NHEG EDGuide January-February 2024

ISSUE 11-12 

Let your dreams 

take flight in the 

new year! 

2024 

JANUARY-FEBRUARY

NHEG EDGUIDE 

EDITOR IN CHIEF 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

PRODUCTION MANAGER 

Pamela Clark 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com 

Marina Klimi 

MarinaKlimi@NewHeightsEducation.org 

Contents 

2 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

4 

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH 

6-15 

HAPPY HOLIDAY WISHES 

20-29 

NHEG MEDIA PACK 

80-119 

FEE ARTICLES 

120 

HSLDA ARTICLES 

126-131 

RECIPES 

132-133 

NHEG PARTNERS & 

AFFILIATES 

PROOFREADERS/EDITORS 

Laura Casanova 


34-35 

MISSING CHILDREN 

PHOTOGRAPHERS IN 

THIS ISSUE 

PAMELA CLARK 

FRANI WYNER 

LARISSA MURRAY 

56-61 

NHEG INTERNET RADIO 

PROGRAM 

64-67 

NHEG BOOK 

PROMOTIONS 

70-71 

NHEG BIRTHDAYS AND 

ANNIVERSARIES 

72-73 

EARN BOX TOPS 

74-75 

PRESS RELEASE

January-February 2024 

NHEG EDGUIDE January-February 2024 

Thought for the Month 

Welcome to the official 

New Heights Educational Group store. 

As we begin 2024, we wish the best 

for everyone, and we hope you have 

a happy, healthy and safe new year. 

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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Candid 

Thank you for all the important work you do for the communities you 

serve. Candid is incredibly proud to be part of your journey. 

Our mission remains dedicated to ensuring you have the best 

resources available to support your fundraising needs. We look 

forward to our ongoing partnership and sharing exciting new 

initiatives with you in 2024. 

We celebrate your work and wish you a wonderful holiday season. 

Thank you, 

Ann Mei Chang 

Candid CEO

HSLDA 

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: 

Does the Christmas season ever seem like a paradox? In its beautiful traditions, it offers a foretaste of heavenly 

peace, love, and joy—the gifts made possible by the Incarnation. Yet Christmas in our busy culture can overload us 

with activities and expectations. It’s tough to find balance at this time of year. 

There’s a part of the Christmas story that reflects this tension. It happens in Luke’s Gospel, when hardworking 

shepherds are so thrilled by an angelic choir that they lift their tired bones from the ground and hurry to find the 

newborn Jesus. Then, they leave the crowded stable to tell everyone they know abAnn Mei Chang 

Candid CEO

GrantStation 

We at GrantStation often express gratitude, regard, and appreciation for our Members, Partners, 

and staff. As the year draws to a close, it seems appropriate to share those feelings with you. 

Our Members strive every day to better the world through passion for their mission. Our Partners are organizations and 

businesses with high standards and integrity. Our Online Education experts consistently focus on skills and knowledge 

that will improve personal development and organizational success. The staff at GrantStation believe in, and exemplify, 

our mission statement: 

We are dedicated to creating a civil society by assisting the nonprofit sector in its quest to build healthy and effective 

communities. 

Our founder, Cynthia Adams, has recently reflected on trust and its importance in the work we do. 

She writes, “I decided to forgo my

Your compassion and kindness over the past year are making a lasting impact for chimpanzees, 

all living beings, and the planet we share. It is because of people like you that I continue to have 

Thanks to your support, hundreds of chimpanzees who may not have survived have been given a chance to thrive. With 

your dedication, we’re expanding community-led conservation efforts by partnering with local people to advance sustainable 

development, creating access to to health care, education, and sustainable livelihoods, which all empower conservation 

action.

Thank you for all that you do 

Hi Pamela, 

We hope you and your team are achieving all your year-end appeal goals (and 

more!) Remember, as you use our tools during this busy time, our team and our 

partners are here to answer your questions and help you find the best resources 

to meet the moment. 

Our team is in awe of how NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP is making its mark 

on the world. We see how you are continually asked to do more with less, yet 

still create meaningful change in your community. 

It is such a joy to engage with you and the over 325,000 nonprofits around the 

globe who are leveraging Microsoft resources to drive this positive impact. 

Your stories inspire us every day and we are grateful for your tireless work. 

Thank you again for all that you do, and we look forward to deepening our 

collaboration in the year ahead. 

Regards, 

The Microsoft Tech for Social Impact Team


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CHILD 

Eleazar Amayo Dolores 

MISSING 

View, & Share 

Scan, 

Sighting CALL 

Report 

or 1-800-THE- 

911 

LOST 

CHILD 

Deniro Lewis 

MISSING 

View, & Share 

Scan, 

Sighting CALL 

Report 

or 1--800--THE-- 

911 

LOST 


How you can help 

How you can help 

NCIC# M737705589 

NCIC# M537671584 

Missing Since: Decemberr 16, 2023 

Missing Since: Novemberr 6, 2023 

Columbus, OH, US 

COLUMBUS, OH, US 

Age Now: 16 Yearrs Old 

Age Now: 15 Yearrs Old 

Male 

Male 

Columbus Division of 

Columbus Police 

Police (Ohio) 

Deparrtment (Ohio) 

1-614-645-4545 

1-614-645-4545 

Eleazarr was last seen on Decemberr 16, 2023. 

Denirro was last seen on Novemberr 6, 2023. 

34 

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JULY 21-30, 2023 

SEPTEMBER 9-17, 2023 

NOVEMBER 4-19, 2023 

FEBRUARY 9-18, 2024 

SIX DEGREES 

OF SEPARATION 

MARCH 15-24, 2024 

MAY 4-19, 2024


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 

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

Discount: NHE10 

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



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

40 

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/ 

41

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

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

https://careasy.org/nonprofit/NewHeightsEducationalGroup 

Call: 

855-550-4483



https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/online-courses/personal-development-coaching-courses/ 

46 

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https://www.nshss.org/ 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

membership/national-csi-classes/ 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/online-courses/discounted-and-free-online-classes/ 

https://NewHeightsEducation. 

org/NHEG-educational-programs/virtual-reading-program/ 

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VOLUNTEER PAGES 

NEW VOLUNTEERS 

VOLUNTEERS OF THE MONTH 

CHARLES LANIER 12/14/23 

COMIC ILLUSTRATOR 

Mythreyi Ashoka 

Sarika Gauba 

Rachel Mathurin 

Katie Buchhop 

Ginnefine Jalloh 

Logan Moreland 


Marina Klimi 

Victor Rodriguez 

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THE INTERNET RADIO PROGRAM 

FROM NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP


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NHEG January Birthday 

NHEG February Birthday 

JAN 24 

Daniela Silva 

FEB 2 

Pamela Clark 

JAN 28 

Leah Sedy 

FEB 9 

Yichen Liu 

JAN 31 

Jakki Tayler 

FEB 10 

Desiree Clark 

FEB 10 

Briana Dincher 

FEB 24 

Mac Clark 

FEB 25 

Ryan Wright-Harrigan 

70 

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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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73



PRESS RELEASE 

NEW WORLD REPORT UNVEILS THE 2023 WINNERS OF THE 

NEW WORLD REPORT 2023 

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) has been named Best Educational Support Services Organisation 

2023 – OhioSpecial Needs Support Champions of the Year 2023 – USA by the New World Report. 

New World report stated, “proud to reveal the winners of this year’s North America Business Awards.” 

Awards Coordinator Jessie Wilson commented on the success of this year’s winners: “The businesses we 

recognise in our awards programmes continue to amaze us. With such a varied group of firms, agencies, and 

platforms to explore in this issue, we find ourselves motivated by star-studded success and a dedication to 

excellence. 

I wish our winners the very best for 2024 ahead as they surpass all expectations and keep their industries at 

the very cutting edge of developments. Congratulations again! 

NHEG Founder/Director Pamela Clark said, “we are thankful for this recognition and nomination. Our volunteers 

work very hard to make the world a better place. Very thankful for each and everyone of them.” 

https://www.thenewworldreport.com/winners/New-Heights-Educational-Group/ 

United States, 2023 – New World Report is proud to reveal the winners of this year’s North America Business 

Awards. 

2023 has seen an immense number of businesses and individuals from North America bring forth innovative 

ideas and carefully crafted solutions which, ultimately, impact the rest of the world. 

The entities we showcase in this programme have come a long way since their inception – always adapting, 

evolving, and staying one step ahead of the curve so that their clients and customers can reap the benefits. 

Having such a brilliant influence on their industries, they’re setting the bar high and altering our perception 

of acquisitions, private investments, insurance comparisons, independent PR and communications, and so 

much more. 

We’re here to explore what our winner’s moves truly mean to their clients, as they continue to offer superior 

services, support, and sustainable steps towards a better future in business – and beyond. 

Awards Coordinator Jessie Wilson commented on the success of this year’s winners: “The businesses we 

recognise in our awards programmes continue to amaze us. With such a varied group of firms, agencies, and 

platforms to explore in this issue, we find ourselves motivated by star-studded success and a dedication to 

excellence. 

I wish our winners the very best for 2024 ahead as they surpass all expectations and keep their industries at 

the very cutting edge of developments. Congratulations again!” 

To learn more about our award winners and to gain insight into the working practices of the “best of the 

best,” please visit the New World Report website (https://www.thenewworldreport.com/awards/north-america-business-awards/) 

where you can access the winners supplement. 

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NEUROEDUCATION IN SCHOOL: PRINCIPLES OF NEUROSCIENCE 

Neuroeducation implies understanding how a child’s brain works and how the nervous system affects their learning. 

Neuroscience studies applied to schooling have been essential both for teachers to innovate in pedagogical strategies 

and for parents to create more favorable conditions for their children’s learning. 

This article presents eight principles of neuroscience in action to help children learn in the classroom. As a strategy 

for writing the article, I will use a study conducted by the Social Service of Industry (SESI) of Brazil, which is 

now part of the National 

Network of Science for Education (Rede CPE), an association that integrates Brazilian researchers and laboratories 

from different areas that develop research to improve educational practices and policies. 

The following principles also contribute to the transformations of education over 

time: 

1. Learning changes the brain: Neuroimaging tests have found that our brain changes both in structure and in 

functioning as a person learns new skills such as reading, writing, counting, practicing a new language, etc. This 

is due to neuroplasticity and the brain’s ability to reorganize itself and form new brain synapses with each new 

learning or experience acquired throughout life. For this 

reason, students need to know that intelligence is malleable and that it is always time to learn, regardless of the 

difficulty they have with a given content. Research in the field of neuroscience reveals that when students understand 

that their intelligence is malleable and that learning changes the structure of their 

brain, they can renew their self-confidence and motivation to study. 

2. How we learn is unique: Although each of us has the same set of neural circuit 

(linked to attention, motivation, motricity, language, reasoning, etc.), how each person’s brain connects to these 

circuits is different, as it depends on the set of experiences inherent to how each person learns and experiences 

learning. Each student has a different type of neural circuitry that influences their performance and learning. 

Thus, a classroom with students of the same age does not necessarily mean that everyone will learn in the same 

way. For this reason, it is necessary to awaken everyone’s interest, investigating their previous knowledge, what 

they like to do most, their desires, and their curiosities. Diversifying pedagogical practices, as well as teaching 

resources, are alternatives for each student to put into practice their way of learning. 

As the teacher manages to connect with the students, the easier it will be to connect the interests of the class to 

the concepts of the school curriculum. 

3. Social interaction is conducive to learning: We are social beings. Learning by observing others is not as effective 

as learning by interacting with others. In a classroom, the exchange between teacher and student generates 

changes in each person’s cognitive processing, and this is evident when the teacher needs to modify the lesson 

plan because of a doubt presented by a student. Learning occurs all the time, whether between students or 

groups of teachers. This way, a new neural construct is developed in the brain for each new learning. The neural 

circuits activated by social interactions have connections with the reward system, which triggers motivation, 

essential for quality learning! 

4. The use of technology influences the processing and storage of information: 

The teacher, when using smartphones, laptops, and tablets, as a pedagogical tool, first needs to ask himself/herself 

“What are the benefits and drawbacks that information technologies offer to students in the classroom? 

76 

The indiscriminate use of these devices in the classroom can cause distractions and multitasking behaviors 

in students in a way that impairs their ability to focus and pay attention. For technology to be used to benefit 

learning, support and guidance are needed. It is necessary to guide the student on how to use selection 

strategies and identify inaccurate news when researching and seeking information, for example. Another 

important tip is to develop deep readings with students. 

Students need to use cognitive strategies that allow in-depth reading, not only in printed texts but also on 

screens. 

5. Emotion drives learning: In the human brain, reason and emotion are processes that work interdependently 

to allow our best adaptation to the environment. 

From a neuroscientific point of view, it is impossible to build memories, carry out complex thoughts, or 

make meaningful decisions without emotion. That is why they are so important for human development and 

learning. In the classroom, “what” the student feels and “how” he feels about what is being taught will directl 

impact his learning. Leading him, for example, to pay more attention (or not) to the content of the class, to 

ask (or not) questions, and to dedicate himself more (or less) to his studies. This is how emotion guide 

learning. On the other hand, emotions that trigger episodes of stress and anxiety in students impair learning. 

Working with emotions in the classroom, and incorporating socio-emotional learning into pedagogical 

practice, means considering students in all their dimensions. It is about understanding and valuing the way 

students perceive themselves, interact, and perceive learning. 

6. Motivation puts the brain in action for learning: Motivation is associated with the activity of brain areas 

that analyze the value of a given experience and also whether it is rewarding enough to be repeated and 

maintained over time. In learning, this process occurs when the student decides to dedicate more time to 

studying certain content. 

A tip to stimulate motivation in students is to arouse their curiosity through thought-provoking questions in 

the classroom. Remember that every research project starts with a question or a problem! 

Research indicates that when something truly awakens curiosity, brain regions associated with motivation 

and memory are activated. In other words, curiosity can be a great motivator that makes the brain want to 

learn. 

7. Attention is the gateway to learning: Attention is the gateway to learning. It is through this that the brain 

is able to filter the necessary and relevant information for our knowledge. Without focus and attention, we 

cannot filter the information necessary for learning, and consequently, we cannot learn. But the challenge 

of attention is to maintain concentration, and this involves emotion. For this reason, it is essential that the 

learning content has value and meaning for the student. 

