’t fit neatly into existing regulatory frameworks. 

Turner’s startup, Moonrise.com, is truly an out-of-the-box 

learning model that too often gets boxed in, preventing 

its ability to launch or grow in certain US states. 

Despite regulatory barriers, education entrepreneurs like Chris Turner are bringing new 

learning models to communities across the country. 

interests and discover their passions on their own terms, 

without the coercion and top-down expectations that so 

often characterize conventional K-12 education. Adult 

guides are available to offer workshops and provide 

assistance when needed, but they mostly hold the space 

for unstructured, multi-age learning and childhood play. 

She believes that microschools will dramatically reshape U.S. education in the years to come, led by parent demand for 

innovative choices. “What we’re doing, this is the future,” said Suarez. “I want people to see that microschools are not a 

for-the-moment thing. They are here to stay and will continue to grow.” 

Source: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) 

https://fee.org/ 

92 

Turner decided to create Moonrise when he couldn’t 

find an ideal education option for his son. His five-yearold 

didn’t get a spot in the kindergarten lottery at a 

local charter school. Conventional public and private 

schools seemed too stifling, and homeschooling seemed 

desirable but daunting. So, as a successful entrepreneur 

whose technology startup got acquired in 2017, Turner 

decided to build the educational model that he wanted 

but that didn’t yet exist. 

Located in Decatur, Georgia, Moonrise is a drop-off, 

co-learning, membership-based community for children 

ages 5 to 15 that is open from 9 am to 9 pm, seven days a 

week, all year. Families can use it as an affordable parttime 

or full-time schooling alternative for homeschoolers 

during the day, or as a supplemental learning space that 

encourages self-directed learning in the afternoons or on 

weekends. A resource-rich environment filled with books, 

music, art supplies and makerspace tools, toys, games, 

and puzzles—and even a professional digital recording 

studio—Moonrise invites young people to explore their 

93 

Turner planned to open Moonrise in early 2020, but the 

COVID response delayed that until last winter. Now, 

Turner has his sights set on bringing Moonrise to many 

more communities across the US, creating a freer, more 

joyful learning experience for more young people. “I 

think at the surface Moonrise just looks like a space for 

kids where you can drop them off—and for some people 

it looks like the future of learning, which is all great—but 

fundamentally what makes us human is this ability to 

create and to make progress,” said Turner in this week’s 

episode of the LiberatED Podcast. 

Turner wondered: “What sorts of things cause progress 

and cause creativity? Freedom from coercion is the 

number one principle that drives that…Moonrise is 

simply applying that idea to kids but also to the minds 

of parents raising them, and in doing that I think it’s 

perhaps the best vehicle possible to create more 

progress.”



You may be eager to know when this extraordinary new learning option may come to your community. Turner is 

working on scaling Moonrise and opening new co-learning spaces throughout the US, but where he chooses to launch 

depends in large part on their regulatory friendliness and embrace of education choice and innovation. 

“It’s hard to ignore Arizona at this point,” said Turner. “They just passed the universal ESA, so I’m very encouraged and 

excited about Arizona. Typically, there are some states that have a more libertarian bent, and those are the ones that 

are not only more conducive for us to grow the company because those values are embedded in their governments, 

but I think those are also our best early-adopter customers. That goes the opposite direction too, where states that 

are much tighter on regulatory control, also tend to attract citizens that are like-minded in that way–not universally, 

but on average. So probably the hardest would be New York and probably the easiest would be Arizona, and there’s a 

bunch of states that exist between those two poles, but we tend to go toward the pole that encourages more freedom 

and experimentation.” 

Parents in more tightly regulated states that prevent education innovation and entrepreneurship miss out on exciting 

new learning models because some entrepreneurs can’t or won’t launch or grow their organizations there. “Specific 

to government, they have the ability to shut you down or gate your access to something that could be very right,” said 

Turner. “It blocks a lot of people from trying these things.” 

Fortunately, there are steps that state policymakers can take to encourage education entrepreneurship and activate 

the growth of more education options for more families. In addition to enacting school choice policies that enable education 

funding to follow students, such as in Arizona, policymakers can also loosen or eliminate existing regulations 

that prevent or limit the introduction of new learning models. 

My new paper at State Policy Network offers seven recommendations state policymakers can consider to support education 

entrepreneurs, including loosening child care licensing requirements in which new K-12 learning models often 

get ensnared despite not serving young children, as well as recognizing that existing regulatory boxes of traditional 

“schooling” do not apply to emerging 21st century educational models. 

Despite regulatory barriers to entry and scale for education entrepreneurs, Turner is optimistic that new learning 

models like Moonrise will eventually make their way to more communities, even to those in highly regulated states. 

Parents want more choices and entrepreneurs will rise to meet that demand. “Ultimately this will win out because 

founders are resilient and we’re already seeing a lot of sea-change in the world of education regulation,” said Turner. 

Let’s hope New Yorkers and those in similar high-regulation states don’t have to wait too long for education innovation 

to come their way. 

Listen to the weekly LiberatED Podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Stitcher, or watch on YouTube, and sign up for 

Kerry’s weekly LiberatED email newsletter to stay up-to-date on educational news and trends from a free-market perspective. 



94 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT 28, 2022 


What Can Parents Do When School Isn’t Working for Their 

Child? 

Now is often the time of year when parents begin looking 

into other learning options and schooling alternatives 

for their kids. The new school year has been in session 

for several weeks and some parents may be finding that 

bubbling issues may have reached a boiling point. 

Perhaps their child isn’t a good match with his or her 

assigned teacher. Perhaps parent-child battles over 

homework have emerged. Perhaps parents see certain 

elements of their child’s curriculum that they dislike, or 

hear about various classroom practices that they find 

unsettling. Perhaps their child is bored or withdrawn, 

frustrated or irritable, anxious or depressed. Perhaps the 

bullying has started or worsened. 

Whatever the reason, some parents may be searching 

for other educational possibilities for their children. 

Fortunately, they now have an abundance of options to 

explore. From high-quality virtual learning programs to 

low-cost microschools, learning pods, and homeschooling 

collaboratives, exiting an assigned district school for a 

different, better learning environment has never been 

easier. 

Over the past 30 months, both parents and educators 

have been empowered to seek or build new K-12 learning 

solutions. Education entrepreneurship, which was 

gaining traction before 2020, has soared since then, 

At this time of year, many parents may be starting to look for other education options for 

their children. 

95 

driven by broad parent demand for more educational 

options and accelerated by the growth of education 

choice programs in many states that make opting out of 

a district school more feasible for more families. 

Many of these entrepreneurial educators have had the 

desire to create a new learning offering for years, but 

they lacked the catalyst to take the leap and launch their 

organization. Similarly, many parents have long been 

dissatisfied by their children’s default educational option, 

but weren’t sure how to make a change. The disruption 

caused by prolonged school closures and related policies 

provided that necessary nudge for educators and parents 

alike. 

One such education entrepreneur is Nathan Fellman. 

He had been a public middle school teacher in New 

Hampshire for nearly 20 years before leaving the 

profession to launch his own middle school program this 

fall. “I’ve had the core concept for a dedicated middle 

school with small classes engaged in collaborative 

learning for a while,” he told me recently. “I don’t know 

if I’d ever have really tried to build that thought into an 

actual reality if our whole society hadn’t been sideswiped 

by COVID-19. The final push to leave public schools and 

try to start something different came with the disruption 

to the status quo that the pandemic brought.”



This month, Fellman, along with two colleagues, launched The Harkness House, a private microschool and schooling 

alternative in Nashua, New Hampshire that emphasizes personalized, self-directed learning for middle school-age 

students. Middle schoolers have long been a neglected group of learners, says Fellman. Just as they enter adolescence 

and confront enormous physical and emotional change, they get thrust into larger buildings and more impersonal 

classes, which can leave many of them feeling unmoored. 

During his public school’s prolonged remote learning and hybrid schedule, where his middle schoolers attended much 

smaller classes than usual, Fellman saw his students come alive. In a more intimate, personalized setting, they were 

talkative, engaged, and enthusiastic about learning. Once schooling returned to its pre-pandemic “normal,” Fellman’s 

students again withdrew. 

He decided to finally do what he had long been dreaming about and create a middle school where young people can 

thrive. “If we give adolescent learners the respect, autonomy, and attention that they crave and deserve, we can make 

middle school the most important educational years,” said Fellman. 

The Harkness House offers a full-time, private school option that is accessible to more families thanks to New 

Hampshire’s new Education Freedom Accounts that enable education funding to follow students. It also provides 

customizable learning opportunities for homeschooled adolescents who are looking for an affordable schooling 

alternative, with 2-day and 4-day a week programming options. 

“As we’ve built our full-time program at The Harkness House, we’ve found a shared excitement for student autonomy 

and self-directed learning among families who are pursuing non-traditional educational pathways and who are not 

necessarily seeking full-time options,” said Fellman. “We know that we can give those students the ability to explore 

their interests and develop their passions in ways that just aren’t available in traditional schools.” 

Prompted by the pandemic response, more parents and teachers are imagining and introducing new K-12 learning 

models and schooling alternatives. They are reshaping the landscape of available education options, leveraging new 

and expanded school choice policies where possible, and creating decentralized, individualized learning environments 

where young people can flourish. 

At this time of year, many parents may be starting to look for other education options for their children. Thanks to 

entrepreneurial educators like Fellman, they are now more likely to find what they are looking for. 

Like this story? Click here to sign up for the LiberatED newsletter and get education news and analysis like this from 

Senior Education Fellow Kerry McDonald in your inbox every week. 



96 

FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2019 

BARRY BROWNSTEIN 

The Democratic Socialist Platform Echoes the Madness of 

the Khmer Rouge 

In 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over, they quickly 

emptied the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. This was 

to be year Zero; a rebirth of Cambodia as an engineered 

egalitarian, classless rural society with “the corruption 

and parasitism of city life” eliminated. Several million 

had to leave at once, including hospital patients. Those 

who refused were summarily executed. Those who left 

were forced to work in fields, where many died while 

being fed starvation rations. 

Genocide against their own citizens resulted in up to 2.5 

million dead out of a population of 8 million. Over 1.3 

million of the dead were executed. 

Driven mad by class politics, Khmer Rouge soldiers 

dehumanized their victims. Khmer Rouge soldiers “fired 

aimlessly at innocent civilians as long as someone 

offended them in any way.” They reserved special 

brutality for those in Cambodia’s middle class, “the 

doctors, bankers, teachers and merchants, the people 

who read books and even the ones who just wore 

glasses.” 

Dehumanizing those you murder is characteristic of 

totalitarian regimes. Hitler killed Jews. Stalin killed 

kulaks. Mao killed landlords. In Cambodia, the Khmer 

Rouge took the “most violent and ignorant people, and… 

taught them to lead, manage, control, and destroy.” As 

deranged cadres murdered, some chanted the couplet 

taught by their leaders, “To keep you is no benefit, to 

destroy you is no loss.” 

Tribal conflicts, steadily diminishing in the West under capitalism, will rise again to threaten 

the peace and prosperity of humanity. 

