NHEG EDGuide March-April 2024

ISSUE 3-4 

“Happiness? 

The color of it 

must be spring” 

- Frances Mayes 

2024 

MARCH - APRIL

NHEG EDGUIDE 

EDITOR IN CHIEF 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

Pamela Clark 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com 

Contents 

2 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

4 

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH 

8-13 

ST PATRICKS’S DAY 

90-92 

PRESS RELEASE 

98-135 

FEE ARTICLES 

136-137 

HSLDA ARTICLES 

PRODUCTION MANAGER 

Marina Klimi 

MarinaKlimi@NewHeightsEducation.org 

20-29 

NHEG MEDIA PACK 

142-147 

RECIPES 

PROOFREADERS/EDITORS 

PHOTOGRAPHERS IN 

THIS ISSUE 

Laura Casanova 


PAMELA CLARK 

FRANI WYNER 

LARISSA MURRAY 

34-49 

NHEG COURSE 

50-51 

MISSING CHILDREN 

148-149 

NHEG PARTNERS & 

AFFILIATES 

72-77 

NHEG INTERNET RADIO 

PROGRAM 

80-83 

NHEG BOOK 

PROMOTIONS 

86-87 

NHEG BIRTHDAYS AND 

ANNIVERSARIES 

88-89 

EARN BOX TOPS

March April 2024 

NHEG EDGUIDE March - April 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 

Info@NewHeightsEducation.org 

http://www.NewHeightsEducation.org 

Learning Annex 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

A Public Charity 501(c)(3) 

Nonprofit Organization 

New Heights Educational Group 

Inc. 


11809 US Route 127 

Sherwood, Ohio 43556 

+1.419.786.0247 

4 

5


March - April 2024 

P R O M O T E S L I T E R A C Y F O R C H 

I L D R E N A N D A D U L T S 

http://www.NewHeightsEducation.org 

Learning Annex https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

A Public Charity 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization 

419-786-0247 

Info@NewHeightsEducation.org 

6 

7

created by Heather Ruggiero 

created by Heather Ruggiero

created by Heather Ruggiero 



HEADLINE: Uplifting Memoir UNPREDICTABLE Chronicles Abuse Recovery, Courage Through Faith 

SUBHEAD: Palmetto Publishing unveils stellar, inspirational autobiography on overcoming 

lifelong trauma 

CHARLESTON, SC, November 9, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – 

Honey Kasper is an overcomer. After beating cancer, surviving eighty-nine surgeries, and 

processing a childhood filled with every kind of abuse, she has built a successful and deeply 

fulfilling life. Her true story is recounted in her memoir, Unpredictable: The walk in and out of 

darkness, a brand new title launched this fall by Palmetto Publishing. Kasper’s website contains 

additional information. 

The book was written to reach those who have faced chronic illness, other serious health 

conditions, domestic violence, and childhood trauma. Kasper believes sharing her story candidly 

will help readers experience a sense of camaraderie in their journeys. More than anything, she 

believes she was able to heal as a result of her faith. Kasper describes her story as “the hand of God 

steering my life away from tragedy,” and she adds that “overcoming with grace and faith in God 

can change a life.” 

The book itself is deeply emotional, showing how trauma can affect a person’s mindset for a 

lifetime— but also demonstrating how perseverance and taking back control of one’s choices can 

help survivors to recover. The title also features a collection of poems and a list of song titles that 

the author has found inspirational. 

Reviewers have called the book “an insightful, honest, and inspirational tale of a battle survivor,” 

and a story that “gives hope to readers . . . from dysfunctional families.” Kasper, who writes under 

a pseudonym, invites readers to embark on the incredible journey of healing, and to “build a life of 

purpose and love.” Kasper can be found on Twitter (@KasperHoney) Facebook and LinkedIn for 

readers who wish to stay connected. 

UNPREDICTABLE: THE WALK IN AND OUT OF DARKNESS is available for purchase 

online at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. 

About the Author: 

Honey Kasper is an overcomer whose life shows how grace and faith in God can transform a 

life. Having survived many years of abuse, trauma, severe malnutrition, over eighty-nine 

surgeries, and cancer, Kasper writes to help people find freedom from their struggles. 

About the Book: 

Title: Unpredictable: The walk in and out of 

darkness 

Author: Honey Kasper 

Publisher: Palmetto Publishing 

Publication date: November 2023 

ISBN-13: 979-8-8229-3211-1 

Media Contact: 

Honey Kasper 

Email: unpredictablethewalk@yahoo.com 

Available for interviews: Author, 

Honey Kasper 

Related Images


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View, & Share 

Scan, 

Sighting CALL 

Report 

or 1--800--THE-- 

911 

LOST 

View, & Share 

Scan, 

Sighting CALL 

Report 

or 1-800-THE- 

911 

LOST 

Vieew, & Sharee 

Scan, 

Sighting CALL 

Reeport 

or 1-800-THE- 

911 

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Report 

or 1--800--THE-- 

911 


CHILD 

MISSING 

Law 

Cyn'Nyia 

CHILD 

MISSING 

Mariee Jeeffriees 

Laureen 

How you can heelp 

How you can help 

NCIC# M387690916 

NCIC# M867705620 

Missing Since: Decemberr 28, 2023 

Missinng Sinnce: Jaannuaary 10, 2024 

Toledo, OH 

Grove City, OH 

Age Now: 17 Yearrs Old 

Age Now: 17 Yeaars Old 

Female 

Femaale 

Toledo Police 

Deparrtment (Ohio) 1- 

Grove City Police 

419-255-8443 

EXTRA PHOTOS 

Depaartmennt (Ohio) 1- 

614-277-1710 

Cyn'Nyia was last seen on Decemberr 28, 2023. 