This was proven through research in which, using electrophysiology techniques, they observed that when 

adolescents were presented with stimuli they considered more “interesting,” areas related to selective attention 

were influenced by brain areas related to motivation. Thus, the study demonstrated that more interesting 

stimuli increase attentional focus. 

8. The brain is not multitasking: Although the modern world values multitasking behavior in people, neuroscience 

has proven that the brain is not multitasking, alternating its attention on one stimulus at a time 

when performing a task. 

Simultaneous tasks require the brain to compromise the same brain area, the prefrontal cortex, responsible 

for working memory. Thus, carrying out multiple tasks when studying can compromise academic performance 

and the reading comprehension, for example. Other harmful factors include difficulty maintaining 

focus, mental fatigue, working memory overload, and difficulty retaining the content studied. 

77



In order to make students understand the harm of multitasking behavior, it is necessary to explain to them that 

the greater the number of activities they are doing, the greater the level of distraction. In practice, this means 

avoiding using social media while studying and only using it again during the break between classes. cannot filter 

the information necessary for learning, and consequently, we cannot learn. But the challenge of attention is to 

maintain concentration, and this involves emotion. For this reason, it is essential that the learning content has 

value and meaning for the student. 

This was proven through research in which, using electrophysiology techniques, they observed that when adolescents 

were presented with stimuli they considered more “interesting,” areas related to selective attention were 

influenced by brain areas related to motivation. Thus, the study demonstrated 

that more interesting stimuli increase attentional focus. 

The educator’s work can be more effective when he/she understands how the brain learns, what motivates learning, 

and how it better captures attention—in short, how stimuli and social interactions impact the learner’s formation. 

The brain is the organ of learning, and neuroeducation aims to provide scientific evidence of how the brain 

learns more effectively in the classroom. Hence the importance of neuroeducation for 

the student’s academic life and for the teacher’s teaching process. 

Source: 

Serviço Social da Indústria. Departamento Nacional. 

Neuroscience and education: looking out for the future of learning / Serviço 

Social da Indústria, Ana Luiza Neiva Amaral, Leonor Bezerra Guerra; 

translation Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti. Brasília : SESI/DN, 2022. 

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Supporting this, The Wall Street Journal noted that since universities receive tuition up front, they “have benefited 

from free-flowing federal loan money” and “have an economic incentive to expand graduate degree programs and face 

no consequences if students can’t afford to pay the federal loans after they leave.” 

However, the increase in tuition hasn’t deterred the number of students applying. In fact, these limitless loans have 

only caused a surge. 

The Law School Admissions Council reported that the number of applicants in the 2020/2021 academic year was 35 

percent higher than in 2019/2020, a year which had already seen an increase of 56 percent. This growth is making the 

application process increasingly competitive and giving law schools the opportunity to expand their programs and 

hike their tuitions. 

As a result, the student loan bubble continues to grow. More and more hopeful students are being churned into 

the market with both looming debt and lower salaries, as the demand for lawyers hasn’t increased with the new, 

burgeoning supply. 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021 

BRETT COOPER 

I Gave Up My Seat in Law School One Week Before 

Orientation. Here’s Why 

For the past year, my sights had been set on law school. 

I spent my time studying for the LSAT, polishing personal 

statements, and graduating from UCLA with an attractive 

transcript. It all paid off when I committed to my dream 

JD program this spring. 

But only a week before orientation began, I made the 

decision to give up my seat. 

Upon entering the workforce, fewer than one in four law students believe that their degree 

is worth the financial cost, and the government is partially to blame. 

influx of lawyers and not enough demand for legal work, 

leaving many recent law school graduates unable to 

make their loan payments. 

In short, for most students, law school is no longer a 

ticket to financial stability. For many, it’s simply not 

worth the cost. 

The Cost of Interventionism 

In Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt wrote that “the bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a 

proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences.” 

As evidenced by the current, broken system of graduate education, it’s clear that the legislators responsible for federal 

student loan programs failed to have foresight about the possible consequences of interfering in higher education’s 

market. 

Hoping to make the attainment of graduate degrees more accessible, the government stepped in with limitless federal 

loans. However, with so many students now able to enroll in these programs, the job market can’t keep up. 

In the past 10 years, there have been over 15 civil lawsuits filed against law schools for allegedly falsifying their postgraduation 

employment rates. The students at these mostly mid-tier universities took out loans believing they would 

have comfortable salaries upon gaining their degree, however, most of them have been left unemployed, working 

outside of law, or making less than what they were led to expect. 

Meanwhile, the $37 billion owed by students annually continues to expand, putting more people further in debt while 

costing taxpayers more money each year. This is far from what the government hoped to achieve. 

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that while the 

financial cost of legal education continues to increase, 

the value and payout of the degree has plummeted, and 

the statistics are staggering. 

Upon entering the workforce, fewer than one in four law 

students believe that their degree is worth the financial 

cost. More than 95 percent of these students take out 

loans for their education, and on average, they graduate 

with $150,000 in debt. However, as the median salary 

for recent law graduates is $75,000 a year in the private 

sector and only $55,000 in the public sector, most of 

these hopeful and ambitious students are unable to 

secure the high-paying jobs a law degree once promised. 

In the past, being able to comfortably pay off student 

loans was a given for law students. However, the median 

starting salary for a private sector lawyer has stayed 

stagnant—and even begun to decrease—as there is an 

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The Government’s Role 

What’s driving this? Government intervention in the 

form of subsidized loans has degraded the return-oninvestment 

of most graduate level degrees, law included. 

In 2005, Congress passed the Higher Education 

Reconciliation Act, which created the PLUS program for 

graduate students and set no limit to the amount of 

tuition money they could borrow. This, in addition to 

the Federal Reserve forcing interest rates to near-zero 

and the growing prospect of loan forgiveness, has made 

federal loans an irresistible option for incoming law 

students. 

The unintended consequence of this seemingly generous 

policy was that it gave academic institutions the ability 

to hike the cost of their programs without sacrificing the 

number of students willing and suddenly able to pay the 

price. 

Considering that the average student takes out $150,000 

in loans, these academic institutions have seemingly 

struck gold. 

Economist Ludwig von Mises explained this phenomenon well in Human Action. 

“All varieties of interference with the market phenomena not only fail to achieve the ends aimed at by their authors 

and supporters, but bring about a state of affairs which … is less desirable than the previous state of affairs which they 

were designed to alter.” 

This is a lesson the government should keep in mind as alumni continue to cry for government bailouts and loan 

forgiveness. 

Continuing to financially intervene in graduate education will only deepen the crisis — for future students and 

unwitting taxpayers alike. 

While I worked hard to get into law school, and I don’t regret my efforts, the statistics I uncovered were a wake up call. 

What once was a promise of a lucrative career is now a promise of debt and a degree that is steadily devaluing. 

No thanks. 

At a time when less than 25 percent of law students believe their financial investment paid off, I think I’ll be happy to 

be putting my energy and resources elsewhere. 

Source: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) 

https://fee.org/ 

81



So, why was the federal Department of Education set up in the first place? What do they do with their $68 billion 

budget? Well, when it was initially established it was given 4 main roles, and these are the same roles it fulfills to this 

day. They are: 

Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds (which 

comprise roughly 8 percent of elementary and secondary education spending). 

Collecting data on America’s schools and disseminating research. 

Focusing national attention on key educational issues. 

Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education. 

Now, some of these functions arguably shouldn’t exist at all. For instance, if you are opposed to federal funding or 

federal interference in education on principle, then there is no need for the first and fourth roles. As for the middle 

two roles, it’s clear that we need people collecting data, disseminating research, and pointing out educational issues. 

But the question here is not whether these initiatives should exist. The question is whether the federal government 

should pursue them. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2022 

PATRICK CARROLL 

Reagan’s Goal to End the Department of Education Is Finally 

Gaining Momentum 

The debate over the federal role in education has been 

going on for decades. Some say the feds should have 

a relatively large role while others say it should be 

relatively small. But while most people believe there 

should be at least some federal oversight, some believe 

there should be none at all. 

Rep. Thomas Massie is one of those who believes there 

should be no federal involvement in education, and he is 

actively working to make that a reality. In February 2021, 

he introduced H.R. 899, a bill that perfectly encapsulates 

his views on this issue. It consists of one sentence: 

“This bill terminates the Department of Education on 

December 31, 2022.” 

Ending the Department of Education may seem like a radical idea, but it’s not as crazy as it 

sounds. 

because they care about educational outcomes. In their 

view, the Department is at best not helping and, at worst, 

may actually be part of the problem. 

“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not 

be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral 

development,” said Massie when he initially introduced 

the bill. “States and local communities are best 

positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of 

their students.” 

Massie is echoing sentiments expressed by President 

Ronald Reagan in 1981, who advocated dismantling the 

Department of Education even though it had just begun 

operating in 1980. 

On that question, there’s a good case to be made that leaving these tasks to the state and local level is far more 

appropriate. Education needs vary from student to student, so educational decisions need to be made as close to 

the individual student as possible. Federal organizations simply can’t account for the diverse array of educational 

contexts, which means their one-size-fits-all findings and recommendations will be poorly suited for many classrooms. 

Teachers don’t need national administrators telling them how to do their job. They need the freedom and flexibility 

to tailor their approach to meet the needs of students. It is the local teachers, schools, and districts that know their 

students’ needs best, which is why they are best positioned to gather data, assess their options, and make decisions 

about how to meet those needs. Imposing top-down national ideas only gets in the way of these adaptive, customized, 

local processes. 

The federal Department of Education has lofty goals when it comes to student success, but it is simply not the right 

institution for achieving them. If we really want to improve education, it’s going to require a bottom-up, decentralized 

approach. So rather than continuing to fund yet another federal bureaucracy, perhaps it’s time to let taxpayers keep 

their money, and let educators and parents pursue a better avenue for change. 

This article was adapted from an issue of the FEE Daily email newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free-market 

news and analysis like this in your inbox every weekday. 

This position may seem radical, but Massie is not alone. 

The bill had 8 cosponsors when it was introduced 

and has been gaining support ever since. On Monday, 

Massie announced that Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) decided 

to cosponsor the bill, bringing the total number of 

“By eliminating the Department of Education less than 

2 years after it was created,” said Reagan, “we cannot 

only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and 

preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, 

determine the education of our children.” 

cosponsors to 18. 

Though it may be tempting to think Massie and his 

supporters just don’t care about education, this is 

certainly not the case. If anything, they are pushing 

Before we rush into a decision like this, however, it’s 

important to consider the consequences. As G. K. 

Chesterton famously said, “don’t ever take a fence down 

until you know the reason it was put up.” 



to end the federal Department of Education precisely 

82 

83



The idea that all homeschooling families in the UK must now be presumed guilty of neglect because a “very small 

minority” might be is not a legitimate reason to violate the privacy and personal freedom of law-abiding citizens. There 

are already laws to protect children from abuse and neglect in the UK and elsewhere, and those laws should be duly 

enforced; but subjecting all homeschooling families to regulation and oversight because of fears of a few is a blatant 

example of state intrusion. 

Guilty Until Proven Innocent 

Families often choose the homeschooling option because they are especially attentive to their child’s well-being. As 

The Guardian reported last fall: 

Many parents who opt to homeschool their children say they are avoiding bullying, exam pressure and stress. Others have concerns 

about special educational needs, not getting a place at the school of their choice, or the school environment. 

In other words, most of these homeschooling parents are going above and beyond to provide the best education for 

their children and should not have their decisions questioned and educational approaches monitored. 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019 

KERRY MCDONALD 

Homeschoolers: Guilty Until Proven Innocent? 

My eight-year-old daughter and I recently read about 

the Salem witch trials. She had heard about Salem from 

a friend who visited the nearby town during its popular 

Halloween festivities, and she was curious about the 

witches. We went to the library to get some books on the 

topic of how 20 innocent people were put to death for 

“witchcraft” in 1692, with scores more accused and jailed. 

What struck me most about revisiting the Salem Witch 

Trials with my children was the fact that these English 

Puritans who had recently settled in Massachusetts 

Bay Colony had no presumption of innocence. Those 

accused of a crime at the time, both in the New World 

and elsewhere, were guilty until proven innocent. The 

presumption of innocence in trials, with court defenders 

and impartial juries, would take centuries to catch on. 

The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” was coined by 

an English lawyer in 1791, but even then it took a long 

while to become the legal precedent we all now take for 

granted. 

A Pattern of Privacy Invasion 

Of course, this legal designation is still imperfectly 

applied, particularly in cases of fear and bias against 

certain groups. The US PATRIOT Act, for instance, allows 

law enforcement agencies the authority to conduct 

surveillance on individuals and groups by monitoring 

personal phone calls, emails, and financial documents 

Subjecting all homeschooling families to regulation and oversight because of fears of a few 

is a blatant example of state intrusion. 

84 

without a court order. First passed in 2001 in the wake 

of the 9/11 attacks and reauthorized since, it is intended 

to root out the evils of terrorism but does so by violating 

individual liberty and presuming guilt over innocence. 

We see this pattern of privacy invasion by the state and 

presumed guilt in other areas, as well. In the United 

Kingdom, for example, there has been such a dramatic 

rise in the number of homeschoolers that the state 

believes it must regulate and monitor the practice. 

Estimates suggest that the number of homeschoolers in 

the UK increased 40 percent in just three years, and it is 

thought to be the fastest-growing education option in the 

UK, with approximately 60,000 homeschooled children in 

2018. 

The rapid growth of parents taking back control 

of their children’s education has led to calls by 

government officials to create a “compulsory register” of 

homeschooled children and to monitor their education. 

The UK’s Department of Education told the BBC through 

a spokesperson this week: 

Where children are being home educated, we know that in the 

vast majority of cases parents are doing an excellent job. We 

also know, however, that in a very small minority of cases children 

are not receiving the standard of education they should 

be. 

Supporters of homeschooling regulation, both in the United States and abroad, frequently say that it’s really no big 

deal. If you’re one of the vigilant homeschooling families then you shouldn’t mind state oversight. But that’s like saying 

if I have nothing to hide, it’s okay for the government to search my house and read my emails—without a warrant. It 

presumes guilt over innocence. 