97 

Identity Politics Leads to Dehumanization 

You want to believe that such madness could never 

visit America. Yet, a cancer of identity politics, with its 

concurrent demands for social justice, continues to 

grow. A mindset of dehumanizing those who are not in 

your tribe is taking root in more people. After all, the 

“other” is just someone who is in the way of a more “just” 

society. 

Writing in his book Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth 

of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics 

is Destroying American Democracy, Jonah Goldberg 

observes, “Identity politics in all its forms is just a subset 

of this worldview. It says ‘My tribe deserves more than 

your tribe.’” 

If my tribe deserves more than your tribe then, in 

Goldberg’s words, “objective standards of merit or 

notions of free speech are invalid, even racist, if they 

perpetuate the amorphously defined evil of ‘white 

privilege.’” 

Goldberg explains succinctly why those demanding social 

justice aim to dismantle the rule of law: 

Spend a few minutes actually studying what activists mean by 

“social justice” and you will discover that it is often a reactionary 

effort. It claims the rule of law is a rigged system designed 

to protect the interests of the patriarchy or white privilege or 

the “one percent.” Social justice holds that abstract rules or 

timeless principles are inadequate if they do not lead to “redistributive” 

or “economic” justice.



Spend a few minutes actually studying what activists mean by “social justice” and you will discover that it is often a 

reactionary effort. It claims the rule of law is a rigged system designed to protect the interests of the patriarchy or 

white privilege or the “one percent.” Social justice holds that abstract rules or timeless principles are inadequate if they 

do not lead to “redistributive” or “economic” justice. 

You might also wonder who will decide what is undesirable? The democratic socialists offer no answers. Answers will 

be provided later, based on the tribal politics en vogue. facebook sharing buttontwitter sharing buttonflipboard sharing 

buttonreddit sharing buttonlinkedin sharing buttonemail sharing button 

If you think Americans will categorically reject such vague foolishness, think again. Rather than associating socialism 

with government ownership of production, today more Americans think socialism means “equality.” 

If too many “ethnic and racial undesirables” are represented in high-paying jobs in the medical community, will doctors 

be forced to trade jobs and salaries with medical aides? Will software engineers trade jobs and salaries with office custodians? 

How likely is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to trade jobs with a coal miner in Wheeling, West Virginia? 

To achieve the goal of distributing “undesirable” jobs would require no less than complete totalitarian control of the 

economy. Democratic socialists will enforce the rule of tribal power in place of the rule of law. 

Hayek on Social Justice 

In Volume 2 of Law, Legislation and Liberty: the Mirage of Social Justice, Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek challenges us to consider 

“whether it is possible to preserve a market order while imposing upon it some pattern of remuneration” based 

on “social justice” criteria and imposed by “an authority possessing the power to enforce it.” Hayek’s answer is “no.” 

Why, then, is the concept of social justice so popular? Hayek provides an answer: 

The results of the spontaneous ordering of the market [are] interpreted as if some thinking being deliberately directed them, or as 

if the particular benefits or harm different persons derived from them were determined by deliberate acts of will. 

In short, someone did it; so someone needs to fix it. 

Using Hayek’s lens, we can see that a belief in injustice could begin in childhood and extend into adulthood. Who has 

received everything they felt they deserved from their parents, from school, from work, or from life? 

We tell ourselves stories about our second-grade teacher who forgot about us, a parent who didn’t understand us during 

our teenage years, or a boss who didn’t recognize our talent. Looking through the lens of the “story of me,” we feel 

like victims. This is why stories of victims and victimizers dominate the media. Looking for who is at fault can become a 

full-time occupation. 

No wonder there are so many angry and bitter individuals; they are still trying to get others and life to conform to their 

expectations. Taking responsibility for our experience of life begins with understanding that life will never conform to 

our imagined ideas about how things should be. 

In his lifetime, Hayek earned a fraction of what Stephen King has earned, and no one is at fault. Hayek writes, 

Incomes earned in the market by different persons will normally not correspond to the relative values of their services to any one 

person ... the performance of a Beethoven sonata ... or a play by Shakespeare have no “value to society” but a value only to those 

who know and appreciate them. 

In other words, there is no objective value. 

Should a tax be placed on Stephen King’s novels to ensure that unpopular writers are better compensated? We can 

only reach what we see as “justice” by mistreating some people. Hayek writes: 

To assure the same material position to people who differ greatly in their strength, intelligence, skill, knowledge, and 

perseverance as well as in their physical and social environment, government would clearly have to treat them very 

differently. 

Hayek points us to look in a different direction where “only the conduct of the players but not the result can be just.” 

Of course, democratic socialists argue the opposite—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said a society that “allows billionaires 

to exist” along with extreme poverty is “immoral.” Ocasio-Cortez didn’t say billionaires are immoral, but by conflating 

billionaires and poverty, Ocasio-Cortez is implying cause and effect. 

The murderous Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, in a 1979 interview said, “Our policy was to provide an affluent life for the 

people. There were mistakes made in carrying it out.” In one of history’s great understatements, Pol Pot allowed, “Several 

thousand people may have died.” Good intentions don’t matter, totalitarian social justice policies are antithetical 

to fostering human well-being. 



98 

WEDNESDAY, NOV 16, 2016KERRY The age-based education system in the US needs serious rethinking. 

DANIEL LATTIER 

Government Schools Are No Place for Bright Kids 

Sometimes, something that’s right in front of you can students by age, students of varying academic abilities 

escape your attention. 

get put on the same track. The low performers remain 

consistently behind, in a constant struggle to play 

catch-up. And they’re the ones who get the majority of 

Over the past five years I’ve looked at countless student 

the attention of today’s schools and education reformers. 

performance numbers, and almost always, my attention 

goes to the large percentages of students who are 

But the high performers are suffering in this system, too. 

performing below grade level in reading, math, history, They’re forced to sit in a classroom for seven hours a day 

etc. I see these numbers as evidence of the failure of the going over simple material and concepts at a snail’s pace. 

current education system. 

Eventually, intellectual atrophy sets in. 

But a recent policy brief (titled “How Can So Many 

That’s what happened to me. I was bored for almost 

Students Be Invisible?) has brought something else to my 

the entirety of my elementary and middle-school 

attention—something equally, if not more, damning of 

career because I already knew, or quickly understood, 

the education system. It’s the fact that large percentages 

most of what was being rehashed over and over again. 

of American students are performing ABOVE grade level. 

And it wasn’t because I’m a genius; I consider myself 

merely “average bright”. Over time, I went from being 

After looking at data from five different, nationallyrespected 

an intellectually curious child to apathetic and lazy 

assessments of student performance, the 

about learning. I’m sure many others have had a similar 

researchers found that “20-40% of elementary and 

experience. 

middle school students perform at least one grade level 

above their current grade in reading, with 11-30% scoring 

In their recommendations, the professors who wrote 

at least one grade level above in math.” 

the brief concluded that “the U.S. K-12 context, which 

is organized primarily around age-based grade levels, 

Most would read that and think it’s evidence to the 

needs serious rethinking.” 

contrary: that it means that our education system is 

doing a good job. But not me, and not the professors who 

I think that’s putting it too mildly. 

put together the brief. 

Honestly, I’m starting to think that this education system 

You see, because the system arbitrarily separates 

doesn’t need to be reformed; it needs to be destroyed. 



99



Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have each advocated for 

student loan forgiveness, which many believe to be the only way to solve the crisis. 

Truth be told, the economic and political realities of implementing such a program are supremely unfeasible. It’s also 

immoral. As economist Antony Davies says, “‘Forgiving’ student debt really means forcing people who didn’t go to college 

to pay for those who did.” 

But the fact remains that student loans are strangling many young Americans and preventing them from getting ahead 

and earning their slice of the American dream. 

Millennials and Gen Xers have already dug themselves into a hole. But Gen Z can break the cycle and learn from their 

mistakes. 

The first step in preventing the next generation from following down this same path is making sure Gen Z knows 

exactly what they are getting into when they take out loans and what other options are available to them. 

Not all debt is created equal. If, for example, you were to open a new credit card account, accrue massive amounts of 

debt, and then stop making payments, your credit score would most certainly plummet, and you would have to deal 

with the subsequent consequences. 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2020 

BRITTANY HUNTER 

Dear Gen Z: Learn from Millennial Mistakes and Say No to 

Student Loan Debt 

Gen Z is growing up fast. With the older end of the 

“Zoomer” generation now in their early- to mid-twenties, 

many are finishing their undergraduate degrees and 

moving on to grad programs before trying their luck in 

the workforce. Others are just beginning their college 

careers. 

According to the Pew Research Center, the postmillennial 

generation is on track to becoming the most 

educated yet. But with such a heavy emphasis on higher 

education, one has to wonder how the current student 

loan crisis will affect this demographic. 

Millennials are all too familiar with this crisis, as massive 

student loan debt has been their generation’s signature 

burden to bear. But as more Gen Zers come of age and 

begin contemplating how they will pay for college, they 

would be wise to learn from the mistakes of millennials 

and think twice before borrowing money to pay for 

school. 

The Millennial Burden 

The student loan debt catastrophe has reached epic 

proportions, now totaling over $1.6 trillion. With more 

than 44 million Americans struggling to pay off this 

balance, student loans have become one of the largest 

culprits of consumer debt today. 

As more Gen Zers come of age, they would be wise to learn from the mistakes of millennials 

and think twice before borrowing money to pay for school. 

100 

Millennials are currently responsible for $497.6 billion of 

our nation’s total student loan debt. Of those who took 

out loans between 2010-2012, only 51 percent have been 

able to make any progress in paying off their balances. 

The financial strain of this debt is even more apparent 

when you consider its 11 percent default rate—the 

highest of any debt category. 

This massive financial burden has prevented many 

millennials from achieving the same economic comfort 

as their parents and grandparents. Strapped with high 

monthly payments, fewer millennials are able to own 

homes, start families, create savings, and become 

financially independent and debt-free. Some have even 

been forced to live with their parents while they attempt 

to pay off their balances. 

This is probably why so many millennials have taken on 

two jobs or utilized the gig economy in order to make 

ends meet. 

Student loan debt has become such a large burden, 

a recent study of 1,000 undergraduate and 1,000 

postgraduate degree holders found that 39 percent said 

they would gladly spend a week in jail if it meant they 

could erase their student loan debt. 

The seriousness of the situation has become a major 

talking point in our national dialogue, and every major 

presidential candidate, and politician for that matter, has 

something to contribute to the conversation. 

But aside from taking you to civil court, where you would work to settle your debt, there is not a whole lot the credit 

card companies can do to you that would impact your personal life. Your employer would not find out, your wages 

would not be garnished, and your career itself would not be placed in jeopardy. 

Student loan debt, on the other hand, is a different kind of beast. 

As soon as you miss your monthly payment, your account becomes delinquent. If you continue to miss payments for 

270 days—about nine months— you will default on your loans. In addition to your missed payments being reported to 

all the major credit bureaus and your credit score tanking, the federal government can and will garnish a percentage 

of your wages. 

But this hellish ordeal does not end there. 

Once your alma mater finds out you have defaulted, it can choose to withhold your transcripts until you get current 

on your payments. Until your account is back in good standing, your yearly tax returns, if you are fortunate to receive 

them, will be withheld from you, as well. 