Both photos shownn aare of Laaurenn. 

NCMEC: 2009262 

NCMEC: 2010251 

CHILD 

MISSING 

Marie Rose Ortiz 

Adrianna 


CHILD 

MISSING 

Pullins 

Angel 


NCIC# M637791197 

NCIC# M357753483 

Missing Since: Febrruarry 7, 2024 

Missinng Sinnce: Jannuary 28, 2024 

Hamilton, OH 

Tipp City, OH 

Scan, View, & Share 

Age Now: 17 Yearrs Old 

Age Now: 17 Years Old 

LOST 

Female 

Female 

Hamilton Police 

Deparrtment (Ohio) 1- 

Huber Heights Police 

EXTRA PHOTOS 

Departmennt (Ohio) 1- 

513-785-1300 

937-233-2080 

Both photos shown arre of Adrrianna. She was last seen on Febrruarry 7, 2024. 

Anngel was last seenn onn Jannuary 28, 2024. 

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NCMEC: 2013328 

NCMEC: 2011607


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/ 

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

medium=link&utm_source=NHEG 

More Scholarship opportunities: 

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

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

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

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

https://careasy.org/nonprofit/NewHeightsEducationalGroup 

Call: 

855-550-4483



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

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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 

HEATHER RUGGIERO - BOARD MEMBER 

1/9/17 

BOARD MEMBER, NHEG INSTRUCTOR, 

RESEARCHER, 

MARANDA BROWN 1/30/24 

COMMUNICATIONS SECRETARY, HR 

COORDINATOR, SOCIAL MEDIA AND 

RADIO SHOW ASSISTANT 

Michael Anderson 

Mythreyi Ashoka 

Maranda Brown 

Katie Buchhop 

Sarika Gauba 

Ginnefine Jalloh 

Marina Klimi 

Charles Lanier 

Heather Ruggiero 

Sheila WrightHeather 

Ruggiero 

Sheila Wright 

JIBRIL YAHAYA JIBRIL 2/25/24 

COMPILING EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 

JEREMY DARBY 2/7/24 

COMIC ILLUSTRATOR 


Jeremy Darby 

Rachel Mathurin 

Logan Moreland 

Frani Wyner 

New Board Member 1/9/24 - for magazine 

Heather Ruggiero 

Board Member, NHEG Instructor, Researcher, 

Assistant Virtual Development Director of Education Department (AVDD) 

Edmond, OK 73013 

HeatherR@NewHeightsEducation.org 

Heather Ruggiero - New Board Member, but not new to NHEG 

Heather has been with NHEG since January 9, 2017, as a financial literacy instructor 

and a co-instructor for the Natural Speller. 

70 

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THE INTERNET RADIO PROGRAM 

FROM NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP


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NHEG March Birthday 

MAR 8 

Tyler Maxey-Billings 

NHEG April Birthday 

APR 5 

Charles Lanier 

MAR 9 

Rachel Lisa Mathurin 

APR 7 

Allene Yue 

MAR 10 

Kailyn Spangler 

APR 9 

Greg Clark 

MAR 17 

Leigha Scott 

APR 9 

Erika Hanson 

MAR 17 

Hailey Clark 

APR 12 

Benjamin Clark 

MAR 19 

Kristen Congedo 

APR 16 

Sapna Shukla 

APR 19 

Katie Buchhop 

APR 24 

Jyoti Aggarwal 

APR 29 

Sarika Gauba 

NHEG April Anniversary 

APR 6 

Logan Moreland 

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HOW TO EARN 

BOX TOPS MAKES IT EASY 

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

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

app will identify Box Tops products on your receipt and 

automatically credit your school’s earnings online. 

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

whatever it needs! 

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

https://www.boxtops4education.com/enroll 

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PRESS RELEASE 

NEW WORLD REPORT UNVEILS THE 2023 WINNERS OF THE 

NEW PARTNERSHIP 

FIRST BOOK 

About First Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that exclusively supports educators and program leaders serving 

children in need. Books, resources, or any goods obtained via the fbmarketplace.org website are strictly prohibited 

from being resold for any reason. Any breach of this policy may lead to legal consequences including 

(but not limited to) exclusion from our network. Please refer to First Book’s eligibility requirements for more 

information. First Book cannot guarantee cancellations or adjustments to orders once they have been transferred 

to our warehouse for processing. In order to continue our mission, the First Book Marketplace cannot 

accept returns and all sales are final (including orders for digital products). 

Parents can subscribe via www.NewHeightsEducation.org to receive access to First Book. 

More to come soon. 

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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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.” 




excellence. 


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. 




excellence. 


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? 

94 

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. 

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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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“It’s been a wild ride,” Pinyon cofounder Chip Reichanadter said of his recent entrepreneurial journey. “I have been 

learning so much and wearing so many hats, from grant-writer to social media manager.” He’s also the elementary 

teacher leader. 