Intentions may be good. The Salem Puritans wanted to root out witchcraft and what they saw as the work of the devil. 

The PATRIOT Act aimed to prevent terrorism through government surveillance. Monitoring homeschooling families is 

presented as protecting children. But in all cases, innocent people are suspected of guilt and must prove themselves 

worthy. It’s antithetical to the values of a free society. 

I wanted to tell my daughter that we’re so much better now than those Puritans, that “innocent until proven guilty” 

now prevails. But I’m honestly not so sure. 



85



Some supporters of the policy, however, had the intellectual honesty to do so. 

“I can accept the trade-offs as the necessary cost of this policy,” Jonathan Chait wrote in a 2022 New York magazine 

article. “What I can’t accept is the refusal by Harvard and its defenders to admit what the policy is.” 

Chait described their refusal as “gaslighting,” and the Supreme Court agreed. In a watershed 2023 decision, the court 

held that race-based admissions violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause. 

The high court was right, but we should look beyond the legal problems of affirmative action. 

America is built on the idea that all people should be treated equally, but today, we’re divided on the question of 

whether racial discrimination should be used so long as it results in preferred outcomes. The vast majority of people 

(73%) oppose race-based admissions, but it’s a policy supported by many liberals — indeed, demanded. 

Coleman Hughes, a heterodox black thinker and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, recently found his TED talk on color 

blindness , the idea that we shouldn’t judge people by the color of their skin or treat them differently, targeted for 

censorship by social justice fundamentalists. (TED eventually released Hughes’s talk but suppressed the video.) 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2023 

JON MILTIMORE 

Why a Student With a 1590 SAT Score Was Rejected by 16 

Colleges 

Stanley Zhong did everything right. A 4.42 weighted GPA 

(3.98 unweighted). A 1590 SAT score (1600 is perfect). 

He’d even launched his own startup (RabbitSign). 

Yet the 18-year-old Palo Alto-area graduate was stunned 

when he found himself rejected by 16 of the 18 schools 

he’d applied to, including multiple state schools. 

“Some of the state schools, I really thought, you know, I 

had a good chance,” Zhong told ABC7 News . “I didn’t get 

in.” 

Zhong’s story has begun to gather some media attention, 

which was the subject of discussion at a recent House 

Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing. 

Yet almost all of the stories failed to mention the likely 

reason Zhong was rejected: He’s Asian. 

For years, colleges have been quietly discriminating 

against Asians in the admission process, admitting white, 

black, and Latino students with lower SAT scores and 

lower GPAs in the name of inclusivity. The problem for 

Asians is that, as a group, they tend to score really well. 

This means there’s an abundance of highly qualified 

Asians applying to universities each year. This would not 

be a problem for Asian students if not for race-conscious 

universities, which, in recent years, have demonstrated 

Zhong’s treatment is an important reminder of the injustice many face when Americans fail 

to see all people as we should: as individuals. 

86 

a preference for social equity and racial balance over 

merit. 

As a result, untold numbers of Asians have found 

themselves excluded from universities simply because of 

their race. 

Harvard, which was sued in 2013 by Students for Fair 

Admissions for racial discrimination, is a high-profile 

example. Several years ago, the university released data 

showing that over an 18-year period (1995-2013), Asian 

American students outscored every other racial peer 

group, averaging an SAT section score of 767 (max 800). 

That is substantially higher than white people (745), 

Hispanic people (718), Native Americans (712), and black 

people (704). 

In other words, Asian Americans had to outperform other 

racial peer groups to be admitted. 

“[Asian Americans were] being held to a higher standard 

than [others], all else equal,” Duke economist Peter S. 

Arcidiacono wrote in a pretrial report . 

The dirty secret was that Harvard, like most universities, 

was using racial discrimination to admit certain racial 

groups at the expense of others. 

Many colleges and defenders of affirmative action, i.e., 

“positive discrimination,” refused to admit this was 

actually racial discrimination. 

Decades ago, the Nobel Prize-winning F.A. Hayek observed the Kafkaesque logic of trying to usher in a more equal 

society by treating people unequally. 

“The classical demand is that the state ought to treat all people equally in spite of the fact that they are very unequal,” 

Hayek said. “You can’t deduce from this that because people are unequal, you ought to treat them unequally in order 

to make them equal. And that’s what social justice amounts to.” 

Systemic racism exists in America today. It just looks a lot different than you’ve been told. Just ask Stanley Zhong. 

Fortunately for Zhong, the Palo Alto graduate doesn’t need the universities that rejected him. He landed a job with 

Google. But his father observed that’s “a luxury most kids in his situation won’t have.” 

He’s right. Zhong’s treatment is an important reminder of the injustice many face when Americans fail to see all people 

as we should: as individuals. 



87



To accommodate local demand for her program, Cassidy opened up walls and expanded into an adjacent space. She is 

now at capacity with 33 mixed-age learners in kindergarten through high school. 

“I haven’t done any marketing,” said Cassidy, who has seen her program grow through word of mouth. Crossroad Trails 

is recognized as an unaccredited private school in Kansas with full- and part-time attendance options. Parents select 

the curriculum they want for their children that is aligned with their personal preferences and needs. This could range 

from virtual public school options to packaged homeschool curriculum and could be secular or faith-based. Cassidy 

offers the time and space for learners to work through their chosen curriculum, providing guidance, feedback and 

evaluation in collaboration with families. 

Full-time annual tuition is $4,000, which is significantly lower than other local private education options but remains 

the main barrier to access. “Our families have the need but not the funding,” said Cassidy, who tries to find various 

ways to reduce tuition for families while supporting the expansion of education choice programs that enable funding 

to follow students. 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2023 


Former Public School Teachers Find Happiness In 

Entrepreneurship 

Ispent much of last week in the greater Kansas City area 

visiting microschools and learning pods, and talking to 

founders, ahead of the Heartland Hybrid & Microschools 

Summit, hosted by Kansas Policy Institute. 

All of the seven learning environments I visited in Kansas 

and Missouri were founded within the past three years 

and all of the founders are former public school teachers 

who quit and created these alternative programs. They 

all expressed greater levels of personal and professional 

fulfillment. 

“I’m so much happier now,” said Jennifer Hunt, founder 

of Salt + Light Academy in Kansas. “I’m getting to 

teach how I always wanted to teach. It took the Covid 

shutdowns to realize my hands were tied in the public 

school classroom. That opened my eyes to seeing 

different models of education.” 

At Salt + Light, children enjoy a highly-individualized 

curriculum tailored to their academic needs in 

community with adults and peers. Hunt taught in public 

schools for over a decade before quitting her job to 

create her microschool. It launched in 2021 with 10 kids 

and is now at capacity with nearly 30 mixed-age, mostly 

elementary-level students. Annual tuition is $7,500, with 

various tuition-reduction opportunities. Hunt is exploring 

the possibility of expanding to the middle school and 

Education entrepreneurs are finding joy in launching their own innovative learning programs 

and are spreading that joy to their learners. 

88 

high school levels in the coming months. 

Hunt isn’t the only one who is happier. Her learners are 

too. She shared the story of one child with severe schoolrelated 

anxiety who, after a short time attending Salt + 

Light, told his mother that he no longer had his Sunday 

night stomach aches that regularly plagued him before 

the start of each school week. 

“This is a safe place,” said Hunt. “Everyone learns at a 

different level. They are so much more relaxed. Once 

they realize they can learn at their own pace and not be 

rushed, they’re settled and their hearts rest and they 

become curious again–just like they were as toddlers.” 

About 10 miles away from Salt + Light, Tara Cassidy runs 

a similar microschool that also embraces individualized, 

learner-centered education. Cassidy was a public school 

teacher for 17 years, but grew increasingly frustrated 

with the institutional bureaucracy. “It wasn’t what I 

wanted to do anymore. It’s just paperwork and politics,” 

said Cassidy. 

She was also not happy with her children’s experiences 

in the local public school system, and wanted to create 

something different. In August 2022, Cassidy launched 

Crossroad Trails Education Center with eight students in 

a commercial storefront location that previously housed 

a daycare center. By November, she had 20 students. 

Not far from Crossroad Trails is Rooted Life Academy, a home-based learning pod run by Becky McNichols who taught 

in public schools for 15 years, including most recently in a Title I public school that served predominantly low-income 

and migrant students. She gave so much of herself to her students and felt increasingly drained. “I felt like I was 

a pitcher pouring into a bucket full of holes,” said McNichols. “I felt I was empty by the end of the day and didn’t 

have enough for my own kids. Putting my family first was important.” It was her husband who suggested McNichols 

consider launching a learning pod in their home. “He was seeing that I wanted to give so much but couldn’t at the 

school,” said McNichols. 

She resigned from her teaching job in the spring of 2022 and opened Rooted Life that fall with eight students ranging 

in age from kindergarteners to fourth graders. Today, her pod is at capacity with 12 students and a waiting list. Fulltime 

annual tuition is $8,000. “When I decided to open Rooted Life, I felt so much peace,” said McNichols, whose two 

children also attend the program. “This has been a complete blessing.” She finds that the individualized approach to 

education nurtures a strong partnership with parents while enabling children to learn at their own pace and support 

each other in visible ways. “Public school was so competitive and this is so collaborative,” she said. 

Education entrepreneurs in the Heartland and across the U.S. are finding joy in launching their own innovative 

learning programs and are spreading that joy to their learners. 



89



Gray, a psychology professor at Boston College, elaborates on this research in his 2013 book, Free To Learn. He and his 

colleagues Gina Riley and Kevin Currie-Knight published similar findings in a 2021 paper on the outcomes of alumni of 

the Hudson Valley Sudbury School that was modeled after Sudbury Valley. 

Even though Friedman home-unschooled his two children after briefly sending them to a small Sudbury-style school in 

California that closed shortly after they left, he believes that children learning in “unschooling schools” is preferable to 

them learning at home. He would like to see a robust free market of unschooling schools with different organizational 

structures from which families could choose. 

“My ideal system, which doesn’t exist, would be to have multiple, competing unschooling private schools in which the 

unschooling school is run by whoever owns it just like an ordinary school, but is constrained to treat the students 

properly by the fact that if not they’ll leave for another school, which is the way we handle most things in the free 

market,” said Friedman in this week’s podcast. 

The flurry of education entrepreneurship over the past two years, including the proliferation of microschools, learning 

pods, and homeschooling and unschooling collaboratives, may be edging us closer to Friedman’s vision and toward a 

robust free market of education options. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2022 


One Prominent Libertarian Explains Why Unschooling Is the 

Best Way to Educate Kids 

“It seems obvious to me from my own education that one 

learns things mostly when you’re interested in learning 

them and not mostly when somebody sits you down and 

makes you learn them,” said David D. Friedman in our 

conversation on unschooling in the latest episode of the 

LiberatED Podcast. 

Friedman, a physicist, economist, and law professor 

who is the son of the Nobel Prize-winning economist, 

Milton Friedman, is a staunch supporter of unschooling, 

or the idea of self-directed, non-coercive learning that 

occurs either as an approach to homeschooling or in 

“unschooling schools,” such as those schools modeled 

after the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts that 

was founded in 1968. 

Even though Friedman home-unschooled his own children, he believes “unschooling 

schools” are preferable. 

from having to spend a substantial part of every week 

sitting in class being bored, it also gave them a better 

education.” 

Friedman continues: 

“Unschooling worked for us, but two very bright children 

brought up by highly educated parents are not exactly a random 

sample of the relevant population. There is evidence that 

it works for quite a lot of other people; interested readers may 

want to look at the literature on Sudbury Valley School, the 

model that the school where our children started their unschooling 

experience was built on. There may be some children 

who would learn more in a conventional school, even children 

who would enjoy the process more. But, judging by our experience, 

unschooling, home unschooling if no suitable school is 

available, is an option well worth considering.” 

I wrote extensively about unschooling, the Sudbury 

model, and other “unschooling schools” in my 2019 

Unschooled book, and was delighted to discover that 

the most recent edition of Friedman’s well-known book, 

Machinery of Freedom: Guide to A Radical Capitalism, 

first published in 1973, includes a chapter on unschooling 

entitled: “Unschooling: A Libertarian Approach to 

Children.” 

Friedman unschooled his own children, writing in 

Machinery of Freedom and on his blog: “Judged by our 

experience, unschooling not only saved our children 

90 

The research on the Sudbury Valley School that Friedman 

references includes several academic and informal 

studies of alumni. A 1986 study of Sudbury Valley 

alumni by Peter Gray and David Chanoff published in 

the American Journal of Education concludes: “Although 

these individuals educated themselves in ways that are 

enormously different from what occurs at traditional 

schools, they have had no apparent difficulty being 

admitted to or adjusting to the demands of traditional 

higher education and have been successful in a wide 

variety of careers.” 


91 

https://fee.org/



It should be no surprise that as we place young children in artificial learning environments, separated from their 

family for long lengths of time, and expect them to comply with a standardized, test-driven curriculum, it will be too 

much for many of them. 

New findings by Harvard Medical School researchers confirm that it’s not the children who are failing, it’s the schools 

we place them in too early. These researchers discovered that children who start school as among the youngest in 

their grade have a much greater likelihood of getting an ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade. In fact, for 

the U.S. states studied with a September 1st enrollment cut-off date, children born in August were 30 percent more 

likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older peers. 

The study’s lead researcher at Harvard, Timothy Layton, concludes: “Our findings suggest the possibility that large 

numbers of kids are being overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD because they happen to be relatively immature 

compared to their older classmates in the early years of elementary school.” 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2018 Are ADHD rates rising because we send children to school at younger ages? 


Harvard Study Shows the Dangers of Early School Enrollment 

For a weekly newsletter from Kerry McDonald on 

Paige and her colleagues warn about the hazards of early 

parenting and education, sign up here. 

reading instruction. They write, 

This Should Come as No Surprise 

Parents don’t need Harvard researchers to tell them that a child who just turned five is quite different 

developmentally from a child who is about to turn six. Instead, parents need to be empowered to challenge 

government schooling motives and mandates, and to opt-out. 

As universal government preschool programs gain traction, delaying schooling or opting out entirely can be 

increasingly difficult for parents. Iowa, for example, recently lowered its compulsory schooling age to four-year-olds 

enrolled in a government preschool program. 

Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the 

development and maturity of a young child. A oneyear-old 

is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully 

sprints away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, 

always imagining, always asking why, while a five-yearold 

may start to sit and listen for longer stretches. 

Growing Expectations vs. Human Behavior 

Children haven’t changed, but our expectations of their 

behavior have. In just one generation, children are 

going to school at younger and younger ages, and are 

spending more time in school than ever before. They are 

increasingly required to learn academic content at an 

early age that may be well above their developmental 

capability. 

In 1998, 31 percent of teachers expected children to 

learn to read in kindergarten. In 2010, 80 percent of 

teachers expected this. Now, children are expected to 

read in kindergarten and to become proficient readers 

soon after, despite research showing that pushing early 

literacy can do more harm than good. 

In their report Reading in Kindergarten: Little to Gain 

and Much to Lose education professor Nancy Carlsson- 

When children have educational experiences that are 

not geared to their developmental level or in tune with 

their learning needs and cultures, it can cause them 

great harm, including feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and 

confusion. 

Hate The Player, Love the Game 

Instead of recognizing that schooling is the problem, 

we blame the kids. Today, children who are not reading 

by a contrived endpoint are regularly labeled with a 

reading delay and prescribed various interventions to 

help them catch up to the pack. In school, all must be 

the same. If they are not listening to the teacher, and 

are spending too much time daydreaming or squirming 

in their seats, young children often earn an attentiondeficit/hyperactivity 

disorder (ADHD) label and, with 

striking frequency, are administered potent psychotropic 

medications. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

(CDC) reports that approximately 11 percent of children 

ages four to seventeen have been diagnosed with ADHD, 

and that number increased 42 percent from 2003-2004 to 

2011-2012, with a majority of those diagnosed placed on 

medication. Perhaps more troubling, one-third of these 

As New York City expands its universal pre-K program to all of the city’s three-year-olds, will compulsory schooling 

laws for preschoolers follow? On Monday, the New York City Department of Education issued a white paper detailing 

a “birth-to-five system of early care and education,” granting more power to government officials to direct early 

childhood learning and development. 

As schooling becomes more rigid and consumes more of childhood, it is causing increasing harm to children. Many of 

them are unable to meet unrealistic academic and behavioral expectations at such a young age, and they are being 

labeled with and medicated for delays and disorders that often only exist within a schooled context. Parents should 

push back against this alarming trend by holding onto their kids longer or opting out of forced schooling altogether. 



92 

93



sweeping societal reforms. Key within this movement was education reform, and one of the most influential educational reformers in 

Germany at the time was a man named Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Like Luther before him, Fichte saw compulsory schooling as a tool to 

indoctrinate kids, not educate them. Fichte describes his aim for Germany’s “new education” this way: 

Then, in order to define more clearly the new education which I propose, I should reply that that very recognition of, and reliance 

upon, free will in the pupil is the first mistake of the old system and the clear confession of its impotence and futility. 

But actual education is an organic process and requires free will; this was not an attempt at education. Schools were to be factories that 

would churn out the type of obedient, compliant workers the state preferred. Here’s Fichte again explaining the desired interaction between 

teachers and students: 

[Y]ou must do more than merely talk to him; you must fashion him, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will 

otherwise than you wish him to will. 

Fichte understood full well that a statist vision could most easily be realized if governments were given kids’ minds early on: 

MONDAY, MAY 13, 2019 

MIKE MARGESON JUSTIN SPEARS 

The History and Results of America’s Disastrous Public 

School System, Part I 

While it’s almost universally understood that the 

American school system is underperforming, “reform,” 

too, is almost universally prescribed as the solution. Yet 

in other walks of life, bad ideas are not reformed—they 

are eliminated and replaced with better ones. Our school 

system is rarely identified as a bad idea. 

The system is reflexively left alone while the methods are 

the bad ideas that get cycled in and out: open concept 

schools, multiple intelligences, project-based learning, 

universal design for learning, merit-based pay, vouchers, 

charters, and most recently, educational neuroscience. 

Every decade or so we are told by the pedagogic experts 

that they have found an answer to our school’s problems. 

The trouble is, they’re looking right past the problem. 

Schooling Monopoly 

The problem is the monopoly that schooling has gained 

over education. According to the National Center for 

Education Statistics, approximately 97 percent of 

kids go through traditional schooling (as opposed to 

homeschooling or unschooling), and just over 90 percent 

of those attend government schools. That is to say, there 

is basically one accepted way to educate kids today: 

school them. 

Given the relatively poor performance of American 

students on international achievement tests, you would 

think schooling might receive a second look. Quite 

The earliest ancestor to our system of government-mandated schooling comes from 

16th-century Germany. 

94 

the opposite, actually. It is instead made mandatory, 

and taxpayers are forced to subsidize it. This begs 

the question: Why would the government continue to 

propagate a system that produces such questionable 

results? The answer lies in their motives, and their 

motives are best understood by reviewing a brief history 

of compulsory schooling. 

Roots in Germany 

The earliest ancestor to our system of governmentmandated 

schooling comes from 16th-century Germany. 

Martin Luther was a fierce advocate for state-mandated 

public schooling, not because he wanted kids to become 

educated, but because he wanted them to become 

educated in the ways of Lutheranism. Luther was 

resourceful and understood the power of the state in his 

quest to reform Jews, Catholics, and other non-believers. 

No less significant was fellow reformist John Calvin, who 

also advocated heavily for forced schooling. Calvin was 

particularly influential among the later Puritans of New 

England (Rothbard, 1979). 

Considering compulsory schooling has such deep roots in 

Germany, it should be no surprise that the precursor to 

our American government school system came directly 

from the German state of Prussia. 

In 1807, fresh off a humiliating defeat by the French during the War 

of the Fourth Coalition, the Germans instituted a series of vast, 

Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of 

their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished ... When the technique has been perfected, 

every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects 

securely without the need of armies or policemen. 

If such a totalitarian vision were quietly isolated in Germany, or even Europe, it might be of very little consequence. But it would be this 

Prussian model of control-by-schooling that 19th-century American politicians would bring to our nation—and the one that is still with us 

today. 

Horace Mann’s Evaluation 

Referred to as the first great American advocate of public education, Horace Mann embarked on a journey to Europe 

in 1843 to evaluate national school systems. He toured several western European states, but Prussia left the most 

impressionable impact on him (see his 7th Annual Report of the Board of Education, 1843). Once back in the United 

States, Mann began to lobby heavily for a taxpayer-funded government school system that largely mirrored that of 

Prussia’s. 

Mann was no ordinary, grassroots American activist; he was an extremely influential public figure. He had been a part 

of the Massachusetts State Legislature, he was the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and he 

later became a United States congressman. He had enormous reach. In short, Mann’s influence worked. His “common 

school movement,” as it would be known, began to spread across the Northeast, with government schooling taking 

root in Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 

By the end of the decade, all states had public schools. Unsatisfied with forcing taxpayers to fund a government school 

system, Massachusetts also wanted to force everyone to go. What good would an organized system of indoctrination 

be if people could simply ignore it? They instituted the first compulsory attendance laws in the 1850s, and neighboring 

states began to follow suit; by the end of the 19th century, 34 states had compulsory school laws. 

By 1918, they all did. Over the decades, the number of years kids were forced to go to school slowly increased, as did 

the number of required school days per year. Fines and penalties would be imposed nationwide for school truancy. 

Within decades, the federal government passed the ESEA, which thrust the national government into education and 

shortly thereafter established a federal Department of Education. Mann’s vision for a truly national school system 

would be realized just a little over a century after his initial visits to Prussia. 



95



If the child does throw a tantrum, the parent is left with two options. Cave in and buy the toy or hold strong and do 

not buy the toy. 

If parents cave in, they are unhappy with the tantrum starting, but they stave off the embarrassment and headache 

of an extreme tantrum. Preventing the full tantrum is precisely why many parents do cave in situations like this. The 

child is happy and receives a payoff of 10, and the parent has a bad payoff of -2. 

Alternatively, parents could hold strong and not buy the toy. The downside to this (at least immediately) is large. The 

tantrum continues for longer. This leads to an unhappy child with a -1 payoff and a parent who has a big headache and 

a -5 payoff. 

It appears that the best option in the case of a tantrum is to simply buy the toy to make life easy, but this is a 

deceptive result. If children only threw one tantrum in their lives, this might be the best answer. In fact, this same 

logic is why grandparents are notorious for spoiling kids and saying yes. If you spend time with a child in limited 

amounts, why let that time be destroyed by the tantrum? 

WED, FEBRUARY 1, 2023 How game theory can help you be a better parent 

PETER JACOBSEN 

3 Rules of Rational Parenting Derived from Good Economics 

As an economist, one of the most common questions I So let’s think of what we’ll call the tantrum game. In 

get is inquiries on which stocks to buy. As I’ve explained the tantrum game, a child makes a decision whether to 

before for FEE, economics doesn’t actually equip me to throw a tantrum; and the parents, in turn, are given the 

answer this question. However, economics has provided opportunity to respond. 

me with good rules to aid me in (believe it or not) 

parenting. 

We’re going to analyze the decisions of the child and 

parent using a diagram called a decision tree. At the end 

There’s a good chance that parents will hear or discover of each branch of the decision tree, we can see the final 

these rules on their own, but the underlying logic for why payoffs each person ends up with. The only important 

they are good rules is based on a sound understanding of thing to understand with the payoffs is that bigger is 

economics. 

better. 

So, after five years of parenting and three years of being So say you’re at the store, and your son or daughter 

a professor, I present to you the three rules of rational wants you to buy a toy. You refuse, and a tantrum 

parenting. 

ensues. Let’s look at your options. 

Rule 1: Cave Never or Cave Forever 

One common struggle of being a parent of young kids 

is the possibility of tantrums. Kids frequently throw 

tantrums publicly when they don’t get what they want, 

and your response to tantrums needs to be strategic. 

The problem for parents is this is not a one-shot game. It’s what economists call a repeated game. In other words, if 

you cave and buy a toy, the next time you go to the store the child believes their options are to either not throw a 

tantrum and get a 0 payoff, or they can throw a tantrum and get a toy with the attendant 10 payoff. 

With this choice in front of them, the child will throw a tantrum every time. 

If, instead, the parent holds strong during the tantrum and doesn’t buy the toy, the child will learn the only two 

options are 1) get no toy (0 payoff) or 2) get no toy and scream (-1 payoff). In other words, the tantrum is not worth it if 

the parent never gives in. 

So this leaves us with our rule. If you cave and buy a toy, you should expect a tantrum every time you’re in the store. 

That doesn’t mean you can’t buy your kids toys; it just means you shouldn’t do so when threatened with a tantrum. If 

you’re going to cave on something, you should prepare to always cave on that thing. 

For example, my wife and I have set up expectations for our kids during church time. My kids know that if they ask for 

the candy given out to kids at church my wife and I will say no. This led to some drama at first, but now they expect 

the answer and have moved on. 

Note, the rule is not simply never cave to demands. Sometimes it is okay to give kids what they want! If you think it’s 

reasonable, buy kids popcorn when you go to the movies. I’m not saying deny them out of principle! You should just be 

prepared for them to expect you always to cave on that particular demand if you often do so. 

Rule 2: Don’t Make False Threats 

A similar logic underlies Rule 2: “don’t make false threats.” Just like in Rule 1, the best solution for a one-shot game is 

not always the same as the solution for a repeated game. 

Any time you encounter a situation where your best 

decision depends upon the actions of another person, we 

can think of that interaction as a game. Something being 

a game doesn’t imply there is a loser or a winner, it just 

means your best action is dependent on the action of 

someone else. These sorts of interactions are analyzed 

by economists with the tools of game theory. 

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Let me explain each result. If the child chooses not to 

throw a tantrum in the first place, the parent is very 

happy and receives a payout of 10. The child receives no 

toy and 0 payoff. 

I still own my first Gameboy Pocket and copy of Pokemon Red. My daughter, a Pokemon lover, frequently asks me if 

she can play it. Whether or not she’s allowed to depends on how she treats her little sister. If she’s been nice, I’ll let 

her. If she is mean, I don’t. 

If I really want my daughter to do something like clean her room, one option I have is I could say that if she doesn’t 

clean, I’ll never let her play the Gameboy again. That threat would probably convince her to clean, but it’s a bad threat 

nonetheless. 

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The problem is, I like that she gets to play the Gameboy. It’s fun to watch her figure out the same things I figured out 

when I was a kid. I don’t want to enforce that punishment. 

There is a chance that if I made that threat, she might still leave her room a mess. If that happens, I have two options. I 

can either carry out my threat and take away the Gameboy forever, or I can renege on my threat. 

If I choose the second option, I’ve created a big problem for myself in repeated interactions. From now on my threats 

are not credible. If I said she would lose the Gameboy forever, and she didn’t, why would she believe anything I have to 

say about the consequences of actions? 

So, if I don’t want to take away the Gameboy forever, the rule is simple—I shouldn’t threaten to take it away forever. A 

more reasonable threat that I’d be willing to make is, “you can’t play it today if you’re mean to your sister.” 

A quick way to tell that discipline has gotten out of hand is if parents frequently issue nuclear level threats which kids 

ignore. Don’t make threats you won’t keep. 

It’s very tempting to dial threats up to 10 to assure your kids listen to you, but you need to keep a cool head and offer 

reasonable consequences you know you will enforce. Otherwise, frankly, your kids shouldn’t believe you. 

Rule 3: Be Transparent 

The “games” above have results which make sense because I’ve spelled them out explicitly. The actions and 

consequences have been made clear enough to understand. This brings us to our final rule: be transparent. 

Kids should understand they do have choices (this is true whether you want them to or not) and those choices do have 

consequences. I don’t have a rule for which particular consequences you have if your children, for example, hit each 

other. I’m not a parenting savant. But I can tell you that the consequences you establish should be clear. 

Without clear payoffs or consequences, players in a game cannot make the best decisions. Imagine how frustrating 

basketball would be if your points per basket were totally random. Why would you ever try from 3 point distance if 

you might end up with 1 point? Ultimately, the game of basketball would be frustrating and unwatchable if players and 

viewers couldn’t understand the rules. The “game” of parenting fares no better. 