Unlike other debt, which can be erased by filing for bankruptcy, it is exceedingly rare for student loan debt to be considered 

eligible for dismissal through this process—though that might soon be changing thanks to a recent New York 

court case. 

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, any certifications you earned can be suspended. For occupations that require licenses, 

which account for about 23 percent of US jobs, the government can revoke these permits, rendering you unable to do 

the job you went to school to do and thus unable to pay your loans back. 

You might think this will never happen to you, but it is the predicament many millennials are currently facing. And to 

put the student loan default rate into perspective, it is four times higher than the delinquency rates for credit cards 

and residential mortgages. 

College is supposed to set young adults up for success. But for too many, student loans have greatly inhibited their 

quality of life and their careers. 

Gen Z, however, doesn’t have to repeat these mistakes. 

What Does the Future Hold for Gen Z? 

A new study conducted by the organization Handshake, which surveyed more than 1,000 college students between the 

ages of 16 and 24 years old, shed some light on how the student loan crisis is shaping up for Gen Z. 

The study estimates that 73 percent of Gen-Z students will graduate with student loan debt. The research also found 

that 8 percent of Gen Zers will likely owe less than $25,000, while 23.7 percent will have anywhere from $25,000 to 

under $50,000 in loans. Only about 3.5 percent of Gen Z graduates are expected to owe over six figures. 

101



Of the men surveyed, 40 percent said they felt confident they would be able to pay off their loans in under five years, 

as opposed to the 25 percent of female respondents who said they felt the same. While that might seem feasible to 

these students now, the truth is we don’t know what the economy or the job market will be like in the next several 

years, so nothing is guaranteed. 

If millennials have taught us anything, it’s that paying off these loans is not as easy as it might seem. So what else can 

be done? 

While it could be argued that the whole higher education system needs an overhaul, for now, there are options available 

to young adults that do not involve accumulating massive amounts of debt. 

College is the right choice for many, but it’s not the only choice. 

Apprenticeships are currently on the rise in the US and offer participants the opportunity to learn a practical skill 

while getting hands-on and real-life experience. Instead of paying high tuition costs, apprenticeships allow you to earn 

while you learn. 

If after the apprenticeship is complete, you decide you want to go to a traditional college, you now have the means to 

pay tuition without having to take out loans. 

Another option is to opt for a community college, where tuition is less expensive, and take courses slowly while you 

work a part-time job. It might take a few years longer, but you will save yourself years of student loan payments. 

The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that many college degrees will never be worth the $50,000 debt you went 

into in order to get your diploma. If the point of college is to prepare you for your future career, it’s important for Gen 

Z to carefully consider what path will lead them toward a prosperous and fulfilling one. 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2022 

BY KERRY MCDONALD 

Pandemic “Learning Loss” Actually Reveals More About 

Schooling Than Learning 

There are mounting concerns over profound learning loss due 

to prolonged school closures and remote learning. New data 

released last week by the US Department of Education reveal 

that fourth-grade reading and math scores dropped sharply over 

The alleged “learning loss” now being exposed is more reflective of the nature of 

forced schooling rather than how children actually learn. 

Learning and schooling are completely different. Learning is 

something we humans do, while schooling is something done to 

us. We need more learning and less schooling. 

Yet, the solutions being proposed to deal with the identified 

Luckily, Gen Z appears to be more financially savvy than millennials. The credit bureau TransUnion released a new 

study that looked at the credit profiles of Gen Zers. The research suggests that those who have already come of age 

are having an easier time paying off their debt and have higher credit scores than millennials did at their age. If this 

trend continues, we might not have to be as concerned for the up and coming generation. 

The future is bright for Gen Z, but it can be even brighter if they heed the warnings of previous generations and stay 

away from the pitfalls of student loans. 



the past two years. 

Fingers are waving regarding who is to blame, but the alleged 

“learning loss” now being exposed is more reflective of the nature 

of forced schooling rather than how children actually learn. 

The current hullabaloo over pandemic learning loss mirrors the 

well-worn narrative regarding “summer slide,” in which children 

allegedly lose knowledge over summer vacation. In 2017, I wrote 

an article for Boston NPR stating that there’s no such thing as the 

summer slide. 

Students may memorize and regurgitate information for a test or 

a teacher, but if it has no meaning for them, they quickly forget 

it. Come high school graduation, most of us forget most of what 

we supposedly learned in school. 

learning loss over the past two years promise the opposite. Billions 

of dollars in federal COVID relief funds are being funneled 

into more schooling and school-like activities, including intensive 

tutoring, extended-day learning programs, longer school years, 

and more summer school. These efforts could raise test scores, 

as has been seen in Texas where students receive 30 hours of 

tutoring in each subject area in which they have failed a test, but 

do they really reflect true learning? 

As we know from research on unschoolers and others who learn 

in self-directed education settings, non-coercive, interest-driven 

learning tends to be deep and authentic. When learning is individually-initiated 

and unforced, it is not a chore. It is absorbed 

and retained with enthusiasm because it is tied to personal 

passions and goals. 

In his New York Times opinion article this week, economist Bryan 

Caplan makes a related point: “I figure that most of the learning 

students lost in Zoom school is learning they would have lost by 

early adulthood even if schools had remained open. My claim 

is not that in the long run remote learning is almost as good as 

in-person learning. My claim is that in the long run in-person 

102 

learning is almost as bad as remote learning.” 

103 

Certainly, many children have been deprived of both intellectual 

and social stimulation since 2020, as lockdowns and other 

pandemic policies kept them detached from their larger communities. 

I wrote back in September 2020 that these policies were 

damaging an entire generation of kids, and urged parents to do 

whatever possible to ensure that their children had normal interactions 

with the wider world.



Children who were not able to have those interactions will need more opportunities now to play and explore and discover 

their world. It is through this play, exploration, and discovery that they will acquire and expand their intellectual 

and social skills. This is best facilitated outside of a conventional classroom, not inside one. 

“What we need is less school, not more,” writes Boston College psychology professor Peter Gray. “Kids need more 

time to play and just be kids. Mother nature designed kids to play, explore, and daydream without adult intervention 

because that is how kids develop the skills, confidence, and attitudes necessary for mental health and overall wellbeing.” 

Fortunately, non-coercive schooling alternatives are becoming more widely available. My latest Forbes article 

describes an Illinois public middle school science teacher, Josh Pickel, who quit his job this summer to open a new 

self-directed microschool. As Pickel wondered: “What if we removed coercion and those kids were allowed to focus 

their energy and their intellect on things they care about?” 

The start of this new school year brings with it greater education possibilities, including those like Pickel’s that enable 

children to joyfully explore content they care about, in pursuit of goals that matter to them, leading to genuine learning 

retained for years to come. 

We can criticize school shutdowns and affirm that they never should have happened, while also recognizing that 

imposing more schooling is not the solution to presumed pandemic-era learning loss. It might raise test scores, but it’s 

unlikely to lead to true learning. Only freedom can do that. 

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2022 

BY BEN JOHNSON 

How the US Government Created the Student Loan Crisis 

President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping plan on Wednesday to 

If someone wanted to destroy a generation’s hope in their ability to get ahead, he 

couldn’t have devised a better system than the federal government’s income-based 

repayment plans. 

from a fixed-rate loan — like a mortgage or car loan — to a plan 

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104 

let delinquent student loan borrowers transfer tens of thousands 

of dollars in debt to taxpayers. If he were a biblically minded 

leader, Biden would have used his nationally televised press 

conference to repent of his role in creating the student loan crisis 

in the first place. 

Biden’s student loan bailout lets individuals write off $20,000 

in unpaid student loans if they received Pell Grants or $10,000 

if they did not. The plan is open to households that make up to 

$250,000 a year or individuals who make $125,000. It would also 

reduce the number of people who have to make student loan 

payments at all, as well as the amount and time they must pay 

before US taxpayers pick up the tab for their full loan. 

While much of the commentary has focused on students who 

refused to make their loan payments, few have discussed how 

successive presidential administrations set those students up 

for failure. The federal government largely nationalized the 

student loan industry in 2010 via a piece of legislation related to 

Obamacare, the “Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act 

of 2010.” The US government now holds 92 percent of all student 

loans — and the nation’s total student debt has more than 

doubled, from $811 billion in April 2010 to $1.748 trillion in April 

2022. 

Part of the reason the figures have surged — and students start 

life so indebted — is due to progressive policies that made it 

impossible for most people to ever pay off their student loans. 

In their haste to have the US taxpayer underwrite the maximum 

amount of college tuition, they transformed most student loans 

based on the student’s post-graduation income. Gradually, the 

borrower’s share of his college loans shrank, while the taxpayer’s 

increased. 

The first income-based repayment plan — the William D. Ford 

Federal Direct Loan Program, established in July 1994 under 

the Clinton administration — required students to pay up to 20 

percent of their discretionary income for 25 years; any remaining 

balance would be paid by taxpayers. The George W. Bush 

administration passed the College Cost Reduction and Access 

Act of 2007, which let graduates pay 15 percent of their income 

above 150 percent of the federal poverty line. The Obama-Biden 

administration reduced that to 10 percent and wrote off unpaid 

undergraduate loans after 20 years under a series of new loan 

policies between 2012 and 2014. 

These policies made student loan debt effectively permanent and 

unpayable. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) spelled out the process in 

a thorough, February 2020 report. CBO researchers followed college 

graduates who began paying off student loans in 2012. “By 

the end of 2017, over 75% of those borrowers owed more than 

they had originally borrowed. By contrast, the median balance 

among borrowers in fixed-payment plans decreased steadily,” 

they noted. “Loans are often repaid more slowly under incomedriven 

plans because the required payments are too small to 

cover the accruing interest. As a result, borrowers in such plans 

typically see their balance grow over time rather than being paid 

down.” 

105



The federal government took over nearly all student loans, forced students to make years of payments only to fall further behind, 

then handed the enlarged debt to the US taxpayer. The ill-advised policies began as far back as 1978 with the Middle Income Student 

Assistant Act, which let all college students accrue student loan debt. A series of bills expanded this web of indebtedness to an 

ever-larger percentage of Americans — and Joe Biden supported every single legislative misstep. He also made it all-but impossible 

to discharge student loans in bankruptcy, ensuring that graduates’ hopelessly accumulating loan payments went on endlessly — and 

that college administrators continued to collect. 

If someone wanted to destroy a generation’s hope in their ability to get ahead, he couldn’t have devised a better system. 

As the French wag said, that policy is “worse than a crime; it’s a mistake.” The majority of student loans are now income-based 

according to the CBO, and the loans the government would issue between 2020 and 2029 will cost taxpayers an estimated $82.9 billion. 

All this ignores the fact that Uncle Sam has proved a poor accountant. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released 

in July found the Department of Education predicted that student loans would generate $114 billion for the federal government; they 

instead lost $197 billion — a $311 billion error, mostly due to incorrect analysis. 

Only the federal government could lose money on an industry that has grown at four times the rate of inflation. As Milton Friedman 

once observed, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.” 

And, of course, those calculations didn’t consider the possibility that Biden would transfer a hefty part of that amount to productive 

US taxpayers, who cannot default from compulsory taxation. 