An experienced Montessori educator, Reichanadter cofounded Pinyon with two teacher-colleagues with whom he 

worked at a larger private school. They were attracted to the smaller, more streamlined microschool model, as well as 

Wildlflower’s broader focus on equity and access. Pinyon is a lower-cost option than traditional private schools, with a 

tiered-tuition model based on family income. When the Utah Fits All Scholarship funds are distributed next year, more 

families will be able to attend Pinyon tuition-free. Despite just opening, Reichanadter and his cofounders are seeing 

mounting interest in their program, with plans to create a middle school in the near future. 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2023 

KERRY MCDONALD 

Utah’s Emerging Education Ecosystem Is Diverse And 

Accessible 

It has been a remarkable year for education choice 

policies that enable parents to select the best 

educational fit for their children. In January, Iowa 

became the first state this year to pass a universal 

education choice policy, enabling all K-12 students to 

access a portion of education funding to use toward 

private education options. Utah soon followed, and 

today 10 states have universal or near-universal choice 

programs—including eight this year—making 2023 the 

“Year of Universal Choice.” 

Now that millions of families have greater access 

to a wide variety of learning options, education 

entrepreneurs are working to expand the supply of those 

options. 

Some entrepreneurs are specifically moving to states 

with robust education choices policies. That was the case 

for Jack Johnson Pannell, a former charter school founder 

in Baltimore who moved to choice-friendly Arizona to 

launch his microschool, Trinity Arch Preparatory School 

for Boys, this fall. 

Other education entrepreneurs, like those in Utah, 

are launching new schools or growing existing ones. 

“Education entrepreneurship is growing rapidly in 

Utah,” said Jon England, policy analyst at Utah’s 

Education entrepreneurs create new learning possibilities to meet the diverse needs and 

interests of today’s families and learners. 

98 

Libertas Institute which helps to support entrepreneurs 

throughout the state. “The passage of the Utah Fits All 

Scholarship, Utah’s education spending account, has 

really increased the interest in people wanting to start 

these new models.” 

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit some of these 

visionary entrepreneurs in the greater Salt Lake City area 

with the VELA Education Fund, a philanthropic nonprofit 

organization that since 2019 has provided microgrants to 

more than 2,000 everyday entrepreneurs who are leading 

innovative, out-of-system learning programs. 

The diversity of the models and methods I observed 

in Utah reflects what I am seeing across the country. 

From Montessori to Classical educational approaches, 

learner-driven and teacher-led, secular and religious, 

home-based and community-embedded, founders in 

the Beehive State are creating a variety of low-cost 

learning options to meet families’ assorted educational 

preferences. 

Pinyon Montessori 

The first of the four sites I visited was Pinyon Montessori, 

a PreK-6 microschool in Salt Lake City that opened 

less than one month ago—and is the first Wildflower 

Montessori school in Utah. Founded in 2014, Wildflower 

is a national network of dozens of teacher-owned 

Montessori microschools fostering child-centered 

learning. 

Bountiful Microschool 

Just outside of Salt Lake City, in Bountiful, Utah, two microschools opened within the past three years, and both 

were founded by parent-entrepreneurs seeking an alternative educational approach for their children. Bountiful 

Microschool is a home-based microschool currently serving 13 students ages 10 to 16 with two hired teachers and a 

pay-what-you-can tuition model. Created by edtech entrepreneur, David Blake, cofounder and CEO of Degreed, and his 

wife Mikel, cofounder of Tech-Moms, Bountiful Microschool offers its students a project-based, experiential learning 

environment that enables content and curriculum to come alive for students. 

The couple wanted to bring the innovation and personalization they were seeing in the larger tech sector to the K-12 

classroom to benefit their own children and others in their community. On the day I visited, one mixed-age group of 

learners was working on core lessons with their teacher while another group participated in an advanced cooking 

class with their teacher. 

“As an entrepreneur, my mind immediately goes to scalability,” said David Blake, who thinks there is growing demand 

for microschool models like his. For now, though, focusing on making Bountiful Microschool the best it can be is the 

top priority. 

CHOICE: An Acton Academy 

Less than 5 miles from Bountiful Microschool is CHOICE: An Acton Academy for learners ages four to 14. JeVonne 

Tanner, a former public high school biology teacher, and her husband Paul cofounded CHOICE in 2020 at the urging 

of their daughter who had read Courage To Grow, the book that shares the origin story of the Acton Academy 

microschool network. That network began in 2009 with one school in Austin, Texas and has since grown to over 300 

low-cost microschools today, serving thousands of students. Acton’s learner-driven educational philosophy captivated 

the Tanners, and they quickly discovered that many other families were attracted to the Acton model as well. They 

opened with 29 students and today have more than 70, with a waiting list. They are planning to expand soon to a 

larger facility and double their enrollment. 

Telos Classical Academy 

A bit further outside of Salt Lake City, in Park City, Utah, a fourth new microschool is flourishing. Telos Classical 

Academy opened in 2021 with 27 students in a barn located on the property of one of the founding families. 

Today, Telos serves 57 students in grades K-8 in a large leased space, with plans to add a ninth grade next year and 

subsequent grades in the following years. Telos is a Christian school that embraces the classic trivium of grammar, 

logic, rhetoric, and the study of Latin, as well as deep inquiry into the arts and hands-on science and engineering 

projects. 

While the school is significantly less expensive than traditional private schools in the area, and roughly one-quarter of 

current students are on financial aid, financial accessibility remains a barrier for some families. Utah’s new education 

choice program will help. “ 

99



Every child should have access to an education they love,” said Katherine Bathgate, Telos’s Board Chair and one of the 

school’s founding parents. “The Utah Fits All Scholarship will enable more families to attend Telos Classical Academy. 

We’re excited to see this scholarship program come to fruition. It’s going to help many of the families we serve, and we 

hope that it will quickly grow to support as many Utah students as are interested.” 