Not only is it not fair for you to impose arbitrary mystery consequences on children, but it also won’t help you make 

things better. Inconsistent or illogical consequences will leave a child unable to figure out the best option. Instead 

children will either underestimate the consequences and ignore them, overestimate the consequences and be afraid of 

you (which you shouldn’t want), or some combination of both. 

So although economic theory can’t tell you which stocks to pick, it is full of valuable insight for all sorts of everyday 

interactions. And these insights are, in my opinion, worth more than a well-picked stock. 



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THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2023 British police have recorded the event as a “non-crime hate incident,” 

JESS GILL 

What Four British Students Being Suspended After Damaging 

a Quran Means for Freedom of Speech 

In the United Kingdom, four students have recently been describing nonchalantly that “passions do flare,” and that 

suspended from their school after slightly damaging a the mother “to her credit” doesn’t want those sending 

Quran, despite there being “no malicious intent by those her son death threats to be prosecuted. As Ben Sixsmith 

involved” according to the BBC report. 

in The Critic pointed out, imagine the outrage if this was 

a Muslim child receiving death threats and a politician 

A boy had taken the Quran to school last week and given simply said that “passions do flare” and commended 

it to another pupil who read out passages on the tennis their mother for not prosecuting the perpetrators! 

court. The book was then taken inside and fell on the 

floor before being put in a pupil’s bag. The book was Furthermore, the police have recorded the event as a 

the student’s own property. Yet this was deemed as a “non-crime hate incident,” which will be on the student’s 

suspension-worthy offense by the school. 

record. Let that sink in. A child has received death 

threats and the police are more concerned that he 

To escalate the situation more, a local government 

damaged a book. 

official, Usman Ali, claimed the book had been 

“desecrated” and it “needs to be dealt with urgently by A Non Crime Hate Incident 

all the authorities, namely the police, the school and the For those who are outside of the UK and are unaware 

local authority” 

of the term, a non crime hate incident simply means 

anything said or done which is seen as being motivated 

In a released video on Facebook, another local 

by prejudice on any protected characteristic. Over 

government official, Akef Akbar addressed Wakefield the past five years, there have been over 120,000 of 

residents, stating that one of the boys who damaged the these incidents in the UK. After an individual has been 

Quran was “rightfully expelled,” and that his mother “has reported for a “non crime hate incident,” an enhanced 

of course shown her remorse.” 

criminal history check could still flag up and put their 

employment in jeopardy. Isn’t this a bit extreme for a 

Akbar went on to state that the fourteen-year-old has child damaging a book? 

received death threats and threats to beat him up, 

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A Non Crime Hate Incident 

For those who are outside of the UK and are unaware of the term, a non crime hate incident simply means anything 

said or done which is seen as being motivated by prejudice on any protected characteristic. Over the past five years, 

there have been over 120,000 of these incidents in the UK. After an individual has been reported for a “non crime hate 

incident,” an enhanced criminal history check could still flag up and put their employment in jeopardy. Isn’t this a bit 

extreme for a child damaging a book? 

The UK’s Recent Trend with Religious Zealotry 

Though this isn’t the first time that free speech has been sacrificed for the sake of appeasing to religious fanatics. Only 

a few miles away from this incident in 2021, a teacher was suspended from a school in Batley, Yorkshire for showing 

pupils a caricature of Muhammad during a religious studies lesson. After protests from the Muslim community, the 

teacher went into hiding for more than a year. 

However, this stems back to even 1988 when Salman Rushdi wrote his controversial book The Satanic Verses which led 

to a tsunami of outrage as some Muslims considered its fanciful and satirical depiction of Islam blasphemous. After 

publication, thousands of Muslims demonstrated in Greater Manchester, and burned a pile of the books. Even Norman 

Tebbitt, one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest allies, denounced him as “an outstanding villain.” 

Why are the British Left Silent? 

How are these egregious acts of religious militancy against free expression not a cause for contention for British 

progressives considering their background of standing up for religious freedom? Traditionally, with prominent figures 

like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the British left fought against religious views being forced upon people. 

It was the left who defended Rushdie after the outrage. Surely they should be at the forefront of the modern day battle 

to protect those who are victims of religious zealotry, right? 

Yet at best, those on the British left were silent about the student being suspended after damaging a Quran. After this 

event, I went out to Oxford to ask people whether freedom of expression was more important than religious tolerance. 

The liberals I interviewed were completely fine with causing religious offense when it came to Christianity, agreeing 

that if an individual wanted to burn a Bible it would be within their right to do so. However, their tone quickly changed 

when it came to the Quran—saying it was completely right for the student to have been suspended because it was 

“culturally insensitive and quite racist.” 

The British left has adopted the cultural Marxist framework of seeing groups through the dichotomy of either being 

the oppressed or oppressors. Since Christianity has the strongest cultural and historical roots in the UK, it is seen as 

oppressive and something that must be torn down. This is why they have been silent on the arrest of women silently 

praying in proximity to abortion clinics. However, since Islam is seen as an oppressed group, the left have taken it up as 

a cause to protect. 

In addition, the same standard should be applied equally with all those who are religious and non-religious. To force 

an individual to abide by another’s religion is to undermine their right to self ownership and their ability to rationally 

decide which religion is right for them. 

Furthermore, it is through free speech that those with religious views can attempt to convince others in the 

marketplace of ideas. For example, two prominent British Muslim Youtubers who share their beliefs through free 

speech are Mohammed Hijab and Ali Dawah. Platforms like Youtube and Twitter have allowed individuals of all faiths to 

discuss their beliefs with their community, which is much more moral than through the coercion of the state. 

Betraying a Legacy 

This trend is particularly sad considering Britain’s role in world history as a pioneer of religious tolerance and freedom 

of belief. 

The British people have fought hard for their freedom to practice and preach their individual beliefs. The country 

has come a long way from the mutual religious persecutions between Catholics and Protestants in the sixteenth and 

seventeenth centuries—whether that be Queen Mary’s order of hundreds of Protestants to be burnt at the stake or her 

sister and successor Elizabeth persecuting Catholics by the law. Such interfaith conflict continued with the English Civil 

War and beyond. 

However, Britons discovered that the antidote to religious conflict was freedom of conscience. Throughout the 

seventeenth and eighteenth century, there were several acts of Parliament which protected the rights of persecuted 

religious groups. One of the most notable pieces of legislation was the Toleration Act which granted some religious 

freedom to nonconformists, including Quakers and Baptists. The light of religious liberty was further inflamed through 

the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 and the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829: pieces of legislation that granted Catholics 

freedom such as the right to own property and inherit land. 

When the Enlightenment philosopher and writer, Voltaire visited England in the 18th century to escape persecution for 

his writings in France, he noted how civil people were towards those of different faiths: 

“I have seen in England more than thirty different religions, which live together peacefully without any trouble... In this 

great nation, everyone is free to serve God in his own way..” 

Conclusion 

The punishment of students for damaging a Quran and the broader trend of acquiescing to religious intolerance and 

persecution is a retrogression and a betrayal of this proud history. 

Due to their perceived cultural sensitivities around Islam and the fear of being perceived as racist, they are more 

concerned about protecting the feelings of Muslims over the safety and rights of British boys. 

What Freedom Means 

To protect the freedom of speech of those who say hateful things does not mean that you have to support it. 

Contrary to what the British left seems to believe, if the state continues to appease religious zealots by persecuting 

“infidels,” it will not create racial and cultural harmony, but will only foment further discord. 

As Britons of the past heroically discovered, the only way to achieve harmony is freedom. 

As Julian Adorney argued: “Bigotry is a real problem in any large society, but hate speech laws aren’t the solution. They 

drive prejudice underground and let it fester. There’s strong evidence that they may actually foster prejudice rather 

than reduce it.” 



Sunlight is the best disinfectant when it comes to bad ideas. The only way to expose why some ideas are wrong is to 

debate and debunk them. When the four students damaged the Quran, a better way to deal with the situation would 

be to explain to the students why that can be seen as disrespectful. 

100 

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After reading my recent article about the problems with government preschool ahead of my debate on the topic on 

C-SPAN’s Washington Journal show, a reader emailed me. “I work in early childhood and this would mean an end to 

all of the independent, privately owned, and individually purposed schools that exist today,” wrote Bob Harrison. “It 

would make all preschools part of a bureaucratic program with required content,” he added. 

While some private programs will survive government encroachment, the death of small daycares in Chicago should 

be our latest reminder that when the government steps in to help, it often harms. 

FRIDAY, JULY 2, 2021 


How Cities Are Pushing Small Daycares Out of Business 

This article is excerpted from LiberatED, a weekly email 

It is hard for enterprising individuals to compete with widespread, “free” government offerings. 

or it may not be the best environment for the child. 

newsletter where FEE Senior Education Fellow Kerry 

McDonald brings you news and analysis on current 

When it comes to the expanded role of government over 

education and parenting topics. Click here to sign up. 

education and its consequences, past is prologue. In his 

book Schooled to Order, historian David Nasaw explains 

As the government steadily assumes responsibility for 

that as government schooling became compulsory in 

services previously provided by the private sector, small 

Massachusetts beginning in 1852, the number of private 

businesses shutter. It is hard for enterprising individuals 

schools in the state dropped from 1,308 in 1840 to only 

to compete with widespread, “free” (i.e., taxpayer- 

350 by 1880. 

funded) government offerings. 

As more private daycares close with the expansion of 

The latest example of this is in Chicago, where the city’s 

government preschool programs, the shortage of child 

universal public pre-K program is destroying private 

care providers will widen and costs will increase. Many 

child care businesses–many of which are owned by 

daycare centers rely on income from preschoolers to off- 

women and people of color. An in-depth Chicago Tribune 

set the costs of infant and toddler care. Without those 

article this week, details the struggle that many small 

preschoolers, the centers are in danger of closing, leaving 

daycares are confronting as the city’s government 

parents scrambling for early childhood care. “If private 

preschool program expands. “Private child care owners 

centers continue to close because of the financial strain 

say universal pre-K leaves many families with little choice 

of losing preschool children, Chicago could be at risk of 

where to send their children to preschool because cost 

developing an ‘infant and toddler child care desert,’” a 

becomes the determining factor of choosing CPS instead 

child care provider and advocate told the Tribune. 

of private preschool, even if the private program better 

fits a family’s needs,” the Tribune reports. 

The shortage of child care providers and skyrocketing 

costs will then add more ammunition to supporters of 

Steven Coles, owner of Lil’ Scholars Learning Center in 

government-subsidized child care programs who will 

the greater Chicago area, told the Tribune that parents 

insist the government should step in to fix the “market 

are “almost forced” to enroll their children in the 

government preschool programs because it doesn’t cost 

failure” of child care, despite the government causing the 

problem in the first place. 



them anything, even though the quality may be inferior 

102 

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Then there was the question over whether ketchup was a vegetable, and the inevitable lobbying and special interest 

jockeying from various food producers and distributors. 

This Is Your Statistics on Government 

The US Census Bureau reports that the 2017 poverty level was 12.3 percent, and it has been declining steadily over 

the past several years; yet, about 75 percent of school lunch participants receive free or reduced-cost meals. While 

children do not need to be at the poverty level to receive a discounted meal, the startlingly high numbers of recipients 

may be due to a lack of income verification and accountability to determine real need. There are also instances of 

downright fraud. 

Moreover, inclusion in the discounted school lunch program triggers a variety of other federal and state funding 

sources, including federal Title I money, so ensuring accurate eligibility is important. If participation in the school 

lunch program is inflated, it could mean that data on student academic performance is unreliable. National student 

assessments, like the Nation’s Report Card, use discounted school lunch eligibility to determine how well low-income 

children are faring in US schools. 

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019 


It’s Clear the Federal Government Shouldn’t Be Involved in 

the School Lunch Business 

If nothing else, the federal shutdown has succeeded in 

drawing attention to the many programs and services 

under government control. 

One of these is the USDA’s National School Lunch 

Program, which has been providing government-issued 

meals to American schoolchildren since 1946. Today, 

over 30 million young people in over 100,000 schools 

participate in the program, which costs over $13 billion 

every year. In 2016, three-quarters of the five billion 

school lunches served were offered free or at a reduced 

price. The School Breakfast Program, which offers free 

and discounted breakfasts to eligible children, operates 

at an additional cost of over $4 billion, and the Summer 

Food Service Program adds nearly $500 million more. 

One might argue that these are essential programs that 

deserve both our money and our devotion. American 

children shouldn’t go hungry. Like many government 

programs, however, the National School Lunch Program 

and its off-shoots are deeply flawed. 

What the Data Say 

A revealing 2009 study by University of Chicago professor 

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach found that children 

who ate school lunches were more likely to be obese 

than children who brought a lunch from home—despite 

Favoring parental responsibility over government bureaucracy may be the most effective 

way to nourish children. 

104 

entering kindergarten with the same obesity rates. A 

2010 study by University of Michigan researchers found 

similar results, claiming that students who regularly 

consumed school lunches were 29 percent more likely 

to be obese than their classmates who brought lunches 

from home. 

Rather than using these studies to question the 

government school lunch program and urge more 

parents to pack their child’s lunch, policy efforts turned 

instead toward making school lunches healthier. The 

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), launched in 2012, 

detailed new requirements for allegedly more nutritious 

ingredients and offerings in participating schools. 

Despite these efforts, according to the US Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention, the youth obesity rate 

climbed from 16.9 percent of children and adolescents 

in 2011/2012 to 18.5 percent in 2015/2016. In 2017, the 

Trump administration announced it was loosening the 

HHFKA requirements. 

The obesity correlation is only one problem with the 

federal school lunch program. Over the years, the 

program has been riddled with controversy. A 2010 USA 

Today investigation found that “the government has 

provided the nation’s schools with millions of pounds of 

beef and chicken that wouldn’t meet the quality or safety 

standards of many fast-food restaurants.” 

The (Healthy) Way Forward 

Favoring parental responsibility over government bureaucracy may be the most effective way to nourish children. 

Encouraging more parents to opt out of the school lunch program and prepare their own child’s lunch would reduce 

government control over their child’s food and lead to greater health and well-being. Being responsible for their child’s 

meals may also help more parents to make better food choices for themselves, thereby halting the climbing adult 

obesity rate, as well. 