Biden and former President Barack Obama should repent for fastening this debt burden to the younger generation, then increasing 

the unfathomable national debt for all Americans. President Biden’s announcement on Wednesday afternoon should have seen him 

bow before the audience, whisper a “mea culpa,” and offer the write-offs as an act of restitution and reparation for the bad policies 

he supported for more than four decades. To fit proper biblical restitution, the payment would have to be made to the 75 percent of 

students who took out government-created, income-based student loans since the Obama administration — especially those who 

made their payments. He would also have to have the legal and constitutional authority to redistribute other people’s money, which 

he does not. But if he did, that arrangement would at least be fair. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2022 

BY Vanessa Brown Calder 

Memo to DC Politicians: Caring for Small Children Doesn’t 

Require a Bachelor’s Degree 

Earlier this month, a federal court upheld DC’s licensing regulation, 

which requires child care providers to have a college degree 

in order to care for children. In so doing, the court gives D.C. 

officials the go ahead to implement the regulation, which will 

A majority of adults in 56 of D.C.‘s neighborhoods would not qualify to care for children 

by its bachelor’s degree requirement, a regulation recently upheld by a federal 

court. 

Moreover, a majority of adults in 56 of D.C.‘s neighborhoods 

would not qualify to care for children by its bachelor’s degree 

requirement, and a majority of adults in 25 of D.C.’s neighborhoods 

would not qualify to care for children by its associate 

degree requirement. Many of these “unqualified” adults are, of 

But in the Bible, repentance (μετάνοια) means to change one’s mind and behavior. Biden’s new student loan bailout did not represent 

heartfelt repentance but hard-hearted defiance. Instead of turning the ship of state back toward safety, Biden cried, “Damn the torpedoes, 

full speed ahead!” Rather than abandon the income-based student loan bondage he and Barack Obama designed, he further 

reduced the minimum payments to 5 percent of new graduates’ discretionary income, raised discretionary income to 225 percent of 

the poverty level, and let students transfer their unpaid loans to taxpayers after 10 years. That will consign even more graduates to a 

life of hopeless interest-service payments and force taxpayers to eat an even larger percentage of defaulted, inflated debt. 

That only makes sense if the progressives intend to collapse the system, as many believed they designed Obamacare to force the US 

healthcare system into a death spiral, and replace it with a government-run socialist alternative. Obama admitted he favored socialized 

medicine in 2008. “If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” Obama told 

a campaign rally. But for the moment, he would tinker with the existing system until Americans “decide that there are other ways for 

us to provide care more effectively.” 

Is it possible this is the next step toward government-funded college? Whatever it is, it is not the road back to economic sanity. 

Biden and Obama should repent. And if they will not humble themselves, voters should humble those who support their immoral 

policies at the ballot box. 

make D.C. the most restrictively regulated state or territory in 

the country in this regard. This is unfortunate news, as the new 

regulation will have a negative impact on child care professionals, 

parents, and children alike. 

Perhaps most obviously, D.C.’s rulemaking acts as a barrier to 

employment for existing and would‐be child care providers. One 

of the plaintiffs in the case, Ilumi Sanchez, is an example of such 

a care provider. Sanchez is a mother herself, and has provided 

care to children since the mid‐90s, only to be told in 2016 that 

her qualifications do not meet new D.C. standards that require a 

college degree to care for small tots. 

Perhaps D.C. officials need to be reminded that caring for small 

tots does not require a college degree. In 2021, 54 percent of U.S. 

children lived in a household where neither parent would qualify 

to care for small children by D.C.’s standard that requires child 

care directors to have a bachelor’s degree. And 43 percent of U.S. 

children live in a household where neither parent would qualify 

course, parents themselves.[i] 

In addition to being a senseless barrier to work for would‐be carers, 

D.C. regulations also act as a barrier for parents looking for 

child care: a study on the impact of child care regulations found 

that imposing just minimum educational requirements on staff 

reduced the number of child care centers in associated markets. 

That is bad news for parents, as it means that they are likely to 

have even fewer choices at a time when the child care industry is 

still recovering its pre‐pandemic workforce and child care is hard 

to come by. 

Finally, having fewer care options is similarly problematic for D.C. 

children: in the same study, the authors conclude that imposing 

regulations on the childcare market creates winners and losers, 

where the losers are primarily children in lower income zip codes. 

The authors report that children in more regulated areas were 

pushed into home‐based day care, resulting in more children in 

home‐based day care. But because the home‐based day cares 

to care for small children based on D.C.’s requirement that child 

did not or could not hire more adults, individual children likely 



care staff have an associate degree. 

received less care and attention. 

106 

107



Unfortunately, D.C.’s licensing regulation goes beyond child care center staff and applies to some staff in home‐based day cares, too. 

So for D.C. children, informal care is more likely to be the fallback option, which may mean that D.C. kids have less predictable care 

providers, less consistency, and less developmentally enriching environments than they would without the regulation. 

It should not be a surprise that child care regulations, like many regulations, are regressive. But it is a shame that in the most expensive 

child care market in the country, D.C. officials seem intent on making care harder to come by. Particularly under these circumstances, 

it is a disgrace to put devoted, experienced workers out of a job; eliminate perfectly good child care options for parents; and 

keep children from consistent, reliable, developmentally appropriate care. 



TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2019 

BY Daniel Kowalski 

How Government-Guaranteed Student Loans Killed the 

American Dream for Millions 

In Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell wrote that prices are what 

tie together the vast network of economic activity among people 

When government-guaranteed checks keep rolling in, there’s no incentive for colleges 

and universities to lower their prices. In fact, they do the opposite. 

it drilled into their heads during high school (if not earlier) that 

their best shot—perhaps their only shot—at achieving success in 

108 

who are too vastly scattered to know each other. Prices are the 

regulators of the free market. An object’s value in the free market 

is not how much it costs to produce, but rather how much a 

consumer is willing to pay for it. 

Loans are a crucial component of the free market because they 

allow consumers to borrow large sums of money they normally 

would not have access to, which are later paid back in installments 

with interest. If the borrower fails to pay back the loan, 

the lender can repossess the physical item the loan purchased, 

such as a house or car. 

Student loans are different. Education is abstract; if they’re not 

paid back, then there is little recourse for the lender. There is 

no physical object that can be seized. Student loans did not exist 

in their present form until the federal government passed the 

Higher Education Act of 1965, which had taxpayers guaranteeing 

loans made by private lenders to students. While the program 

might have had good intentions, it has had unforeseen harmful 

consequences. 

The Problem with Government-Backed Student Loans 

Millennials are the most educated generation in American history, 

but many college graduates have tens of thousands of dollars 

in debt to go along with their degrees. Young Americans had 

life was to have a college diploma. 

This fueled demand for the higher education business, 

where existing universities and colleges expanded their 

academic programs in the arts and humanities to suit 

students not interested in math and sciences, and it also 

led to many private universities popping up to meet the 

demands of students who either could not afford the tuition 

or could not meet the admission criteria of the existing 

colleges. In 1980, there were 3,231 higher education 

institutions in the United States. By 2016, that number 

increased by more than one-third to 4,360. 

Secured financing of student loans resulted in a surge of 

students applying for college. This increase in demand 

was, in turn, met with an increase in price because 

university administrators would charge more if people 

were willing to pay it, just as any other business would 

(though to be fair, student loans do require more administration 

staff for processing). According to Forbes, the 

average price of tuition has increased eight times faster 

than wages since the 1980s. In 2018, the Federal Reserve 

estimated that there is currently $1.5 trillion in unpaid 

student debt. The Institute for College Access and Success 

estimates that in 2017, 65 percent of recent bachelor’s 

degree graduates have student loans, and the average is 

$28,650 per borrower. 

109



The government’s backing of student loans has caused the price of higher education to artificially rise; the demand 

would not be so high if college were not a financially viable option for some. Young people have been led to believe 

that a diploma is the ticket to the American dream, but that’s not the case for many Americans. 

Financially, it makes no sense to take out a $165,000 loan for a master’s degree that leads to a job where the average 

annual salary is $38,000—yet thousands of young people are making this choice. Only when they graduate do they 

understand the reality of their situation as they live paycheck-to-paycheck and find it next-to-impossible to save for a 

home, retirement, or even a rainy-day fund. 

Nor can student loans be discharged by filing for bankruptcy. Prior to 1976, student loans were treated like any other 

kind of debt with regard to bankruptcy laws, but as defaults increased, the federal government changed the laws. So 

student debt will hang above the borrower’s head until the debt is repaid. 

How to Fix the Problem 

There are two key steps to addressing the student loan crisis. First, there needs to be a major cultural shift away from 

the belief that college is a one-size-fits-all requirement for success. We are beginning to see this as many young Americans 

start to realize they can attend a trade school for a fraction of what it would cost for a four-year college and that 

they can get in-demand jobs with high salaries. 

Second, parents and school systems should stress economic literacy so that young people better understand the concepts 

of resources, scarcity, and prices. We also need to teach our youth about personal finances, interest, and budgeting 

so they understand that borrowing a large amount of money that only generates a small level of income is not a 

sound investment. 

Finally, the current system of student loan financing needs to be reformed. Schools should not be given a blank check, 

and the government-guaranteed loans should only cover a partial amount of tuition. Schools should also be responsible 

for directly lending a portion of student loans so that it’s in their financial interest to make sure graduates enter 

the job market with the skills and requirements needed to get a well-paying job. If a student fails to pay back their 

loan, then the college or university should also share in the taxpayer’s loss. Only when the demand for higher education 

decreases will we witness a decrease in its cost. 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2016 Recent efforts to encourage more individuals to pursue college may be misguided. 

BY Mary Clare Reim 

Question the Conventional Wisdom about College Degrees 

Conventional wisdom says that students need a four-year degree study, compared to just 53 percent of employed students who 

to make it in today’s economy. But do the numbers back that up? earned an academic credential. 

According to a new study released by the Department of Education, 

students who pursue an occupational credential (an educaers 

think about higher education. With college tuition at 

These data illustrate the need for change in the way policymak- 

an 



tion that is career-centered) are more likely to be employed than 

those who get an academic credential. 

all-time high and with over 3.6 million students defaulting on 

their student loans, students need alternative options for upward 

mobility now more than ever. 

This suggests that recent efforts to encourage more individuals 

to pursue college (President Barack Obama said that all Americans 

should have at least some postsecondary education) may be 

misguided. The data also suggest that the administration’s antag- 

Unfortunately, our system currently reinforces the idea 

that a four-year bachelor’s degree is the only way to get 

ahead in today’s economy, regardless of the price or what 

a student actually wants to pursue. 

onism toward more career-focused educational tracks—often 

provided by for-profit trade schools and community colleges—is 

misplaced. 

Instead, these new data underscore the need for more diversity 

and innovation in the higher education sphere. (For more, see 

“Killer Career Advice for College Graduates.”) 

Academia Vs. Value 

The study uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students 

Longitudinal Study (BPS), which tracked students who had 

Getting Graduates Back to Work 

Reforming the outdated accreditation system could help 

fix this problem. The Higher Education Reform and Opportunity 

(HERO) Act championed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, 

and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., would be a significant step 

in removing the barriers to innovation in higher education. 