It’s an exciting time in education. A panoply of innovative, decentralized education models is sprouting across the U.S., 

and more families than ever have greater access to these traditional schooling alternatives. This Salt Lake City-area 

snapshot reveals the breadth of these models in terms of structure and substance, as education entrepreneurs create 

new learning possibilities to meet the diverse needs and interests of today’s families and learners. 

Source: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) 

https://fee.org/ 

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2023 British police have recorded the event as a “non-crime hate incident,” 


To Combat Chronic Absenteeism, Look To Schools That 

Are More Successful At Engaging Learners 

Many kids are not going to school. That’s the takeaway It may also have confirmed the same for their parents, 

from the abundant headlines warning about the 

many of whom got a glimpse of classrooms and 

escalating epidemic of chronic absenteeism that has curriculum during prolonged school shutdowns and 

worsened since 2020. 

remote learning. 

Parents of children who are disengaged from school and 

The 74’s Linda Jacobson reported earlier this fall on 

refusing to attend are regularly referred to The Socratic 

various efforts by school districts to address rising rates Experience, which serves students ages 8 to 19. Other 

of chronic absenteeism. These include districts sending parents are looking for a more individualized educational 

robocalls with the voice of an NFL player, educators experience for their children that prioritizes personal 

bribing chronically absent children with rewards if they agency, and are attracted to the online school’s emphasis 

return to class, and schools activating “attendance 

on “purpose-driven education.” 

clerks” to monitor students and conduct home visits. 

“There are kids who reject schooling, but as soon as 

Millions of taxpayer dollars are funding these programs, you put them in an environment where their learning 

including an injection of federal pandemic relief dollars. is relevant and interesting, they learn rapidly,” said 

Strong. At The Socratic Experience, that involves a 

But most coverage of the crisis has failed to ask the learning approach tailored to each student’s needs and 

bigger, far more important question underpinning the interests, frequent Socractic discussions with peers and 

attendance numbers: Why don’t kids want to go to 

adults about relevant, engaging topics, and creative, 

school? 

entrepreneurial projects. 

100 

“I think that school has long been perceived as 

Educators like Strong, who have long worked in the 

meaningless by most kids,” said Michael Strong, longtime alternative education space where learners’ needs and 

educator, author, and founder of the low-cost virtual interests are centered, may help to unlock the root 

school, The Socratic Experience. “COVID confirmed for causes of chronic absenteeism and reveal solutions. 

many students that school is a meaningless waste of 

time.” 

101



The Socratic Experience is one example of an out-of-system solution that can help disengaged students rekindle 

their joy of learning, but there are other entrepreneurial educators who are partnering with school districts to offer 

in-system answers. 

The Field Academy in Denver, Colorado is one such program. It’s a traveling high school that this fall is collaborating 

with the Aurora Public Schools and the Englewood Public Schools to address chronic absenteeism and credit recovery 

in creative ways. High school students who are not showing up to school, and who have either been referred to the 

truancy court or are at risk of being referred, are picked up in The Field Academy van each day to learn throughout the 

community in an immersive, personalized environment. 

“I was attracted to the idea of disruption within the public system,” said co-founder and executive director, Anna 

Graves, who spent about a decade in outdoor and wilderness education before turning her attention to public schools. 

“The first school I tried to open was a charter school,” said Graves. “I thought, this is great, we can do some really 

amazing things in this work. And then I realized that, actually, we’re still inside four walls. We’re not at a place where 

this actually feels innovative to me, and it also does not feel applicable to most people’s lives.” 

It was her search for out-of-the-box education solutions that would be more relevant and engaging for students 

that led Graves to see how The Field Academy could serve low-income, chronically absent students. Graves’s current 

students, who are still enrolled in district schools, are all about a year-and-a-half behind in credits due to absenteeism. 

Although they are in high school, they are reading at an elementary school level. 

Using creative, community-based credit 

recovery techniques, The Field Academy 

makes learning interesting and applicable 

to the teenagers’ lives. Daily learning may 

include rock climbing and related lessons 

around right angles and geometry. A trip 

to a bike shop resulted in a bike-building 

project that incorporated math and language 

arts. One student is really into cars, so the 

van stops at an auto body shop to allow 

for observation and hands-on experience. 

English class takes place at an art museum, 

A Field Academy 10th grader pursues English credits at the Denver Museum of Art (Anna Graves) with students writing and talking about 

pieces on the wall. 

Graves explained that students who rarely attended school before this fall are happy and eager to be picked up by The 

Field Academy van each day. She said that her students grew disillusioned with conventional schooling, and especially 

its coercive, often punitive, environment. Last year, one student only went to school 14 days out of the entire school 

year. Now, he is excited to learn through The Field Academy. 

“I think the rise in chronic absenteeism is telling us that the system isn’t working for most students, and students 

are voting with their feet in the same way that we do with any product that we don’t like,” said Graves. “Honestly, I 

think that schools are getting really strong feedback, and that is why there’s a possibility for a lot of creativity in this 

moment.” 



102 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021 

MATTHEW NOYES 

‘Canceling’ Student Debt is Unfair to Graduates Like Me 

Who Sacrificed to Pay Off Our Loans 

Ayear after graduating from college, I was able to pay off 

my student loans in full. Now, President Biden wants me 

to pay for my peers who have yet to do the same. 