This shift in food control could ignite local efforts to feed hungry families by mobilizing restaurants, grocery stores, 

farms and community gardens, non-profits, charitable organizations, and private businesses to help gather and 

distribute food to those most in need. Some non-profits are already doing this by buying or leasing farmland to grow 

good food for local families who need it. New start-ups are also tackling hunger in innovative, market-driven ways. 

Despite the shutdown, the National School Lunch Program is solvent through March, so children can still receive their 

schoolday meal. But perhaps this is a good opportunity for parents to pause and ask whether the government should 

be feeding their children at all. 



105



“a dramatic rise in home schooling at the onset of the pandemic has largely sustained itself through the 2022- 

23 academic year, defying predictions that most families would return to schools that have dispensed with mask 

mandates and other covid-19 restrictions.” 

Many of these homeschoolers are enrolling in affordable microschools that offer the freedom and flexibility of 

homeschooling within the structure of a drop-off, teacher-led learning environment. Crossroad Trails Educational 

Center near Kansas City is an example of this. Launched last year by Tara Cassidy, who was a public school teacher for 

17 years, Crossroad Trails is a full-time, low-cost microschool that is now at capacity with over 30 students, who are all 

legally recognized as homeschoolers. 

WED, NOVEMBER 8, 2023 


As Education Decentralizes, Those Who Like Control Are 

Nervous 

As more parents gain the opportunity to abandon a 

compulsory schooling assignment for other options, 

including homeschooling and microschooling, it’s no 

surprise that those who favor top-down control of 

education feel anxious about this bottom-up education 

transformation. This nervousness is occurring on both 

ends of the political spectrum. 

On the political left, The Washington Post did some 

pearl-clutching last week around the possibility that “no 

government official will ever check on what, or how well, 

[homeschoolers] are being taught.” On the political right, 

the Fordham Institute expressed similar concerns about 

hybrid homeschoolers and microschoolers: “To ensure 

that those children receive the education they deserve, 

it will require policymakers to craft smart laws to govern 

these new institutions….” 

There can be a strong desire, especially in public policy, 

to control others by imposing on them a specific set 

of beliefs or preferences. In a free society, with such a 

breathtaking diversity of these beliefs and preferences, 

we must resist this urge for centralized control. We must, 

as FEE founder Leonard Read wrote, have “a faith in 

free people,” and allow individuals to make the choices 

that are right for them. They may make choices that 

we personally dislike or find objectionable, and they 

It’s no surprise that those who favor top-down control of education feel anxious about the 

current bottom-up education transformation. 

106 

may similarly frown upon our choices. We don’t need 

to like each other’s choices, but we should embrace the 

freedom to choose. 

The freedom to choose in education is becoming a 

greater reality for many families, particularly as more 

states introduce or expand education choice programs 

that enable families to access a portion of state-allocated 

education funding to use toward tuition at private 

schools, microschools (which are like modern one-room 

schoolhouses), and various homeschool programs, as 

well as toward educational therapies, tutoring services, 

and learning supplies. 

According to EdChoice—which was founded in 1996 by 

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and 

his economist wife Rose to promote parental choice in 

education—roughly 20 million students—or about 36 

percent of the overall US K-12 student population—are 

now, or will soon be, eligible for a choice program that 

enables them to exit an assigned district school for a 

private education option that better meets their needs. 

More parents are fleeing district schools for these other 

options. 

The Washington Post recently released a detailed 

analysis showing that US homeschooling numbers have 

increased more than 50 percent over the past six years 

“Our goal was to let parents be in control,” Cassidy told me in a recent podcast interview. “I learned, as a mom who 

was searching for other options, that what my kid needed wasn’t out there. And so that was my main goal: what your 

family needs, needs to be available to you.” 

More families than ever now have the opportunity to assess their educational needs and make choices accordingly. 

These parents are increasingly choosing personalized, decentralized education options such as homeschooling and 

microschooling—often precisely because they break from one-size-fits-all standard schooling. They want the variety, 

customization, and abundance in education that they enjoy in all other areas of their lives that are not controlled by 

the government. 

As Leonard Read wrote in his classic 1964 essay, The Case for the Free Market in Education: “While one cannot know of 

the brilliant steps that would be taken by millions of education-conscious parents were they and not the government 

to have the educa tional responsibility, one can im agine the great variety of coop erative and private enterprises that 

would emerge.” 

We are now seeing that great variety of cooperative and private enterprises, created by everyday entrepreneurs like 

Cassidy to meet the diverse needs and preferences of millions of families across the US. 

Top-down, government-run schooling is being steadily replaced by bottom-up, decentralized learning models. While 

this may make defenders of the schooling status quo on both the political left and right feel nervous, it should make 

the rest of us feel happy and hopeful. 



107



“There is no set curriculum,” Burgess said. “You can pursue your strengths at Alcove. You can pursue your weaknesses 

or growth areas. You can do whatever it is that you feel like doing. We’re going to make it up as we go along every 

semester.” 

Class offerings this semester include math, French, political science, magic, psychology, debate, art, and more. It’s 

“education as improv,” Burgess said. 

While programs similar to Alcove have been around for decades, interest in these models has accelerated in recent 

years, as families look for the personalization in education that they enjoy in other areas of their lives. 

“When we started North Star in 1996, there were a few pioneering homeschoolers and unschoolers, and there was the 

Sudbury Valley School,” Danford said. “Now, I am meeting people every day who are interested in creating alternatives 

to conventional schooling, and these people sometimes show up with partners, teams and resources.” 

With the expansion of school choice policies enabling education funding to go directly to families rather than school 

systems, self-directed schooling alternatives are poised for further growth. Nine states have adopted universal school 

choice programs, including Arizona, Florida, Utah, and West Virginia, which have implemented flexible education 

savings account programs that include schooling alternatives like Alcove. 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2023 


In Los Angeles, a Tiny School Lets Young People Direct Their 

Own Education 

From the outside, the headquarters of Alcove Learning 

looks like any small home in the largely Latino Boyle 

Heights section of Los Angeles. Flanked by similar houses 

and located among varied storefronts and restaurants, 

this self-directed learning center for teens and tweens 

offers young people the freedom to direct their own 

education. It is part of an expanding ecosystem of 

alternative educational models throughout the U.S. 

focused on individualized learning. 

Alcove was co-founded in January 2020 by Alexis Burgess, 

a former philosophy professor who taught courses at 

Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles, 

and Claremont McKenna College before turning his 

attention to alternative education. 

“So many of the kids I was encountering when teaching 

Intro to Philosophy felt a little rudderless to me,” Burgess 

told me in a recent interview. “They didn’t really know 

why they were at college at all… I think it’s a failure of the 

system. I think one of my Alcove kids recently described 

it as a ‘people mover.’ ” 

Burgess began thinking more critically about his own 

“people mover” educational experience and that of his 

college students, while considering what he wanted for 

his own children’s education. He started reading about 

creative learning models and discovered North Star, a 

self-directed learning center in Massachusetts founded in 

“So many of the kids I was encountering when teaching Intro to Philosophy felt a little rudderless 

to me,” said Alexi Burgess, founder of Alcove Learning. 

108 

1996 by former public school teacher Kenneth Danford. 

Burgess was hooked. He connected with Danford, and 

launched Alcove as part of the Liberated Learners 

microschool network that Danford and his colleague Joel 

Hammon created in 2013 to scale the North Star model, 

which prioritizes non-coercive, self-directed education. 

At Alcove and other Liberated Learner-affiliated 

microschools across the country, young people attend 

optional classes throughout the week, choosing from 

part-time and full-time enrollment offerings. Most Alcove 

learners are legally considered homeschoolers, although 

some students enrolled in California virtual charter 

schools also attend Alcove as a complement to their 

learning programs. 

Tuition is typically a fraction of the cost of traditional 

private schools, making it more financially accessible to 

more families. Alcove uses a “pay-what-you-can” tuition 

model, with some families paying nothing while others 

pay the full $1,600 monthly rate. The average Alcove 

family pays between $500 and $600 a month. 

Burgess describes his microschool as an “unschool,” 

referring to an educational philosophy that jettisons 

adult-imposed curriculum and traditional schooling 

practices in favor of emergent, bottom-up, out-of-system 

learning tied to a young person’s curiosity and interests. 

Danford is focusing his attention on finding and facilitating founders in these choice-friendly states. 

“I have become very interested in exploring public funding for educational alternatives, and am deeply engaged with 

how we can identify and support these founders and their interested families to build sustainable programs,” he said. 

He is currently broadening the training and development services that Liberated Learners offers to prospective 

founders. He’s also growing his team to provide greater support to these entrepreneurs — many of whom are former 

public school teachers. 

“For the most part, the people I meet are not businesspeople seeking a clever way to make money; in fact, most are 

willing to work for lower wages than they could earn in public schools,” Danford said. “These people have initiative, 

vision, and a need to find a different way to work with youth.” 

Even in states like California that don’t have robust school choice policies, entrepreneurial parents and teachers are 

working to offer low-cost, learner-centered education options. 

Not far from Alcove Learning, former teacher and school librarian Lizette Valles founded Ellemercito Academy in 2021 

as an independent microschool with a focus on experiential learning and trauma-informed education. Just outside of 

Los Angeles, Danelle Foltz-Smith runs Acton Academy Venice Beach, part of the fast-growing Acton Academy network 

that now includes over 300 learner-driven microschools. 

There is a groundswell of demand for new and different educational options, and entrepreneurial parents and 

educators everywhere are stepping up to create them. Philanthropic nonprofits like the VELA Education Fund provide 

grant funding and community support to many of these everyday entrepreneurs to help catalyze and cultivate their 

efforts. 

“I think it’s beautiful what’s happening,” Burgess said, noting that Alcove’s little yellow house is now at capacity with 

30 learners. He’s wondering about the possibility of leasing the house next door to meet continuing demand, and is 

optimistic about the growth of decentralized educational models both in Los Angeles and across the country. 

“We’re seeing a large scale reorientation away from a top down, federal organization of schooling in the country to 

something much more bottom up, that was expedited by COVID and by the failures of No Child Left Behind,” Burgess 

said, referring to federal education policy that has shaped American education for the past two decades. 

“We need something better,” he added. “The kids need something better urgently. And so I’m not ashamed anymore to 

be offering an alternative to the public system. I think we need microschools.” 



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We can debate the causes of the housing crisis and such, but the idea that free-market ideology “defined the next halfcentury 

across Republican and Democratic administrations” is about as contrary to fact as anything that has ever been 

put in print. Sure, politicians pay lip service to free markets all the time. But if you look at their actions, it is clear that 

the role of government in the economy has for the most part expanded in the last 50 years, not contracted. 

A half-century truly defined by free-market thinking would have seen the complete gutting of everything from doctor’s 

licenses to zoning laws to social security to tariffs. Yet clearly, these and countless other interventionist schemes are 

alive and well, and enthusiastically championed by both parties. 

A False Idea? 

The excerpt itself lays out the history of the free-market movement leading up to the 1970s. Here’s how it begins. 

This is the story of how American business manufactured a myth that has, for decades and to our detriment, held us in its grip. It 

is the true history of a false idea: the idea of “the magic of the marketplace.” 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2023 


Yet again, the critics of free-market capitalism swing and miss. 

Some people call it market absolutism or market essentialism. In the 1990s, George Soros popularized the name we find most apt: 

market fundamentalism. It’s a quasi-religious belief that the best way to address our needs — whether economic or otherwise — is 

to let markets do their thing, and not rely on government…Government, according to the myth, cannot improve the functioning of 

markets; it can only interfere. Governments therefore need to stay out of the way, lest they ‘distort’ the market and prevent it from 

doing its “magic.” 

Harvard Professor Calls Out FEE in a New Book about 

Capitalism. Here’s What She Gets Wrong 

In a new book, Harvard professor Naomi Oreskes and problems we are facing today. 

historian Erik M. Conway call out FEE by name as one This is quite far from the truth. 

of the villainous organizations promoting radical freemarket 

Regrettably, many of the mischaracterizations and 

ideology. The book is called The Big Myth, and it misunderstandings in this excerpt will have to go 

was published by Bloomsbury Publishing on February 21, unaddressed in the present article for the sake of length. 

2023. 

Suffice it to say, this excerpt (and no doubt the book) 

presents a very one-sided picture. The curious reader 

The “myth” the authors set out to expose is what they is strongly encouraged to learn about the freedom 

call “market fundamentalism,” the idea that markets are philosophy from those who actually hold to it, such 

almost magical and work better than governments for as FEE, and not just from our opponents, who have a 

just about everything. In short, they are taking direct aim vested interest in presenting the straw man version of 

at libertarianism, and in particular the radical laissezfaire 

our arguments. (A great introduction is Henry Hazlitt’s 

economic policy it counsels. 

Economics in One Lesson, available for free here). 

In an excerpt of the book published in The Harvard 

Gazette, the authors discuss the history of the “market With that caveat out of the way, let’s look at some of the 

fundamentalist” movement and the role that various things the authors get wrong. 

organizations—including FEE—played in bringing these 

ideas to the masses. 

Setting the Record Straight on the Past Half-Century 

Before getting into the excerpt, there’s a line in the 

But they are far from even-handed in their account. book’s description that deserves scrutiny. 

The excerpt is riddled with half-truths and uncharitable 

interpretations that reveal a dramatic bias against free By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market 

markets. The authors paint “market fundamentalism” as 

ideology would define the next half-century across Republican 

and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the 

the brainchild of self-interested businessmen, a crafty 

opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to 

scheme that has successfully taken over mainstream 

the Covid-19 pandemic. 

politics and which is responsible for many of the major 

110 

The language about a “quasi-religious” “fundamentalist” belief in a “magical” market will be addressed later in this 

piece. That aside, the authors get one thing right: we absolutely believe that government interference in the economy 

almost always makes things worse. But why should it be taken for granted that this is false? This is a genuine debate 

within economic theory, yet it’s being portrayed as if it’s physicists arguing with flat-earthers. 

The authors go on to identify three main culprits behind the “myth”: organizations, intellectuals, and money. 

Culprit 1: Organizations 

The section on influential organizations is where they bring up FEE. 