Under this plan, states would have the flexibility to allow 

any entity, such as a business, to accredit and credential 

courses of study and individual courses, and students 

would still have the ability to access federal student aid. 

enrolled in college for the first time. 

Researchers surveyed students starting in 2003 and tracked their 

progress through 2009. By the end of that six-year period, the 

study found that a greater proportion of students who earned an 

occupational credential were employed. 

Additionally, 74 percent of those employed students with an 

occupational credential were in jobs related to their field of 

Importantly, this could extend to the business community 

to allow those with more discrete knowledge of their 

field to accredit programs or even individual courses. The 

policy of “decoupling” (or separating) college accreditation 

from federal financing creates a much-needed relationship 

between the education students are getting and the 

jobs they seek upon graduation. As Lee explained: 

110 

111



Today, the federal government restricts access to higher education and inflates its cost, ensuring unfairly to the advantage of 

special interests at the expense of students, teachers, and taxpayers. The federal government does this through its control over 

college accreditation. Because eligibility for federal student loans is tied to the federal accreditation regime, we shut out students 

who want to learn, teachers who want to teach, transformative technologies, and cost-saving innovations. 

… my plan would give states a new option to enter into agreements with the Department of Education to create their own, alternative 

accreditation systems to open up new options for students qualifying for federal aid. 

… accreditation could also be available to specialized programs, individual courses, apprenticeships, professional credentialing, 

and even competency-based tests. States could accredit online courses or hybrid models with elements on- and off-campus. 

Additionally, decoupling federal financing from accreditation would encourage new and innovative models of higher 

education to emerge. In a country where high school graduates represent drastically different backgrounds, interests, 

and skill sets, it seems shortsighted to assume that everyone should pursue the same four-year bachelor’s degree no 

matter what their career and life goals are. 

Although college is the right choice for many, some students would be much better off earning their degree online or 

attending a vocational school to learn a specific skill—or some combination of all three. 

These personalized options can be significantly less expensive than a four-year bachelor’s degree and can take a fraction 

of the time to complete. Breaking apart the higher education cartel that reinforces the status quo is an essential 

first step to providing better and cheaper options for students. 

This study from the Department of Education should inform policymakers in their understanding of occupational education 

options. 

While academic tracks have been successful in getting many students on the path to upward mobility, students need 

more options to fit their unique skills and goals. Expanding education options by reforming our accreditation system 

would be a meaningful first step. 



112 

FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2023 

BY Kerry McDonald 

Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation Across the US: A 

Case Study 

Education Entrepreneurship & Innovation 

https://fee.org/media/43063/education-entrepreneurship-innovation.pdf 

The rise of bottom-up education models 

Across the US, everyday education entrepreneurs are 

reimagining K-12 education in simple but profound ways. 

Some of these entrepreneurs are parents trying to solve 

an educational problem for their own families who decide 

to bring others along with them. Others are teachers who 

became fed up with one-size-fits-all standard schooling 

and set out to create better options. All are ordinary 

people who have taken on the extraordinary challenge 

of transforming K-12 education from the bottom up, 

with small, neighborhood solutions that are having a big, 

nationwide impact. 

Increasingly, these solutions feature out-of-the-box 

learning models that challenge the traditional schooling 

status quo. They are learning pods and homeschool 

collaboratives that bring together local families for shared 

instruction. They are hybrid schools that offer part-time, 

drop-off classes for homeschoolers. They are microschools, 

which are intentionally small, mixed-age learning 

settings with hired educators that emphasize individualized, 

mastery-based learning. They are low-cost private 

schools that prioritize personalized learning. They are 

small, public charter schools that seek to innovate while 

offering a tuition-free option for families. They are virtual 

platforms, coaching services, tutoring centers, and similar 

programs that make it easier for parents and learners to 

step outside of a conventional classroom. 

Over the past few months, I have crisscrossed the country meeting education entrepreneurs 

and visiting the programs they’ve built. Here’s what I found. 

This burst of education entrepreneurship is occurring 

in big and small communities across the country. From 

the bustling boroughs of New York City to the suburban 

neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia, to the busy Dallas/ 

Fort Worth area of Texas and the lively neighborhoods 

of Detroit, to the rural corner of Grants Pass, Oregon, 

everyday entrepreneurs are creating innovative, community-based 

educational models that enable each individual 

learner to flourish. 

Over the past few months, I have crisscrossed the country 

meeting these entrepreneurs and visiting the programs 

they’ve built, as well as interviewing them for my twiceweekly 

LiberatED podcast and regular articles at Forbes 

and FEE.org. These entrepreneurs are diverse in every 

possible way, from their geography and demographics, to 

their distinct educational philosophies and approaches, 

but they share a common commitment to meeting children’s 

educational needs beyond a traditional classroom. 

Parents want different learning options 

Interest in alternative education models, such as homeschooling 

and microschooling, had been rising during 

the first two decades of the millennium, as I detailed in 

my 2019 book, Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated 

Children Outside the Conventional Classroom. The 

education disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic 

response supercharged this interest. Beginning in 2020, 

more parents became aware of learning options beyond 

their local, traditional schools and became more receptive 

to different types of teaching and learning methods. 

113



According to a 2023 analysis by Stanford economist Thomas Dee, more than 1.2 million students left local district 

schools between the 2019/2020 and 2021/2022 school years, with many of them going into homeschooling or private 

schooling settings—and staying there. As Chicago PBS reported in January 2023, the Chicago Public Schools have lost 

10 percent of their student body, or about 37,000 students, between the 2019 and 2022 school years. Ninety-one percent 

of those students who left are from low-income, predominantly minority households. They are choosing private 

education and charter schooling instead. 

In 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau confirmed this exodus from district schools, reporting a doubling of the homeschooling 

population and a five-fold increase in the number of black homeschooled students, who became overrepresented 

in the homeschooling population compared to the overall K-12 public school population. Homeschooling numbers 

today remain well above pre-pandemic levels in most areas of the US. Private schools and charter schools have also 

seen enrollment gains in many places over the past three years, and rough estimates suggest that up to two million 

students are currently learning full-time in a microschool. 

Parents want new and different education options. They want alternatives to the traditional school system, as recent 

polling from Populace, a Massachusetts think tank, revealed. “Americans don’t want ‘better’; they want different,” 

said Todd Rose, a former Harvard Graduate School of Education professor and the cofounder of Populace. “They want 

a way out of the one-size-fits-all approach driven by standardized testing models and elite institutions making us 

compete in a zero-sum game and instead an educational framework geared towards individualized learning, practical 

skills, and preparation for a meaningful life.” 

Everyday entrepreneurs are reimagining learning 

Everyday entrepreneurs are responding to this growing demand for different learning models beyond standard schooling. 

The VELA Education Fund, a philanthropic non-profit that supports non-traditional, out-of-system learning models, 

has issued 2,000 grants to these everyday entrepreneurs since 2019, totaling more than $24 million. In surveying their 

grantees, VELA found that 93 percent of the students and families attending these non-traditional learning environments 

are low-income or from historically underserved populations, and nearly 40 percent of the entrepreneurs leading 

these programs are intentionally serving these populations as part of their organizational mission. 

“Our research affirmed something we at VELA already knew: that unconventional education is for everyone — not just 

for white, affluent families,” said Michael Crawford, VELA’s Director of Community Research. “What we continue to see 

is that a diverse range of entrepreneurs are creatively responding to the needs of learners and families in their communities 

by devising bespoke, flexible, and resilient business models to launch and sustain their programs.” 

Research conducted by the National Microschooling Center reveals similar results, with the opportunity to serve “systemically 

underserved or marginalized communities” named the top motivator of 100 prospective founders, followed 

by the opportunity to “enable children to thrive as they had not in prior settings.” 

This case study offers snapshots of 35 of the entrepreneurial parents and educators who are transforming K-12 education 

in five communities across the country, showing parents what is possible for their children and encouraging 

aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere to take their own enterprising leaps. 



114 

FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2023 


Celebrating a Milestone For Homeschooling Freedoms 

The ubiquity and widespread acceptance of homeschooling 

as a valid educational option for American families 

can obscure the fact that homeschooling freedoms were 

hard-fought. 

Homeschooling didn’t become legally recognized in all U.S. 

states until the 1990s, with families who chose to teach 

their own children in earlier years often harassed and 

sometimes criminally charged with truancy. The DeJonge 

family of Michigan was among them. On a fall day in 1984, 

the DeJonges were visited at their home by the Michigan 

Department of Social Services telling them they were 

breaking the law by homeschooling. A year later, the 

parents were charged and convicted of educating their 

children without a state teaching license. 

The DeJonges then endured a long legal battle, supported 

by the Home School Legal Defense Association, resulting 

in a Michigan Supreme Court ruling on May 25, 1993 that 

secured homeschooling rights in Michigan and removed 

barriers, such as teacher certification requirements, for 

homeschooling parents. 

On that same day, the Michigan Supreme Court also ruled 

in another case, Clonlara v. State Board of Education, that 

similarly expanded homeschooling rights throughout the 

state. That case against the Michigan State Board of Education 

was brought by Pat Montgomery, who founded the 

Clonlara School in 1967 and had adapted Clonlara’s materials 

for the many at-home learners throughout Michigan 

and the U.S. who were attracted to the school’s learner-centered, 

secular approach. Today, Clonlara serves 

more than 2,000 students through its online school, as 

The ubiquity and widespread acceptance of homeschooling as a valid educational 

option for American families can obscure the fact that homeschooling freedoms were 

hard-fought. 

115 

well as additional students at its on-campus location in 

Ann Arbor. 

After teaching in both Catholic schools and public schools, 

Montgomery grew disillusioned with the coercive nature 

of conventional schooling. “I didn’t think that anywhere I 

taught was a proper atmosphere for children. Their opinions 

were not respected. They were never sought,” Montgomery, 

now in her late-80s, told me in a recent interview. 

Inspired by A.S. Neill, who founded the celebrated, self-directed 

Summerhill School in England in 1921, Montgomery 

built Clonlara as an alternative to traditional schooling 

that would encourage choice and autonomy. 

From the beginning, Clonlara’s educational philosophy 

resonated with many families, including those who lived 

far from the school’s Ann Arbor location. They wanted to 

access Clonlara’s curriculum as homeschoolers. Montgomery 

found it troubling that those homeschooling parents 

in the 1970s and 1980s weren’t freely able to educate their 

children as they chose. She filed her lawsuit against the 

state board of education in 1985, arguing that the board’s 

rule-making procedures were unjust. 

“I think that’s where the great indignance came from,” 

Montgomery’s daughter, Chandra Montgomery Nicol, said 

of her mother’s work in bringing the lawsuit.“Not only 

are these parents qualified and able in their own right as 

parents, you, Department of Education, can’t enforce your 

rules against them. Only the legislature can bring those 

rules. And that’s what the judge decided was true,” said 

Nicol, who was Clonlara’s first student and now serves on 

the school’s Board of Directors.



The pivotal Michigan court rulings 30 years ago, in both the DeJonge and Clonlara cases, as well as a third case related 

to homeschooling rights, were among the last in a long line of consequential legal decisions throughout the U.S. guaranteeing 

homeschooling rights for all American families who wanted that option. 