Biden’s platform includes “student loan forgiveness” 

of at least $10,000 per person. Meanwhile, Democratic 

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer have 

proposed $50,000 in debt forgiveness per individual. On 

its surface, this sounds generous. American student loan 

debt is nearing $1.6 trillion, and the cost of college is 

higher than ever. But what does this “forgiveness” entail 

on a moral level? 

Loans are not “forgiven” or magically disappeared. They 

are paid off by taxpayers. Whether it is through higher 

taxes, printing more money, or contributing directly 

from the national debt, you and I will end up being the 

ones that pay for it. The United States is already over 

$27 trillion in debt and $125 trillion deep in unfunded 

liabilities. 

Essentially, the debt burden is shifted off of the 

shoulders of those who signed the loans and on to 

everyone who pays federal taxes. If you’re like me, that’s 

fundamentally unfair. 

I gave up a lot to accomplish what I did, but debt ‘forgiveness’ would punish taxpayers like 

me for our hard work and frugality. 

103 

Paying off my student loans was a concerted effort that 

took sacrifice. I started working after graduating from 

SUNY Albany in 2018. Following Dave Ramsey’s financial 

plan, I cut my living expenses, took on a side gig, and 

threw all that I could at my $27,000 in student loans. 

I cooked my own meals and bought the most affordable 

groceries. Although I could afford an apartment, I chose 

to live in subsidized company housing one-and-a-half 

hours away from my workplace. Commuting for 15 hours 

a week was part of the price I paid to square my debt 

sooner.absenteeism and credit recovery in creative 

ways. High school students who are not showing up to 

school, and who have either been referred to the truancy 

court or are at risk of being referred, are picked up in 

The Field Academy van each day to learn throughout the 

community in an immersive, personalized environment. 

I packed lunch most days, even when I had to wake 

up early to do so. It saved money at the cost of the 

convenience of eating out. Some nights after work I 

stayed up late to do freelance translation work instead of 

enjoying leisure time. I gave up a lot to accomplish what 

I did, but debt “forgiveness” would punish taxpayers like 

me for our hard work and frugality—just so others don’t 

have to take responsibility for their own choices.



Rather than stopping at saying that student loan forgiveness is unfair (it is), or that we can’t afford it (we can’t), we 

should take a deeper look at the root of the debate surrounding student loans. The student loan forgiveness camp is 

operating from the assumption that people are entitled to a college education and other peoples’ hard work. It codifies 

in policy the idea that adults are not responsible for their own actions (i.e. taking on debt). In a free society, I am not 

entitled to a college education and neither is anyone else. 

Taking out a loan is a choice, and personal responsibility shouldn’t be supplanted by taxpayer bailouts. “Canceling” 

student loans means penalizing people like me for honoring my word and repaying the debt I chose to accept. 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2023 

LAWRENCE W. REED 

Why Rome’s Best Emperor Shunned Government Schools 

The great classical scholar Edith Hamilton noted that the 

ancient Greeks frowned upon their Roman counterparts 

in regards to education. The former adopted public 

(government) schooling while the Romans left education 

to the family in the home. The snooty Greeks thought 

Romans were backward and unsophisticated. The 

Romans, of course, conquered the Greeks. 

Marcus Aurelius is widely regarded as Rome’s finest emperor. It’s a good bet that were he 

with us today, he would be an advocate for school choice. 

It’s a good bet that were Aurelius with us today, he’d be 

an advocate for school choice. He was a smart man who 

believed, though he was a ruler, that he wasn’t smarter 

than parents who wanted the best for their children. 

Imagine that! On the important issue of education, a 

Roman emperor almost 2,000 years ago was smarter 

than Joe Biden or Gavin Newsom or Randy Weingarten. 

For most of the five centuries of the Republic, Romans 

were schooled at home where virtues of honor, 

character, and citizenship were emphasized. Not until 

the Republic’s last century or so did anything resembling 

government schooling emerge. Moreover, it was never 

so centralized, universal, and mandatory as it is in our 

society today. The English academic and cleric Teresa 

Morgan, in a 2020 paper titled “Assessment in Roman 

Education,” writes, “In no stage of its history did Rome 

ever legally require its people to be educated on any 

level.” 

By the 2nd Century A.D., during the dictatorship of the 

Empire, at least one wise leader had already recognized 

flaws in government education. 

No less a figure than Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 

A.D.) noted in his Meditations that he learned from his 

great-grandfather “to avoid the public schools, to hire 

good private teachers, and to accept the resulting costs 

as money well-spent.” 

Aurelius was not only smart, but he was also perhaps 

as good as one could expect of an emperor. Historians 

regard him as the fifth of the Five Good Emperors who 

reigned consecutively from 96 to 180 A.D. Especially 

when compared to most other rulers—who were typically 

cruel lunatics, ruthless warmongers or incompetent 

clowns—those five in a row tended to be fair and 

effective. No man is fit to rule others with the sort of 

arbitrary power Roman emperors could exercise, but at 

least “the five” did so with a light touch most of the time. 

This should not be a surprise in the case of Aurelius, 

who assumed the throne reluctantly. He would have 

preferred the life of a Stoic philosopher. Those of that 

school of thought embrace courage, temperance, justice, 

and wisdom as the core elements of their creed. (For 

more on Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism, see the suggested 

readings at the bottom of this article, especially articles 

by Barry Brownstein and books by Ryan Holiday.) 