Businessmen helped create America’s first libertarian think tank, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), established in 1946 

by Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce manager Leonard Read to peddle pro-market, antigovernment ideology. They also funded 

the Hayek-aligned Mont Pelerin Society, a cadre of mostly European economists, cultural commentators, and political theorists 

promoting a renewed commitment to free-market principles under the aegis of what became known as neoliberalism. 

The use of the word neoliberalism here is missing some important nuance. As Jeffery Tucker explains, the term was 

popularized by Alexander Rüstow at the 1938 Walter Lippmann Colloquium in Paris, and it was intended to apply to 

Lippmann’s vision as described in his famous 1937 book The Good Society. Notably, that vision was a departure from 

laissez-faire liberalism, not a renewed commitment to it. 

Lippmann “believed that ‘liberalism must seek to change laws and greatly to modify property and contract’ in a way 

that rejects laissez faire, a term and a system he completely counterposes to his own,” Tucker notes. “Neoliberalism 

includes public provision of education, health care, environmental protection, financial regulation, fiscal policy 

management, monetary control, and more.” While many at the first Mont Pelerin Society were hardcore laissez-faire 

liberals (including Leonard Read), the “neoliberals” at the meeting favored such compromises. Ironically, the authors 

of The Big Myth probably have more in common with such “neoliberals” than they realize. 

The term has evolved in the decades since, however, and it has now been applied to so many things that it’s no 

wonder people have forgotten its earlier meaning. Phil Magness thus comments, 

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January-February 




It is impossible to discuss, or even understand, the failures of our school system without understanding its origins. The 

But there’s an irony here, too. The very fact that a derisive anti-free market manifesto is being promoted by 

motivations were not pure; they were never to educate. That need not be speculation—it is directly from the mouths of 

Harvard in 2023 is perhaps the greatest evidence that mainstream institutions have not been captured by market 

the reformers themselves. The objective was to nationalize the youth in a particular mold. 

fundamentalism. The very existence of this book testifies against its own thesis. 

From Luther to Fichte, the idea to use the coercive power of the state to force kids into schools and indoctrinate them 

was clear. Horace Mann became instrumental in importing this system and helping it spread throughout the United 

States. Attempts to reform this system amount to an incredible waste of time and resources; discussions of reform are 

a waste of breath. The system is rotten at its foundation and must be abolished completely. 

Culprit 3: Money 

In addition to organizations and intellectuals, the authors also point to money as a factor behind the rise of market 

fundamentalism. They argue the marketplace of ideas was essentially rigged in favor of this view by the business 

interests promoting the ideology. 

Neoliberalism is essentially an intentionally imprecise stand-in term for free market economics, for economic sciences in general, 

for conservatism, for libertarians and anarchists, for authoritarianism and militarism, for advocates of the practice of commodification, 

for center-left or market-oriented progressivism, for globalism and welfare state social democracies, for being in favor of or 

against increased immigration, for favoring trade and globalization or opposing the same, or for really any set of political beliefs 

that happen to be disliked by the person(s) using the term. 

Culprit 2: Intellectuals 

In addition to highlighting organizations like FEE and the Mont Pelerin Society, the authors also mention key 

economists who promoted free-market ideas. 

Another strategy was to recruit sympathetic intellectuals to help give the myth credibility. For this, American businessmen relied 

on imports: the economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek, leaders of the Austrian school of economics. In the 1940s, a 

group linked to NAM [the National Association of Manufacturers] paid for Mises and Hayek to come to America, arranged for them 

to be hired at New York University and the University of Chicago, respectively, and worked assiduously to promote the economists’ 

ideas, both in business circles and among the American people generally. 

To hear the authors of The Big Myth tell the story, proponents of market fundamentalism were a powerful interest 

group that had deep ties to elite institutions and whose ideas had considerable sway in the economics profession. The 

reality is quite the opposite. 

First of all, Mises was not paid to come to America. He was fleeing the Nazis, and only got his position at NYU after 

arriving. 

As for Mises’ implied sway on economic opinion, Lew Rockwell sets the record straight. Consider his account of the 

same story above, specifically of Mises coming to NYU. 

In 1940 Hazlitt helped—with the late Lawrence Fertig—to raise funds for a job for Mises at New York University. At a time when 

every second-rate European Marxist and historicist was getting a professorship at Harvard or Princeton, Mises was blackballed by 

U.S. universities as “dogmatic,” “intransigent,” and “right-wing.” Eventually Hazlitt and Fertig were able to persuade NYU—where 

Fertig was a trustee—to allow Mises to teach as an unpaid visiting professor. 

Well into the 1940s, NAM produced books, pamphlets, radio programs, lecture series, and documentary and feature 

films (and later television programs) designed to influence what newspapers had to say about the economy and 

American life, what teachers taught in the classroom, and, above all, what the American people believed… 

Few of Friedman’s readers knew that the book’s success was not the product of open competition in the marketplace of 

ideas: “Capitalism and Freedom” had been financed and nurtured by American businessmen, and it was the most public 

part of a much larger project… 

Meanwhile, a network of libertarian think tanks, heavily funded by industries selling dangerous products including 

tobacco and fossil fuels, had been established to promote these views in schools, in universities, and in American 

life writ large. Among other things, these think tanks distributed free of charge millions of copies of Hayek’s and 

Friedman’s (and Ayn Rand’s) books…. 

[By the later decades of the 20th century] many Americans saw government as dead weight, taxation as unfair or even 

a form of theft. That they accepted these claims is proof of this story’s importance: propaganda and persuasion had 

worked. 

There are a lot of problems here. First, the authors again claim there was this massive anti-government push in the 

20th century that “worked,” and again the facts point in the complete opposite direction. The government today is far, 

far bigger than it was 100 years ago. So you tell me which side of the debate really had the public’s sympathies. 

As for the fact that these books and lectures were financed by rich businessmen, I say “so what?” Every noteworthy 

idea has had rich adherents backing it to some degree or another—including many anti-liberty ideas, ranging from 

socialism to the progressive ideology favored by the authors of The Big Myth. Besides, isn’t that how the marketplace 

of ideas is supposed to work? You persuade people of your idea, and the more adherents you get the more you can 

expand your promotion activities. Everyone is free to promote what they want, and may the best ideas win the most 

promoters. 

The fact that Friedman’s book had rich people backing it doesn’t mean it had an unfair advantage in the marketplace of 

ideas. It simply means it was successful in that market. 

“Hayek’s position at the University of Chicago was similarly subsidized out of private funds,” notes Jörg Guido Hülsmann 

in his biography of Mises. 

As we can see, the idea that Mises and Hayek had a marked impact on economic thinking in elite institutions is simply 

erroneous. The universities wouldn’t even give them a salary, and it was hard enough just to get permission to teach on 

campus. A handful of private donors were the only ones making it happen. 

The fact that Rockwell mentions Harvard by name is particularly amusing, because there’s a parallel between what 

happened in the 1940s and the present discussion. The excerpt of The Big Myth currently under consideration was 

published by a Harvard professor in The Harvard Gazette, after all, and basically amounts to dismissing free marketers 

as “dogmatic, intransigent, and right-wing.” Some things never change, I suppose. 

112 

What would actually contravene the marketplace of ideas would be if people were forced to fund the promotion of 

ideas they disagreed with. If an idea is financed, not because of its merits or because people found it compelling, but 

because they were coerced into financing it, then we can absolutely cry foul. 

As it happens, that kind of interference has been going on, but for the precise opposite team. 

This state fundamentalism—also known simply as statism—is truly ideological. The idea that the government just 

needs to preside over society to “fix” it and “manage” it is ingrained into the vast majority of Americans, but when 

pressed to explain why such interference is so desperately needed, their responses reveal a stunning dearth of critical 

self-examination on the topic. 

113



If that’s not fundamentalism, I don’t know what is. 

Critically, it is this statist ideology that needs to be exposed and refuted. Unlike market fundamentalism, the ideology 

of statism actually does dominate our institutions. It is this ideology that blossomed in the 20th century—largely 

thanks to government rigging the marketplace of ideas—and it is this ideology that is responsible for most of the 

problems we face today. 

So if we want to talk about a “Big Myth” that has wooed the public for decades to our detriment, let’s talk about the 

myth this book conspicuously promotes: the myth that markets can be improved by the state. 



FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2023 


Should Grade-Skipping Be More Common? Here’s What the 

Research Says 

Have you ever been bored in school? For most people, 

the answer is probably yes. Sometimes it’s a particular 

teacher that goes way too slow through the material. 

At other times, the curriculum is just too easy. In either 

case, the result is countless wasted hours that you will 

simply never get back. 

Gifted kids seem especially prone to boredom in school, 

and it’s no wonder why. With a wide range of aptitudes 

in the class, teachers are forced to teach to the lowest 

common denominator, and the result is that gifted kids 

are left unchallenged and unstimulated. 

For the particularly gifted, a question sometimes 

arises: should they skip a grade? When this question 

comes up, the response of many parents is one of 

apprehension. What if they aren’t ready? What if it will 

take a psychological toll? These are valid concerns, but 

we shouldn’t let these concerns stop us from pursuing 

the question further. The fact is, there are many students 

who stand to benefit a lot from skipping a grade, and we 

do them a great disservice when we let fear and status 

quo bias guide this decision rather than evidence and 

reason. 

Evidence suggests grade-skipping is not nearly as prevalent as it ought to be. 

Academic and Psychological Effects 

When we think about skipping grades, some of the main 

questions that arise are about how this will affect the 

student academically and psychologically. The good news 

is, many students have traveled this path before, and we 

now have a plethora of studies that tell us how it went 

for them. 

One of the more well-known studies is a 2013 paper 

titled When Less Is More: Effects of Grade Skipping 

on Adult STEM Productivity Among Mathematically 

Precocious Adolescents. The study followed a set of 

gifted children for 40 years and found that the kids 

who skipped grades had noticeably better academic 

performance into adulthood than students with similar 

aptitude who didn’t skip grades. 

“Results suggest that grade skippers (a) were more likely 

to pursue advanced degrees in STEM and author peerreviewed 

publications in STEM, (b) earned their degrees 

and authored their 1st publication earlier, and (c) 

accrued more total citations and highly cited publications 

by age 50 years.” 

So let’s look at what the research actually says about 

skipping grades. 

114 

115






A 2014 study came to a similar conclusion. 

The researchers anticipate an objection: instead of accelerating a student, why not have instructional and curricular 

“Research has repeatedly demonstrated the positive effects of acceleration for gifted and talented students,” the 

authors note. “Results [from this study] suggest that, on average, accelerated students consistently and significantly 

outperformed their nonaccelerated peers, both in high school and in college.” 

The case for grade acceleration is looking good from an academic perspective, but what about the psychological 

perspective? Do kids who skip grades experience emotional drawbacks, perhaps because they are surrounded by older 

students? 

Not usually. In fact, according to a 2010 meta-analysis, the psychological effect of grade acceleration might even be 

positive. 

“The social—emotional development effects [of grade acceleration] appeared to be slightly positive,” the authors note, 

“although not as strong as for academic achievement…Accelerants equal or surpass non-accelerants in self-concept, 

self-esteem, self-confidence, social relationships, participation in extracurricular activities, and life satisfaction.” 

This may be surprising to some, but it shouldn’t be. Putting a kid in a more stimulating environment can do wonders for 

their excitement about life and learning. 

A 2022 literature review was more cautious, but confirmed that grade acceleration “has a positive impact on academic 

achievement and is not detrimental to psychosocial development.” 

Now, this isn’t to say that every student who skips a grade is guaranteed to be better off. Some students aren’t ready 

for that challenge, and they could certainly experience academic and/or psychological difficulty if they go ahead with 

the acceleration. In general, however, a student who seems like a good grade-skipping candidate will likely find it to be 

a worthwhile move. 

In fact, given the evidence, we should really be worried about the risks of not accelerating them. After all, if there’s 

anything that’s detrimental to academic performance and psychological well-being, it’s incessant boredom. 

Should Grade-Skipping Be More Common? 

So far we’ve established that grade acceleration often has positive effects for high-performing students, both 

academically and psychologically, and is thus a good idea for those students. But what about the students who are 

maybe above average but aren’t at the very top of the class? Should they be accelerated too? More broadly, is the 

current prevalence of grade acceleration optimal, or would it be better if there was more or less? 

To answer this question, we can look to a fascinating report released by Johns Hopkins University in 2016. The report 

investigates what percentage of students are performing a year or more above grade level at various grades. The 

results are staggering. According to the report, “between 15% and 45% of students enter the late-elementary classroom 

each fall already performing at least one year ahead of expectations.” 

It’s a wide margin, sure, but the point is clear. Roughly 1 in 3 students—a full third of the class—are already prepared 

for the next grade up when they walk into class at the beginning of the school year. By comparison, only about 1 

percent of students skip grades at some point in K-12. 

Clearly, grade acceleration isn’t being practiced nearly enough. As a result, countless students are sitting in classrooms 

every day, bored to death, failing to reach their potential. 

“The U.S. likely wastes tens of billions of dollars each year in efforts to teach students content they already know,” the 

Johns Hopkins researchers write. “Our findings suggest that a great many students could benefit from whole-grade 

or single-subject acceleration. Indeed, this is consistent with the literature, which has documented uniformly positive 

benefits when academic acceleration is implemented thoughtfully.” 

differentiation for brighter students? The problem, they say, is that this is practically infeasible due to the wide 

distribution of student ability in any given class. 

“Although a good idea in theory, the nature of our age-based, grade-level-focused system prevents differentiation 

from being implemented consistently or effectively,” they write. “Acceleration, whether at the whole-grade or singlesubject 

level, minimizes the difficulty in offering differentiated learning experiences, because students within a given 

classroom are selected to be far more homogeneous in ability and prior knowledge than they are in the traditional 

system.” 

“Millions of American K-12 students are performing above grade level and are not being appropriately challenged,” the 

researchers conclude, “putting their intellectual development and the country’s future prosperity at risk.” 

Many other researchers in this field have offered similar takeaways. 

“The literature concerning radical acceleration strongly supports the wider adoption of this most successful 

intervention,” notes a 2016 paper. 

A 2017 book titled Fundamentals of Gifted Education echoes these remarks. “The research support for academic 

acceleration as an effective intervention for highly able students stands in stark contrast to the actual implementation 

of acceleration in schools,” researchers write. 