“The court’s decisions represented a milestone in the educational freedom movement,” said Molly Macek, director of 

education policy at Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “They solidified homeschool rights and recognized 

a parent’s right to choose how and where they educate their children. Empowering parents in the learning process 

allows them to provide the best possible education for their children.” 

As homeschooling has moved from the margins to the mainstream over the past two decades, and especially over the 

past three years of education disruption, today’s homeschooling families benefit from the courage and perseverance 

of pioneers like the DeJonges and Montgomery. 

Homeschooling mother Jayne Jackson (left) gets support at Engaged Detroit 

from longtime homeschooling parent, Marla Wellborn. (Photo: Kerry McDonald) 

Among those beneficiaries are the more than 100 Detroit 

homeschooling families who are members of Engaged 

Detroit, a homeschooling resource center launched by 

Bernita Bradley in 2020. What started as a small, informal 

support network for pandemic homeschoolers has grown to 

serve more than 200 learners throughout the city, offering 

homeschooling classes and activities, curriculum and assessment 

materials, and access to one-on-one coaching with an 

experienced homeschooling parent. 

One such coach is Marla Wellborn, who began homeschooling 

her two children 30 years ago—just after it became fully legal 

to do so in Michigan. “We made that choice because we didn’t 

have faith in the system,” said Wellborn. One of her children 

is currently completing a Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, while 

the other attended the University of Michigan and is a fulltime 

minister. Wellborn now works with Engaged 

Detroit families, including Jayne Jackson, a birth and death doula, who homeschools her daughter and appreciates the 

encouragement and guidance that veteran homeschooling parents like Wellborn provide. 

Today’s homeschooling parents can choose from a variety of educational philosophies and curriculum offerings, participate 

in a growing number of microschools and hybrid homeschool programs, gain support from places like Engaged 

Detroit, and customize an educational approach that meets their children’s individual needs and interests. 

More than 50 years after founding Clonlara, and 30 years after helping to secure homeschooling rights in Michigan, Pat 

Montgomery is optimistic about the future growth of education options for families. She is particularly hopeful that 

more empowering, individualized, learner-centered models like Clonlara will continue to spread. “We have to trust 

each other, and we especially have to trust our children,” said Montgomery. 

Her daughter Chandra agrees, acknowledging that both adults and children need autonomy and choice in order to 

flourish: “What we need to learn—what we need to be creative, confident humans—is autonomy. We must have autonomy. 

We must be able to make our own choices.” 


116 


WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2017 


Five Huge Differences between Work and School 

13 Reasons Why is a grueling emotional drama of how 

high school student Hannah Baker ends up taking her 

own life. The social scene at her school inflicts worsening 

wounds and ever-deepening pain. The school itself 

becomes associated with the torment of her heart and 

soul, as her peers drive her ever further into the pit of 

despair.the school’s Board of Directors. 

The pivotal Michigan court rulings 30 years ago, in both 

the DeJonge and Clonlara cases, as well as a third case 

related to homeschooling rights, were among the last in a 

long line of consequential legal decisions throughout the 

U.S. guaranteeing homeschooling rights for all American 

families who wanted that option. 

“The court’s decisions represented a milestone in the 

educational freedom movement,” said Molly Macek, 

director of education policy at Michigan’s Mackinac Center 

for Public Policy. “They solidified homeschool rights and 

recognized a parent’s right to choose how and where 

they educate their children. Empowering parents in the 

learning process allows them to provide the best possible 

education for their children.” 

As homeschooling has moved from the margins to the 

mainstream over the past two decades, and especially 

over the past three years of education disruption, today’s 

homeschooling families benefit from the courage and perseverance 

of pioneers like the DeJonges and Montgomery. 

Life is not all grim. Her home is a respite. There are also 

three commercial settings that play an ameliorating role. 

Her father’s drug store is a happy place. A coffee shop 

is where she tries to form genuine friendships. But I’m 

particularly intrigued by the few scenes that show her 

working at a commercial movie theater. Dressed in a crisp 

uniform, she serves up popcorn to patrons. These scenes 

It matters because many young Americans put off remunerative work until after they 

finish school. 

117 

are few but they are universally safe, affirming, and 

happy. 

The contrast raises the question: what are the differences 

between work and school? It matters because many 

young Americans put off remunerative work until after 

they finish school. They enter real life outside of school 

unprepared for what they are going to face, and carry 

with them many of the bad habits and even pathologies 

they picked up during 16 years of schooling. 

Here are five key differences between work and school. 

1. Obedience vs. Production 

In school there are enforced rules that are supposed to 

be obeyed by everyone, and there is very little room for 

adjusting them in light of differences between individuals. 

Compliance is an end in itself. So long as you adhere to 

the rules, and especially if you are getting good grades – 

which you can do if you say on tests precisely what you 

are supposed to say, and learn what you are supposed 

to learn – you are a success. There is nothing going on 

beyond this. You are not paid to attend, and, after 12th 

grade, you are expected to pay to attend. 

In the workplace, by contrast, the ideal is productivity, 

which ultimately means creating value for others. There 

are rules but they are subject to a non-arbitrary test: are 

we achieving the goal of production itself? You are paid 

because someone thinks you can be a valuable contributor 

to that goal. A portion of the company revenue 

accrues to you, which also implies some return obligation. 

The rules are adaptive, constantly changing according 

to circumstances. They seek to reward good outcomes 

according to the individual, the team, or the purpose.



In a professional workplace, in contrast, all employees learn to separate workflow conflicts from personal conflicts. 

2. Force vs. Choice 

In school, no matter how bad the social environment gets, how grim the hurt feelings, however much suffering you 

face, you have to keep coming back day after day, year after year. The same people, the same problems. This is just 

taken for granted. It is your fate. You surrender to the idea that there is no escape. And why do they believe this? 

Because it is true: there is no escape. Compulsory attendance laws – passed some 100 years ago – created within 

the American schooling model an underlying structure rooted in legal violence, because these laws are ultimately 

enforced by the violence of the state. If you think about it, that was the original sin of American schooling. 

On the other hand, in the workplace, for all the problems and interventions and even bad bosses and lame coworkers, 

you are always free to quit and find another job. You enjoy the right of exit. You are a paid volunteer. That right 

alone takes the sting out and incentivizes cooperative behavior. There are no truancy laws. You can shop around. You 

can even choose not to work at all. It means that everyone there is there by choice and has that job because someone 

wants to pay them to do it. There is no substructure of violence. There is choice at the heart of the workplace. That 

alone changes the dynamic and the social environment. 

3. Age-Based Tribe vs. the Individual 

From preschool through final graduation, you are generally told to stay with your age-based tribe. This is your peer 

group. You have no responsibilities to anyone younger. You are not directly and consistently influenced by people who 

are more mature. It’s just you and your age-based friends ruled by external authority structures. You move together. 

You age together. You will always be in that exact situation, with little to no prospects for mobility. You are in an artificial 

environment that doesn’t exist in any other setting in life, and certainly not in the workplace. Then you graduate 

and your social networks turn to dust. 

The workplace includes people of varying ages, and it is completely normal for excellence to be rewarded with growing 

salaries and responsibilities. Your peers are far more diverse than they ever were in school and that leads to different 

expectations and opportunities. You can be lame or ambitious, lazy or aspirational, unproductive or super valuable. 

Your future depends on the choices you make, and you are constantly interacting with a wider demographic of people 

from whom you can learn and who you can influence. It is a much more fluid and natural social situation. What you do 

makes a difference in the quality of your life and your place in the hierarchy. 

4. Known Information vs. Discovery 

In school, most everything you are tasked to learn is already known. There are textbooks, manuals, experts, committees. 

You are part of a system that changes only slowly and according to the priorities of politics and bureaucracies. 

It’s fine to be curious but only about what other people want you to know. There is only one reward for learning: a 

higher grade. And what you learn has already been mastered better by others who are assigned to be your authorities. 

Your job is to become the best-possible parrot. This is what it means to be an excellent student. Deviating from that 

course makes you a problem student. 

At work – again, under the ideal – creativity and discovery are valued and rewarded. People who look only for rules to 

follow only rise so far. To disrupt the routine, to think of and try the unknown, is what every profit-seeking industry 

demands. It is not always easy and the tendency toward inertia is always present. But every business must learn to 

adapt to change and to reward those who are willing to step up and take risks to discover something new. 

People who personalize gripes (through gossip, backstabbing, or passive-aggressive performances) do not earn the trust 

and respect of others, and thus do not succeed, do not rise, do not last. The shortest-term employees are those who play 

politics as if it were middle school. Those who rise above personality to focus on productivity earn the respect of others 

and rise in the company. And there are certain conventions: for instance, you never, under any circumstances, use your 

position or title to wage personal battles that have nothing to do with work. You can get away with this for a while, but it 

doesn’t last. 

At the end of 13 Reasons Why, there is a highly symbolic moment in which Hannah walks into the movie theater, turns in 

her uniform, and walks out the door. This scene shows what it means to give up on something at which you are succeeding 

because you cannot handle the failures that exist outside that space. She was brutally victimized by the other half of 

life, the part that exists outside the civilized, courteous, and adult environment of the workplace. Her work provided her 

solace, but it was not enough to overcome the impossible odds against her in school. 

The story of Hannah is an extreme case with a terrible ending. But the case is neither purely fictional nor entirely isolated, 

and it serves as a stand-in for the emotional sufferings of millions. All the anti-bullying campaigns in the world will 

not fix the problem. Behavioral controls and counselling will not either. The core problem has to be addressed: schooling 

as we know it is an institution built by force, funded by force, and populated through force, thus insulating students from 

regular incentives toward civilized life and leaving them unprotected from unchecked exploitation and abuse. 



5. Cruelty vs. Civility 

So long as you are getting the grades and adhering to the rules, there is no downside to misbehaving toward others 

in a school setting. Despite the appearance of order, structures of authority, and endless rules, students end up 

constructing their own underworlds, and those worlds have radically misaligned incentives that the adults cannot 

manage, resulting in unchecked pathology: the kind of pathologies that always develop among groups of incarcerated 

human beings. 

It’s not about what teachers do to the students; it’s what students do to each other. This follows the tendency in any 

incarceration: fellow inmates are generally more threatening than guards and wardens. Cruelty becomes habitual, 

though often hidden and quiet, something whispered about between good friends. 

You choose your tribe. In prison, it’s never safe to be without a gang. You denounce former friends and choose new 

ones. You join others in making fun of the person in the out-group or rewarding those in the in-group. You have no 

obligations to be courteous, decent, or kind, and you are neither punished nor rewarded for your treatment of your 

peers except by peers themselves. You have no concern for the larger consequences of your actions. This cultivates 

a certain pettiness and leads students to believe that savvy social navigation, even at the expense of others, is their 

main task. This is what they get good at, and dehumanizing others is not only not punished, it is often rewarded. 

118 

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Different learning styles use different parts of the brain, so it’s important to integrate elements of all of these learning 

styles when homeschooling your child. However, particularly difficult concepts can be taught in the style that helps your 

child understand best. 

• Cover topics that schools don’t teach: Most public schools are good at teaching reading and math, but they might not 

delve into practical things that don’t appear on standardized tests. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to teach 

math in the context of budgeting and show your kids how the stock market works. You can blend science with cooking. 