104 

105


March 

March - 

April 




Introspection, humility, and gratitude are not commonly present in people whose lives are consumed by a lust for 

The first four of the Five Good Emperors all chose an adopted heir to succeed them, as opposed to passing the throne 

power, but they are traits that Aurelius possessed in abundance. He kept private notes full of reflections on Stoic 

on to a son. Aurelius broke with that tradition and named his son Commodus to succeed him. It was one of Aurelius’s 

philosophy and self-improvement. 

biggest mistakes. Commodus proved to be far more like Rome’s worst (Nero, Caligula and Elagabalus) than Rome’s 

best. 

“He did not expect that anyone but himself would ever read his aphorisms,” writes Barry Brownstein. “He wrote for 

himself a guide to living a life consistent with his highest values.” The collection of those private notes are known as 

I have no desire to be a subject of any potentate but if I had to live under just one of the nearly 100 emperors of 

Meditations, and scholars like Brownstein and Ryan Holiday regard its Gregory Hays translation to be the best. 

ancient Rome, I believe I would choose Marcus Aurelius. 

In Book One of Meditations, subtitled “Debts and Lessons,” Aurelius identifies the positive qualities of friends and 

relatives who greatly influenced him. This is a testament to an important character trait, namely, gratitude. This is a 

leader who never allowed his exalted position go to his head; he acknowledged the fact that many good things came 

his way in life that were not of his own doing. He was simultaneously both grateful and humble. 

Aurelius devotes more space to what he learned from and admired about his adopted father (Emperor Antoninus Pius) 

than anyone else. It’s a remarkable list. When I first read it, I thought to myself, “Even if Aurelius exaggerated here 

and there, Antoninus Pius must have been a truly remarkable individual.” With that in mind, here is a sample of what 

Aurelius, in his own words, believed to be his father’s exemplary traits. What a person values in others says a lot about 

himself. 

If the subjects of Marcus Aurelius or Stoicism interest you, please see the compilation of suggested readings below. 

For Additional Information, See: 

Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman 

Marcus Aurelius: A Life by Frank McLynn 

Marcus Aurelius’s Guide to Inner Freedom by Barry Brownstein 

Indifference to superficial honors. Hard work. Persistence. 

His dogged determination to treat people as they deserved. 

Not expecting his friends to keep him entertained at dinner or to travel with him (unless they wanted to). And anyone who had 

to stay behind to take care of something always found him the same when he returned. 

His searching questions at meetings. A kind of single-mindedness, almost never content with first impressions, or breaking off 

the discussion prematurely. 

His constancy to friends—never getting fed up with them or playing favorites. 

Self-reliance, always. And cheerfulness. 

His restrictions on acclamations—and all attempts to flatter him. 

His constant devotion to the empire’s needs. His stewardship of the treasury. His willingness to take responsibility—and 

blame—for both. 

His attitude to men: no demagoguery, no currying favor, no pandering. Always sober, always steady, and never vulgar or a 

prey to fads. 

Marcus Aurelius on How to Turn Around a Rotten Day by Barry Brownstein 

How Marcus Aurelius Influenced Adam Smith (No, Really!) by Paul Meany 

7 Stoic Lessons That Can Help Heal Our Septic Political Discourse by Brenden Weber 

Responsibility is the Antidote to Mental Enslavement by Barry Brownstein 

Anger is Rising in America. The Stoics Taught How to Keep Your Cool by Barry Brownstein 

3 Stoic Lessons That Can Help Heal Our Toxic Political Culture by Richard Mason 

Stoicism Saved Me by Roger Johnston 

Stoicism: How to Use Stoic Philosophy to Find Inner Peace and Happiness by Jason Hemlock 

Stoicism in Early Christianity by Tuomas Rasimus, et al 

His ability to feel at ease with people—and put them at their ease, without being pushy. 

The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living by Kevin Vost 

His willingness to yield the floor to experts—in oratory, law, psychology, whatever—and to support them energetically, so that 

each of them could fulfill his potential. 

The way he could have one of his migraines and then go right back to what he was doing—fresh and at the top of his game. 

The way he kept public actions within reasonable bounds—games, building projects, distributions of money and so on— 

because he looked to what needed doing and not the credit to be gained from doing it. 

He never exhibited rudeness, lost control of himself, or turned violent. No one ever saw him sweat. Everything was to be 

approached logically and with due consideration, in a calm and orderly fashion but decisively, and with no loose ends. 

Strength, perseverance, self-control in both areas: the mark of a soul in readiness—indomitable. 



106 

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That has led, perhaps unsurprisingly, to about 30 percent of Massachusetts K-3 students labeled as being at “high risk 

of reading failure,” and about 20 percent of children labeled as having dyslexia indicators. 

Let me be very clear: I am not dismissing the existence of dyslexia or related learning disabilities. They exist and 

diagnosed children should be properly treated. Indeed, I have spotlighted several microschools that focus specifically 

on the needs of dyslexic learners, such as Activate in Portland, Oregon, founded by a former public school teacher, and 

SOAR Academy in Augusta, Georgia. 

But the skyrocketing rise in the number of children diagnosed with dyslexia and similar reading difficulties should 

cause us all to pause and critically ponder this diagnostic upsurge. Forcing young children to read before they are 

ready may be an important, and overlooked, factor in the potential over-diagnosis of dyslexia. 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023 


Why Is There A Dyslexia Epidemic? 

The earliest documented cases of dyslexia, or a language 

processing disorder that makes it difficult to read, date 

back more than a century. For decades, it was considered 

a relatively rare occurrence, but today it is estimated 

that up to 20 percent of the US population is dyslexic. 

What is going on? 