Treating Students as Individuals 

If grade-skipping became more prevalent, the school system could look quite different. It might even become normal to 

finish in 9 or 10 years, with the brightest group in the class heading off to college or the workforce around age 16. 

Some likely bristle at the thought. “Kids aren’t mature enough to join the adult world at 16,” they might say. But the 

phrasing of this objection highlights the fundamental problem with the current education paradigm. “Kids” aren’t a 

uniform blob. They are unique individuals with vastly different talents, aptitudes, and maturity. Sure, some kids aren’t 

ready to go to graduate at 16, but many kids are, and we’re only holding them back when we insist they go at the same 

pace as the slowest students in the class. 

The age-based one-pace-fits-all approach to education might make sense if all kids of the same age were a uniform 

collective, but they aren’t. There is immense variation among students, and we need to take that into account. It makes 

zero sense to impose a rigid educational structure on a diverse array of learners. 

When you think about it, the idea that every student should take 12 years to complete the standard curriculum is 

completely incongruous with everything we know about student variability. 

There’s a further implication here, and a bolder one. Normalizing grade-skipping is a great first step toward a more 

tailored educational approach, but what if we went further? What if we moved away from the 12-year model altogether 

and instead created a range of educational pathways for children that are as varied in pace and curriculum as are the 

interests and aptitudes of the students they serve? 

Is that crazy? It’s certainly a radical departure from the status quo. Then again, maybe a radical change is exactly what’s 

needed. 

The Johns Hopkins researchers certainly seem to think so. 

“The current K-12 education system essentially ignores the learning needs of a huge percentage of its students,” they 

write. “Knowing this, 20 years from now we may look back and wonder why we kept using age-based grade levels to 

organize K-12 education for so long.” 

The people at the forefront of education research are questioning the very concept of age-based learning. 

Maybe it’s time we did as well. 

116 

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The microschools that have sprouted in recent years, and the new ones that are now appearing, span a wide variety of 

educational philosophies and approaches, from structured “classical” models to unstructured “unschooling” models, 

and everything in between. This assortment will help to fortify today’s microschooling movement against shifting 

cultural whims, while enabling families the opportunity to find a microschool that is most aligned with their child’s 

needs and their personal educational preferences. 

3. Microschool founders are increasingly diverse. 

Not only are today’s microschools pedagogically diverse, reflecting a range of educational ideas and methods, their 

founders are also diverse. In their Classrooms Anywhere report, the VELA Education Fund, a philanthropic non-profit 

organization that provides microgrants to microschool founders and other education entrepreneurs who are building 

innovative, non-traditional learning models, found that more than half of their surveyed grantees were people of 

color. Similarly, the majority of microschools I recently visited in South Florida, where there is a cluster of education 

entrepreneurship, are minority-owned, and many of these microschools have a majority-minority student population 

as well. 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2022 


5 Surprising Facts About Microschooling 

One of the most popular and fastest-growing educational 

trends today is microschooling. Microschools 

are intentionally small, mixed-age, K-12 learning 

communities with personalized curriculum approaches 

that are sprouting rapidly across the U.S. They harken 

back to the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear 

and were gaining traction even before the education 

disruption of 2020 unleashed greater exposure to this 

learning model. Over the past couple of years, interest 

in microschools has soared, with some estimates 

suggesting that as many as two million students are now 

attending microschools full-time. From large cities to 

rural villages coast-to-coast, microschools are catching 

on with parents, teachers, and learners. 

Here are five things to know about microschools: 

1. Microschooling has been around for years. 

The buzz around microschooling may be new, but these 

small learning spaces have been around for awhile. 

The Acton Academy microschool network was founded 

in 2010 in Austin, Texas by Laura and Jeff Sandefer 

and now includes approximately 280 microschools 

in over 30 states and 25 countries. The Wildflower 

Montessori microschool network, that activates teacherentrepreneurs 

across the country, was launched in 

Massachusetts in 2014 and now has more than 60 

microschools across the U.S. Additionally, Prenda 

microschools emerged in Arizona in 2018 and have since 

reached over 10,000 students. 

The buzz around microschooling may be new, but these small learning spaces have been 

around for awhile. 

118 

These established microschool networks have expanded 

since 2020, as demand has grown for smaller, more 

personalized learning experiences. Newer microschool 

networks have also emerged, such as Boston-based 

KaiPod Learning that launched last year and now has 

microschools in five states. Many entrepreneurial 

educators have decided to launch independent 

microschools without any national network affiliation, 

and their programs are also filling up fast. 

2. Microschooling is a catch-all term. 

The term microschooling encompasses a wide variety 

of different educational models, from homeschooling 

collaboratives that may meet a few days a week in a local 

community space, to learning pods in a private home, to 

full-time, small, low-cost private schools that prioritize 

individualized learning and don’t plan to grow beyond a 

few dozen students. Some of these microschool founders 

intend to scale, but they expect to do so horizontally by 

opening additional microschools, rather than vertically 

by expanding enrollment in their existing spaces. 

The diversity of today’s microschooling models is one of 

its greatest strengths, and a primary reason it may avoid 

the fate of previous small school movements, such as 

the “free school” movement of the 1960s. Those earlier 

schools were largely homogeneous in their mission and 

style, and reflected a radical, counter-cultural ethos that 

sprouted from the societal discontent of the time. 

4. Microschools are relatively inexpensive. 

Today’s microschools are surprisingly affordable with tuition costs that are half, or even one-quarter, that of 

traditional private schools in a given area. Many microschools, such as those in Florida and Arizona, take advantage of 

statewide school choice policies that enable more families to attend a microschool tuition-free. Microschool networks 

such as Prenda have formed public-private partnerships in states such as Kansas and New Hampshire to provide 

tuition-free access to children in their communities. Even in states without robust school choice policies, the lower 

price tag allows more families to access microschools, and most independent microschools also offer scholarships or 

tuition discounts to reduce costs even further. 

5. Microschooling is here to stay. 

The education disruption caused by the pandemic response has dramatically transformed K-12 education, with 

many parents now aware and in search of different education options for their children. They appreciate a more 

individualized educational approach, and are increasingly willing to give up the accoutrements of larger schools, such 

as organized sports teams, for a smaller, more nurturing, more self-directed learning environment. 

For Elizabeth McMeans, who launched a Prenda-affiliated, tuition-free microschool in Wichita, Kansas that includes her 

eight-year-old son and a small group of learners, the traditional education model is no longer appealing. 

“I’m thinking that he may never have to go to a traditional school, and that’s a wonderful thing to have options 

available,” she told me recently. “We’re understanding now that COVID did have an impact, but really there were a lot 

of things brewing under the ground before COVID hit us nationally that COVID has exposed as far as the education 

system. So I see many more parents talking about the things that they want for their children. What I want for my son 

is what Prenda offers. I want him to have a growth mindset. I want him to take responsibility for his education.” 

Many parents now feel the same way and are seeking, or building, microschools to meet the educational needs of 

their children. Microschooling may have started on the margins more than a decade ago, but it has now entered the 

mainstream as an increasingly sought-after educational option. 



119



The Nebraska News 

Nov 26, 2023 

HOMESCHOOLING INCREASES IN NEBRASKA 

https://northplattebulletin.com/homeschooling-increases-in-nebraska/ 

Dave Warren 

23-11-2023 

SCIENTIFIC METHOD ON FULL DISPLAY AT FIRST ANNUAL SOUTH FLORIDA 

HOMES SCHOOL RESOURCE CENTER SCIENCE FAIR 

Claire Weber 

Nov 17, 2023 

HOMESCHOOLING SURGES IN LOWCOUNTRY SCHOOL DISTRICTS, MATCHING 

NATIONAL TRENDS 

https://abcnews4.com/news/local/national-gone-local-homeschooling-surges-in-lowcountry-school-districts 

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/scientific-method-on-full-display-at-first-annual-south-floridahomes-school-resource-center-science-fair/ 

Aline Suárez del Real 

Nov 1, 2023 

HOME-SCHOOLING ISN’T REGULATED IN MEXICO. I CHOSE IT ANYWAY 

https://globalpressjournal.com/americas/mexico/home-schooling-isnt-regulated-mexico-chose-anyway/ 

Dave Dentel 

Dec 05, 2023 

STATE LAW CAUSING HEADACHE FOR HOMESCHOOLERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 

https://hslda.org/post/state-law-causing-headache-for-homeschoolers-with-special-needs?utm_ 

source=Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12-6-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

Emily D’Vertola 

Nov 28, 2023 

NEW YORK 2ND IN THE NATION FOR HOMESCHOOLING GROWTH 

https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/ny-2nd-in-the-nation-for-homeschooling-growth/ 

Amanda Oglesby 

HOMESCHOOLING GREW DURING THE PANDEMIC. WHY MORE NJ FAMILIES ARE 

CHOOSING THE OPTION 

https://eu.app.com/story/news/education/education-trends/2023/12/05/homeschooling-grows-acrossnew-jersey-heres-where-its-most-popular/71595567007/ 

Jim Mason 

Nov 20, 2023 

PRESERVING 4TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS IN HOMESCHOOLING | EP. 124 

https://hslda.org/post/preserving-4th-amendment-rights-in-homeschooling-ep-124?utm_source=Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11-29-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

David Hicks 

Nov 27, 2023 

HOMESCHOOLING JUMPS 57% IN KANSAS WHILE PUBLIC SCHOOL 

ENROLLMENT DECLINES 

https://sentinelksmo.org/homeschooling-jumps-57-in-kansas-while-public-school-enrollment-declines/ 

Natalie Beneviat 

Nov 22, 2023 

HOME SCHOOLING A STRONG OPTION IN NORTH ALLEGHENY AREA 

https://sentinelksmo.org/homeschooling-jumps-57-in-kansas-while-public-school-enrollment-declines/ 

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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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PATO TIM (STEWED WHOLE DUCK) RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 whole duck, dressed 

• 1 liter Sprite or 7 up 

• 1/2 cup brown sugar 

• 1 tsp salt 

• 5 cloves garlic 

• 3 bay leaves 

• 1 tsp peppercorns, crushed 

• 1/2 cup onion leaves (cut into 1 inch long) 

• lemon grass 

• 1 can pineapple tid bits 

• 2 pcs carrots 

Directions 

1. Stuff duck with lemon grass. 

2. Mix remaining ingredients in a pot and cook duck over medium heat. 

3. Cook until duck is tender. Simmer until sprite mixture thickens. 

4. You can add a cup of coconut vinegar (Tuba) if you are using Sprite/7 Up and wants your Patotin have a reddish 

color 

5. You can also use Coke instead of Sprite/7 Up. Don’t add Tuba as Coke will already give your dish a redish tint. 

6. Don’t cook over high heat especially towards the last part of cooking. This may make your sauce bitter. 

7. Adjust measurements according to your taste preferenceSave juices to pour into gravy if desired. 

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ITALIAN MEATBALLS RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 pound lean ground beef 

• 1 pound pork sausage (I prefer reduced-fat) 

• 2/3 cup prepared Italian style bread crumbs 

• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used Grana Padano) 

• 2 eggs 

• 1/3 cup finely minced onion 

• 3 cloves garlic, minced 

• 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley 

• 1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning 

• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt 

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper 

• Small amount cooking oil 

MARIE BISCUIT CAKE RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• Ingredients: 

• 200g of butter, 

• 200g of caster sugar, 

• five small eggs, (beaten well) 

• 250g of plain chocolate, 

• About 2 cups of strong coffee, 

• Two packets of plain biscuits (see above). 

Directions 

Directions 

1. In large mixing bowl, measure the meats, bread crumbs, cheese, eggs, onion, garlic, parsley, Italian seasoning, salt 

and pepper. 

2. Mix thoroughly until well combined. Form into 2-inch size balls. 

3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick large skillet over medium heat (I use 2 separate skillets to get meatballs done 

at same time.) 

4. Cook meatballs until well browned, turning occasionally (approximately 15-20 minutes; I add a lid toward the end 

to steam through to centers.) 

5. Serve with spaghetti sauce or alfredo sauce. 

1. Melt the chocolate ( I use the microwave, checking it and stirring it until it melts. You can also use a double boiler ) 

2. Beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. 

3. Beat in the melted chocolate and then the eggs, one at a time. 

4. Dip the biscuits into the coffee 

5. Use a largish dish that isn’t too shallow make layers of coffee-moistened biscuits alternating with layers of the 

chocolate cream. 

6. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. 

7. If you really want to be decadent, top with some fresh whipped cream! 

8. Grate some chocolate curls on top. 

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PIONEER WOMAN’S CHICKEN STREET TACOS (GLUTEN FREE) RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces 

• 2 Tbs. olive oil 

• 3 garlic cloves, minced 

• 1 onion, chopped 

• 2 Tbs. chili powder 

• 2 tsp. paprika 

• 1 Tbs. cumin powder 

• Salt and pepper, to taste 

• 1 Tbs. taco seasoning 

• 14 oz. can tomato sauce 

• 1/2 cup water (or more) 

• 1 pkg. corn tortillas 

• 1-2 cups shredded cheese 

• Tomatoes, diced (or salsa) 

• Fresh cilantro, chopped 

• Sour cream or salsa ranch 

Directions 

1. Cut the chicken breasts into small pieces and set aside. Dice the onion into small pieces. Heat a large saute 

pan to high heat. Add the olive oil to the pan. Add the chicken pieces to the pan. Let the chicken pieces 

heat in the oil, until it’s golden brown. Toss the chicken and continue to cook on the other side. Add the 

onions and seasonings and continue to saute. Turn the heat down to medium heat and then add the 

tomato sauce and water to the mixture. Simmer the chicken until it thickens and the chicken is cooked 

through. 

2. For the tacos, heat a griddle to medium heat. Place several corn tortillas onto the griddle. Add some shredded 

cheese on to the tortillas. Add some chicken onto the tortilla. Once the cheese is melted, remove the 

tacos from the griddle. Serve with chopped cilantro, tomatoes, salsa, etc. If you like a creamy aspect to 

your tacos, mix together ranch and salsa and serve the tacos with this sauce. 

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 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). 

https://cookeatshare.com 

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NHEG EDGuide January-February 2024

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