If your child is obsessed with a particular subject like trains or dinosaurs, you can work that into your curriculum. 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2018 

BY JACKIE 

4 Pros of Homeschooling (and 4 Challenges) 

All parents want what’s best for their children. But when it comes 

to schooling, the field of choices can be murky and the decisions 

difficult. Parents don’t always get a close look at what goes on in 

their kids’ schools, nor can they fully understand the demands of 

homeschooling until they’ve made the leap. 

Both options incur financial and intangible costs; both offer 

benefits that can be enticing. An increasing number of parents, 

though, are making the financial sacrifice to stay home and educate 

their children themselves. 

Homeschooling fosters deeper connections between kids and 

parents, allows a more tailored approach to education, and 

accommodates the family schedule, among other positive effects. 

It can also leave children isolated from peers and social interaction 

without the resources offered by traditional schools. Before 

deciding whether or not to homeschool your kids, it is important 

When deciding whether or not to homeschool your child, it’s important to keep in 

mind both the positives and negatives of homeschooling. 

If they require more time to concentrate on a particular sub- 

120 

ject or lesson, you’re free to spend the extra time necessary 

to ensure that they fully understand the concepts. Class can 

pause at any time without the usual pressure to keep up 

with other children. Conversely, if your child excels in a certain 

subject, that lesson can be taught at an increased pace. 

• Flexible schedule: Kids who need a very rigorous schedule 

may benefit from taking part in traditional schooling, but 

those who require a more flexible schedule can prosper in 

a homeschooling environment. Homeschooling’s flexible 

schedule allows parents to take time for doctor appointments 

or private lessons. If your child is sick often, lessons 

can wait until they’re feeling better. If your kids are more 

productive during certain hours of the day, school can easily 

be reserved for that time period. And if your child is having 

a particularly bad day, they don’t have to feel overwhelmed 

by going to school; instead, they can learn in the comfort of 

Possible Homeschooling Drawbacks (and Their Solutions) 

• Lack of art and sports facilities: Public schools usually have gymnasiums, sports fields, science labs, and other facilities 

that can be hard for homeschooling families to replicate. But that doesn’t mean homeschooled students have to miss 

out on traditional extracurricular activities. To make sure your kids can still take time for art and sports, sign them 

up for classes outside of school. Many art supply stores offer art classes for children, providing the materials for the 

craft and teaching your kids to do it themselves. The kids get to take the finished product home. You can also stock 

up on basic crafting supplies and turn to Pinterest or YouTube for ideas. Also consider signing your children up for 

extracurricular sports through clubs or organizations in your community. Outside art and sports classes allow homeschoolers 

a chance to socialize and experience elective activities with other kids their age, as well. 

• No special education therapists: If your child has special needs, they’ll be missing out on having access to an in-school 

special education specialist or therapist. While this can be inconvenient for in-the-moment issues, many homeschool 

parents sign their children up to see a specialist outside of school, absorbing the added spending as part of their 

child’s overall health care costs. The more flexible schedule offered by homeschooling can allow for lessons to be 

planned around these other appointments outside of school. 

• Peer interaction: Children who are homeschooled miss out on the classroom dynamic. They’re the main focus of the 

class, as opposed to being only one among a number of students. To help kids stay social while being homeschooled, 

sign them up for extracurricular activities. Sports and art classes are a great place to start, or think about letting your 

child join a club (a scouting or other outdoor group, for example). Many parents who homeschool also network with 

other homeschoolers, allowing them to hear advice from other parents on how best to navigate curricular, economic, 

or other homeschooling challenges. Networking with other families who homeschool also presents the potential for 

group field trips and outings, and allows kids to make friends among others with whom they have something in common, 

further improving their social skills. 

• No nurse: Homeschooling means that unless you happen to be a nurse, there is no nurse. If your child falls and 

scrapes a knee or feels sick, no one with medical training is around to help. To address this problem, consider taking 

some basic first-aid classes, as well as CPR classes. Keep a first-aid kit handy in your classroom in case of an accident. 

At the End of the Day 

When deciding whether or not to homeschool your child, it’s important to keep in mind both the positives and negatives 

of homeschooling. If traditional schooling is difficult for your child, homeschooling may be the answer. The negative 

aspects of homeschooling often have straightforward solutions to make the process easier for both parent and child, 

meaning that homeschooling your son or daughter has the potential to be a success. 



to examine all the facts—the clear advantages as well as the challenges 

that homeschooling families face. 

Pros of Homeschooling 

• One-on-one attention: To prepare for homeschooling, many 

experts recommend modifying the home to create a classroom 

or area designated especially for schooling. While this 

transformation can be costly depending on its extent, the 

potential benefits are many. Being together in that classroom 

every day enables your kids to spend one-on-one 

time with you. Not only can this potentially strengthen the 

parent-child relationship, but it also gives you time to devote 

their home. 

• Teach in your child’s style: Parents and teachers know 

that different kids learn in different ways. Some may 

learn spatially, using images and dimensional understanding; 

visual learning and photographs should 

be implemented in their lessons. If your child is an 

auditory learner, consider integrating music and 

sounds into their learning process. Linguistic learning 

requires speaking and writing to understand concepts. 

Kinesthetic learners prefer to assimilate ideas 

through the sense of touch, so hands-on activities are 

a must. 

special attention to exactly what your children need to learn. 

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Shawn O’Dell 

Mar. 1, 2023 

A LOCAL HOME SCHOOL CO-OP TALKS ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING 

https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/03/01/local-home-school-co-op-talks-about-homeschooling/ 

Cameron B. Gunnoe 

Mar. 1, 2023 

HOUSE REJECTS AMENDMENT RESTRICTING RIGHTS OF HOMESCHOOLING 

PARENTS 

https://www.lootpress.com/house-rejects-amendment-restricting-rights-of-homeschooling-parents/ 

Dave Dentel 

March 14, 2023 

HOMESCHOOL GRAD BLAZES TRAIL TO BECOME TOP EXECUTIVE’S 

BODYGUARD 

https://hslda.org/post/homeschool-grad-blazes-trail-to-become-top-executive-s-bodyguard?utm_ 

source=Weekly+Update&utm_campaign=3-15-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

HSLDA 


Libby Cathey 


HOMESCHOOLING WITH ASL: CREATE SPACE FOR YOUR UNIQUE 

LEARNER TO THRIVE | EP.104 

104?utm_source=Weekly+Update&utm_campaign=3-15-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS SIGNS SWEEPING EDUCATION BILL, TO PRAISE 

AND PROTESTS 

Dave Dentel 

April 03, 2023 

HOMESCHOOL ARCHERS OVERCOME FIRE ANTS AND STOLEN GEAR TO 

CLAIM STATE TITLE 

https://hslda.org/post/homeschooling-with-asl-create-space-for-your-unique-learner-to-thrive-ep- 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sarah-huckabee-sanders-signs-sweeping-education-bill-praise/story?id=97708033 

https://hslda.org/post/homeschool-archers-overcome-fire-ants-and-stolen-gear-to-claim-state-title?utm_source=Weekly+Update&utm_campaign=4-5-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

122 

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other articles 

MAINE’S RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS’ ‘HANDS ARE TIED’ EVEN AFTER SUPREME COURT RULING OPENING 

DOOR TO STATE TUITION FUNDING 

The Lion - Perspectives and News for the American Family, Educators, and Leaders (readlion.com) 

NEW STYLE OF COLLEGE ENVISIONED BY MIT PROFESSORS 

Five professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are proposing a new style of college that incorporates the new 

technology used during the pandemic with an emphasis on work skills. The new model also would rely less on a big campus 

and make use of curriculum from other schools. 

N.Y. UPS AGE LIMIT FOR SPECIAL-EDUCATION SERVICES 

As schools gear up to help students bridge learning gaps that resulted from pandemic-related education interruptions, 

lawmakers in New York have passed state legislation to help students with disabilities access much-needed services. 

Under the measure, students who would have aged out of services at 21 can now access those services until age 23. Full 

Story: WRGB-TV (Albany, N.Y.) (9/10) 

EPA DOUBLES MONEY FOR ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUSES AS DEMAND SOARS 

By Carl Weinschenk 

STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATION NEWS 

School report cards out Thursday; change from letter grade to star system 

DAYTON DAILY NEWS 

For the first time in two years, school districts will receive a rating when state report cards are released Thursday, but it 

will look different than years past — the Ohio legislature changed the school report card rating system from A-F grades 

to a 1-5 stars system. The last time schools were given a grade was the 2018-2019 school year. The state said it would be 

unfair to schools to grade them in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years amid COVID disruptions. Schools still will be 

evaluated on how well their students are doing on state tests, reading proficiency in kindergarten through third grade, 

graduation rates, how students are progressing year over year, how well schools are able to close gaps for underprivileged 

students such as English language learners or disabled students, and how ready a student is to enter the workforce, college 

or the military after graduation. 

97 MILLION TIKTOK VIEWS = 1 YEAR OF PAY FROM YOUR DAY JOB 

By Carl Weinschenk 

https://apnews.com/article/business-education-pollution-air-quality-climate-and-environment-ad9dc72b1ad662dfb618fcc317728f27 

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/97-million-tiktok-views-1-year-of-pay-from-your-day-job?utm_term=61627431- 

9B44-4420-8791-699678DD7F98&utm_campaign=AC59823B-4C3C-4F57-8D2A-7EDD2B31AA42&utm_medium=email&utm_ 

content=A482D203-3A35-4433-8A2B-31F83D79A148&utm_source=SmartBrief 

MIT PROFESSORS PROPOSE A NEW KIND OF UNIVERSITY FOR POST-COVID ERA 

By Jeffrey R. Young Sep 28, 2022 

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-09-28-mit-professors-propose-a-new-kind-of-university-for-post-covid-era 

https://www.dea.gov/stories/2022/2022-02/2022-02-16/fentanyl-deaths-climbing-dea-washington-continues-fight 

HURRICANE IAN CAUSES 2.5M STUDENTS TO MISS SCHOOL 

About 2.5 million students across Florida have missed at least one day of 

school due to Hurricane Ian, with 1.7 million missing three days or more. 

Officials say they are concerned about lost instructional time and ask for 

patience as they prepare to reopen as soon as possible. Full Story: Tampa 

Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) (tiered subscription model) (9/29), National 

Public Radio (9/29) 

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PAMELA CLARK, FOUNDER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT 

NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP 

GREAT COMPANIES: HOW DID YOU GET YOUR IDEA OR CONCEPT FOR THE BUSINESS? CONCEPT FOR THE BUSINESS? 

Pamela Clark: Originally, I was a home school mom and other moms would come to me for advice. Then after homeschooling 

for about four years, I learned about charter schools. I became a parent leader for a charter school for some time. During 

that time, I helped many families from all school backgrounds. I 

advocated for families to receive a fair education. Once I discovered 

that families needed to cooperate, especially in educating children 

with learning difficulties such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, 

and neurological disorders. When I left the charter school I had a 

meeting with a few moms I had served. One of the first things I told 

them was that I wanted to create a group that helps all families. I 

had served so many families from multiple school backgrounds at 

this time, I didn’t understand the strict lines drawn by those in the 

education system. Everyone pays taxes whether they have children 

in public school, yet there was minimal, or no support offered to the 

homeschoolers asking for access to the art, music, and other programs. 