Advances in childhood diagnosis and treatment of 

dyslexia have certainly led to higher rates, but that is 

only part of the story. A national effort over the past two 

decades to push children to read at ever earlier ages— 

before many of them may be developmentally ready to 

do so—is also a likely culprit. 

A study by University of Virginia professor Daphna 

Bassok and her colleagues revealed that in 1998, 31 

percent of teachers believed that children should learn 

to read while in kindergarten. In 2010, that number was 

80 percent. 

The children didn’t change. The expectations did. 

Some of that was due to the passage of federal No Child 

Left Behind legislation in 2001 and its embrace of topdown 

“standards-based reform” that emphasized rigid, 

standardized curriculum and frequent testing, applied 

to ever-younger students. Kindergarten became the new 

first grade. 

Perhaps coercive schooling and increasingly unreasonable “state-approved” standards are 

the real problem. 

108 

Relatedly, in 2006, the US Department of Education 

modified its definition of childhood learning disabilities 

to the following: 

“The child does not achieve adequately for the child’s 

age or meet state-approved grade-level standards in 

one or more of the following areas, when provided with 

learning experiences and instruction appropriate for the 

child’s age or State-approved grade-level standards: Oral 

expression, listening comprehension, written expression, 

basic reading skills, reading fluency skills, reading 

comprehension, mathematical calculation, mathematics 

problem-solving…” 

The “state-approved” standards for childhood 

development and reading proficiency changed and if kids 

weren’t meeting those new, arbitrary benchmarks, they 

could be labeled with a learning disability like dyslexia. 

We continue to see the fall-out from these policies today. 

With mounting pressure on early literacy attainment, 

and new concerns over alleged “pandemic learning 

loss,” more young children are likely to get caught in a 

disability dragnet that may have much more to do with 

coercive schooling than with them as individual learners. 

For instance, The Boston Globe recently reported that 

in Massachusetts “it wasn’t until this school year that 

the state began requiring all districts in the state to 

screen K-3 students at least twice per year using a stateapproved 

assessment.” 

If we look outside of standardized, state-run schooling, we get a clearer view of the implications of coercive 

educational policies on childhood learning. In 1987, Daniel Greenberg, cofounder of the noncoercive Sudbury Valley 

School, wrote in his book Free At Last about the school’s first two decades of operation. He explained that they never 

had a case of dyslexia. “The fact is, we have never seen it at the school. It just might be because we have never made 

anyone learn how to read,” Greenberg wrote. 

Despite not forcing kids to read, Sudbury Valley students all learn how to read—albeit on wildly disparate timetables 

that would likely never be permissible within a conventional classroom. Intrigued by the Sudbury Valley experience, 

Boston College psychology professor Peter Gray and his colleague David Chanoff published research on the school’s 

alumni and their outcomes. Gray reported that “two of the graduates told us that they had come to the school at age 

15 unable to read, with a diagnosis of dyslexia. Both told us, independently, that they learned to read within a few 

months of being at the school.” The researchers discovered that when top-down pressure was removed and the teens 

were free to direct their own learning, they quickly learned to read. 

Gray went on to conduct more research on self-directed learners, such as unschoolers and those enrolled in Sudburymodel 

schools. In his Psychology Today column, he wrote: “I have also found, in informal surveys of unschoolers and 

democratic schoolers, that there is a huge range of ages at which different children learn to read (here). Most learn 

to read within their first 7 to 8 years of life, but a few don’t read until they are in their teens. My guess is that many of 

those would have been diagnosed with dyslexia if they had been in a traditional school, where everyone would have 

been very concerned about their reading.” 

Would conventional, state-run schools ever tolerate such “late” readers? It’s unlikely, especially as 7 or 8 years old is 

now considered “late” for reading in many schools. 

Again, dyslexia and related reading disorders are real; but when up to one in five young children are now being 

diagnosed with dyslexia, it should spark cultural curiosity and contemplation. Perhaps coercive schooling and 

increasingly unreasonable “state-approved” standards are the real problem. 



109



Your children should be happy at school. If instead they dread Monday mornings or count down the hours until the 

weekend arrives, it’s a good sign they might be better off in a different school or learning environment. If you are 

spending what should be quality family time with your children on homework battles and arguments over test prep 

and grades, then maybe it’s worth considering other educational options where your kids will find greater happiness 

and fulfillment. 

“The ultimate goal of the conduct of each of us, as an individual, is to maximize his own happiness and well-being,” 

wrote economic journalist and FEE founding board member, Henry Hazlitt, in Foundations of Morality. He went on 

to explain that “no two people find their happiness or satisfactions in precisely the same things,” which is why it is 

decentralized “social cooperation that best enables each of us to pursue his own ends.” 

We are seeing how a decentralized education ecosystem is leading to greater happiness and well-being, as families 

find just the right learning fit for their children and educators rekindle their love of teaching as school founders. 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2023 


If Your Kids Aren’t Happy at School, Find Them Another 

“Ihated going to school when I was a kid,” said Elon Musk 

in a 2015 interview. “It was torture.” 

When deciding how his own children would be educated, 

Musk rejected traditional schooling and created his own 

project-based microschool, Ad Astra, in 2014, on his 

SpaceX campus. “The kids really love going to school,” 

said Musk about Ad Astra in that same interview, adding 

that “they actually think vacations are too long as they 

want to go back to school.” In 2020, Ad Astra evolved into 

the fully online school, Astra Nova, and its popular math 

enrichment spin-off, Synthesis. 