Charter school students receive help only from the charter 

they belong too, and traditional schools only care about the students 

in their classrooms. I didn’t want to combine them into one 

school but truly believe that everyone willing to work for it deserves a fair and equal education. NHEG wants families to 

reach their dreams and goals. When a family and student reach their full potential, we all benefit as a society. 

GREAT COMPANIES: WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS SERVICES PROVIDED BY NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP? 

Pamela Clark: New Heights Educational Group is the first one-stop-shop in education. 

NHEG has served over 550,000 students via online services and courses via its site and affiliate and partner sites. I lead 

a team of 73 volunteers who research advancements, provide training to teachers and tutors, create courses and tutor 

students. The organization has many internal departments including education, research, graphics, photography, HR, 

social media and marketing, proofreading/editing, authors/writers/script writers, comic book, production management for 

magazine, content builders, internet radio show/podcast, accounting and more. 

NHEG provides fill-in-the-gap tutoring to reach students who have been left behind by traditional schools. It offers classes, 

an educational magazine called the NHEG EDGuide and the E.A.S.YToons comic books that has over 100,540 Views. 

The organization has published two books: Unraveling Reading and Unraveling Science. Both books are part of the Unraveling 

series, which provides strategies to parents, teachers and tutors to help them support children’s learning processes. 

The series will include a book for each subject. One Nonprofit’s Journey to Success, written by an NHEG volunteer, was 

released worldwide in March 2015 and tells the organization’s story. NHEG’s internet radio show, New Heights Show on 

Education, has had over 357,841 listens and is on 29 networks and became a syndicated show in 2019. 

NHEG and its partners/affiliates offer over 1,200 low-cost and high-quality courses on its website, and it makes national 

and international leadership opportunities available to its students. 

In 2020, NHEG grew its reach by over 90,000 people. In 2021, through new partnerships with Stack Social, Skillwise, 

National CSI Camp, Citizen Goods and The Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children and Natural Born Leaders, it has 

more than tripled its previous course offerings with the over 1,280 free and discounted unique courses mentioned above 

and another 284 classroom resources for all subject matters. The in-person reading program switched to an online reading 

program with the help of one of NHEG’s partners (The 2nd & 7 Foundation), and it went from a 2-tier to a 5-tier reading 

program within the last year. 

GREAT COMPANIES: WHAT MAKES NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP DIFFERENT FROM HUNDREDS OF OTHER SIMILAR 

SERVICE PROVIDERS? 

Pamela Clark: NHEG is the only organization that offers a range of educational services and resources under one business. 

We excel at it; we are the best in the world at it. This is proven by the many awards and recognition the organization has 

won since its creation and the many families that have benefited from this dream. 

GREAT COMPANIES: WHAT ARE THE STRUGGLES AND CHALLENGES YOU FACE? 

Pamela Clark: Every step of the way there has been struggles and challenges. It is a struggle to reach those in the educational 

system that see us as a threat instead of what the organization can do for the community. Many in power have 

biased thinking and keep us a secret from the families in need of our services. Instead, they send families to for-profit 

businesses that they can’t afford and, in turn, cause more difficulties for these very families; it’s a vicious cycle. 

Funding is our biggest roadblock; everything NHEG has built, all the work it has done is yet to be fully funded. It would cost 

$457,567.00 to fund the first year of the organization’s entire dream. That amount is less than is spent on two school dropouts 

over a lifetime of receiving public assistance, and yet NHEG struggles to receive funding. It is very frustrating. 

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for New Heights Educational 

Group? 

Pamela Clark: NHEG envisions building a computer lab and learning center 

Purpose: The lab and learning center will provide a space for academic research, academic studies, school assignments, 

educational planning, testing and tutoring services and other educational options. The lab can be used by families with 

students enrolled in any type of school or afterschool programs, for homeschool resources and as a teaching space for 

themed co-op/enrichment classes. The facilities will enable NHEG to teach, assist and provide technology resources to 

families for self-learning. 

Genealogy program - NHEG is looking to create a genealogy program with the goal of building students’ self-esteem and 

further connecting them to their community and country. 

NHEG GED Program / Testing Site and implementing a sensory room for those with disabilities and creating a daycare for 

young mothers and fathers. 

Creation of a sensory room in the hopes of reaching students with disabilities/special needs. This is very important for 

those with special needs and can open a new world for these students and their families. 

Support for Teenage Parents 

NHEG works with many teen parents that are struggling with the traditional education settings. Those that have children 

while still in high school or college, can still have a successful life if they have access to a support system. They are encouraged 

and treated with fairness and respect. NHEG recognizes the value of self-esteem and works towards building theirs 

by listening to their dreams and helping them achieve them. The organization provides a support system with affordable 

child-care, fun activities and learning opportunities, promotes student leadership, and teaches them to value themselves, 

so they can continue their educational endeavors. NHEG excels at providing this support that helps them reach their goals 

and this must be done if we want to effect change in society. 

GREAT COMPANIES: IF YOU HAD ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

Pamela Clark: Don’t just start a business, start a passion. If starting a charity, find someone in your community doing 

something similar and volunteer for a while. Never think of any job as beneath you; do everything and learn everything, so 

you can mentor others. 

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CROCKPOT MEATBALL PARM RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 pounds ground beef 

• 1 1/2 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs 

• 2 eggs 

• Garlic (4 cloves-2 grated/minced for meatballs - 2 minced for sauce) 

• 2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes 

• 2 cups red wine 

• 1 1/2 tbs sugar (to reduce acidity in the sauce from tomatoes and wine) 

• Submarine rolls 

• Garlic powder 

• Olive oil 

• Fresh mozzerella 

Directions 

1. Prepare meatballs; ground beef, eggs, 2 garlic cloves, breadcrumbs - mix together with hands, form meatballs 

place in crock pot. 

2. Prepare sauce; squeeze tomatoes from can over meatballs, add wine, garlic, sugar. 

3. Let cook on low for 7-9 hours. 

4. When you’re ready to eat; turn off slow cooker, give a few stirs. 

5. Slice rolls, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, place in a 325 degree preheated oven, toast for 5 min. 

6. Take rolls out, place meatballs on each sub, place mozzerella on top 

7. Put back in oven for an additona 5-10 min (or until cheese has melted) 

129

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU - SCHNITZEL STYLE RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup olive oil 

• 1 1/4 pounds thin sliced boneless skinless chicken breast (think cutlets - 

chicken tenders are too skinny for this) 

• 5 ounces sliced ham 

• 4 ounces sliced Swiss cheese 

• 2 large eggs, beaten 

• 1 to 2 cups Japanese style bread crumbs (like Panko) 

• Lemon wedges (optional) 

CHOCOLATE MIRACLE CAKE RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 3 cups flour 

• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar 

• 3 teaspoons baking soda 

• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder 

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 

• 1 and 1/2 cups cold water 

• 1 and 1/2 cups mayonnaise 

Directions 

Directions 

1. Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in large flat skillet over medium heat. Place beaten eggs and bread crumbs in separate wide 

flat bowls and set aside. 

2. Select and pair up the chicken breast cutlets equal in size; you’ll need 2 to make each schnitzel “sandwich” and 

depending on size, each sandwich will serve 2 people generously - four for the whole recipe. 

3. Place between wax paper (I recycle my cereal and cracker liner bags for this because they are so durable and will 

stand up to the pounding - see photos); using mallet pound to thin each to a thickness of 1/4”. 

4. Place a slice of ham on one of the thinned chicken cutlets and on top of that a slice of Swiss cheese; trim the ham 

and cheese to fit the chicken cutlet shape. Top with the matching thinned chicken cutlet to form the sandwich. 

At this point you may need to cut the sandwich in half to serving size, so it is easier to handle, coat and cook. 

5. Holding each sandwich firmly, dip it into beaten eggs coating one side completely; then carefully turn it over and 

dip the second side in eggs, allowing excess egg to drip away. 

6. In like manner coat both sides with bread crumbs. 

7. Place into heated oil in pan and fry til golden brown on both sides, adding the additional 1/4 cup oil as needed. 

8. Serve with lemon wedges (optional). 

1. Mix all ingredients in order given. 

2. Pour into a greased 9x12” pan. 

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

4. Cool and frost! 

5. My family likes Peanut Butter Frosting best. 

6. Make vanilla butter frosting and add about 1/2 cup peanut butter. 

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PEPPERONI PIZZA CHICKEN BAKE (GLUTEN FREE) RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 jar (14 ounce) low carb pizza sauce 

• 4 large boneless-skinless chicken breasts (6-8 oz. 

each) 

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 

• 1 teaspoon oregano 

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder 

• 6 ounces Mozzarella cheese (not fresh), sliced ¼ inch 

thick 

• 2 ounces sliced pepperoni (regular or turkey) 

SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE (GLUTEN FREE) RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 2 cups Pamela’s Flour Mix 

• 1 cup organic evaporated cane juice 

• 1 tsp vanilla 

• 2/3 cup butter 

• 2 large eggs 

• 1 cup sour cream 

• 1 cup chopped walnuts 

• 3 Tablespoons organic evaporated cane juice 

• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar 

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Pour the pizza sauce in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until it’s reduced to 

one cup, about 20 minutes. 

2. While the sauce reduces, cut the chicken breasts in half horizontally to make two same size pieces. Place 

the chicken in a heavy plastic bag and use a meat mallet (or pan) to pound the chicken until it’s as thin 

as you can get it without it breaking apart. 

3. Mix the Greek oregano and garlic powder in a small bowl and sprinkle both sides of each chicken piece 

with mixture. 

4. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the chicken pieces and cook 

1-2 minutes on each side, just long enough to brown the chicken but not long enough to cook it through. 

You may have to do 2 batches to get this part done. 

5. Place the browned chicken in a single layer in a casserole dish. 

6. Spread the sauce over the top of each chicken breast. Layer each piece with sliced Mozzarella and pepperoni 

slices. 

7. Bake uncovered about 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown and the pepperoni 

is slightly crisped. Serve immediately. 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 

2. For the Filling: Mix together 1 cup chopped walnuts, 3 Tablespoons organic evaporated cane sugar, 3 Tablespoons 

brown sugar, and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in a large bowl and set aside. 

3. For the Batter: Soften Butter in your Kitchen Aid Mixer. 

4. Add sugar to butter and cream it on high. 

5. Add eggs and vanilla and continue whipping batter. 

6. Turn off mixer and add your flour and sour cream. Mix on low until blended. Turn off and scrape down sides of mixing 

bowl. Then turn on high and mix for a good minute until well beaten and fluffy. 

7. Grease a silacone bundt pan. 

8. Spoon the batter into the bottom of the bundt pan and smooth it around. 

9. Add a layer of nut filling. 

10. Repeat steps until you have used all your batter and filling. The top layer should be batter. 

11. Bake for 45-50 minutes in the oven. 

12. Let stand in bundt pan until cool (about 15 to 20 minutes for best results). 

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NHEG EDGuide July-August-2023

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