You don’t need to be a billionaire to find—or create—an 

ideal school for your kids. If they’re not happy at school, 

there’s never been a better time to exit for something 

else. 

Today, there are many low-cost schools and learning 

spaces across the US that foster joyful learning— 

and they are becoming increasingly accessible due 

to widespread education choice policies that enable 

taxpayer funding to follow students instead of going to 

district schools. 

“When schools are focused on the needs of adults 

rather than needs of children, the children will lose out 

and that’s what’s happening in many school systems 

If your children are not happy at school, there’s never been a better time to exit for something 

else. 

110 

around the country,” said Jack Johnson Pannell, a former 

public charter school founder in Baltimore who this fall 

launched a private microschool, Trinity Arch Preparatory 

Academy for Boys, in Phoenix. He specifically chose 

to open his small school in Arizona due to the state’s 

universal school choice policies and the relative ease of 

being an education entrepreneur there. 

Pannell grew frustrated by the institutional constraints 

of traditional schooling that made it difficult to best 

serve students, such as the inability to add extra recess 

time, eliminate homework, or facilitate side-by-side, 

individualized learning—all of which are features of the 

Trinity Arch Prep experience. He believes learners and 

parents are growing similarly frustrated. 

“Any kid who is walking into a traditional school and 

sitting in a chair for seven hours a day, five days a week, 

I hope they are screaming out to the educators: We can’t 

do this anymore! We don’t want to do this anymore! 

I’m not learning anything by preparing for this quiz and 

that quiz and that test, and fighting with the teacher 

whether the homework is done or read or not,” Pannell 

told me in our recent podcast interview. “I think children 

and families will demand real change in education,” he 

added. 

For some students, the best fit might be a faith-based, character-focused microschool like Trinity Arch Prep, while 

for others it might be an Acton Academy, or a Sudbury school, or a classical school, or a Prenda pod, or a Montessori 

school, or a KaiPod, or a self-directed learning center, or a hybrid homeschool program or homeschool co-op, or 

a high-quality online school, or one of the thousands of independent microschools, learning pods, homeschooling 

collaboratives, and low-cost private schools sprouting all across the country. 

As education shifts from one-size-fits-all, coercive schooling to a vibrant marketplace of options, individuals and 

families are better able to make learning choices that enhance their own happiness and well-being—however they 

define it. 



111



Underwood’s proposal may sound reasonable or downright crazy, depending on your perspective. Suffice it to say, 

many of the people in attendance were convinced, and the motion passed 20 to 14. 

By Monday, the town was far from quiet. 

“The Croydon School Board got an earful Monday evening as about 75 people turned out to oppose what 20 town 

voters had approved days earlier,” Valley News reports. “School board members Jody Underwood, Aaron McKeon 

and Kevin Morris faced a withering onslaught for more than three hours as residents questioned how the school was 

expected to operate on less than half of its proposed budget.” 

“I’m ashamed and disgusted by this reckless budget that was proposed by your husband,” Angi Beaulieu, a former 

school board member, told Jody Underwood. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2022 

PATRICK CARROLL 

Small New England Town Cuts School Board Budget— 

in Half 

The annual Town Meeting in Croydon, New Hampshire 

took place on Saturday, March 12. Home to about 800 

people, Croydon is a quiet town, and the meeting was 

likewise a quiet meeting. About 40 people were in 

attendance to vote on the town budget. 

One of the main topics of discussion was the proposed 

$1.7 million budget for the Croydon School Board. This 

would cover the 24 students in the Croydon Village 

School, a K-4 one room schoolhouse, and about 53 older 

students who are tuitioned out to public and private 

schools in the area. The $1.7 million budget represented 

an increase of about 30 percent over the last three years, 

and would have come with an estimated property tax 

increase of nearly 19 percent. 

The chair of the school board, Jody Underwood, gave a 

presentation during the meeting explaining the budget 

so that people could understand what they were voting 

on. But right after her presentation, Ian Underwood, her 

husband, did something daring. He made a motion from 

the floor to reduce the budget to $800,000, a 53 percent 

cut. 

Ian’s motion was not unplanned. Earlier in the meeting, 

he had handed out a pamphlet explaining what he 

intended to do and his rationale behind the proposal. 

Jody was aware of his plan, but was not involved. 

Croydon, New Hampshire’s move is drawing attention to the lack of accountability in America’s 

schools. 

112 

“What we’re being asked to vote on today isn’t a budget,” 

Ian wrote in the pamphlet, entitled Budget, or Ransom?. 

“I propose that we amend the amount in Article 2 to 

reflect a budget — that is, the amount that the voters in 

the district want to pay — rather than a ransom — that 

is, the amount that district officials feel like demanding.” 

He then cited sources showing that education 

expenditures don’t correlate with academic performance, 

making the case that “in a very real sense, it doesn’t 

matter what we choose to spend.” Readers were asked to 

step back and consider what level of funding would make 

sense on a per-student basis. 

To provide a baseline, he noted that the state gives 

charter schools less than $8,000 per student, and two 

nearby private schools charge less than $9,000 per 

student. Based on these numbers, he reasoned that 

$10,000 per student should be sufficient. With about 80 

students enrolled, that makes for a budget of $800,000. 

By comparison, the original $1.7 million budget would 

have provided funding equivalent to $21,000 per student. 

“There are a lot of fundamental questions that never get 

serious consideration under the ransom-based model of 

school funding,” Underwood writes. “The point of putting 

them on a budget is to force them to find ways to use an 

entirely reasonable amount of money to accomplish, not 

what parents would like, but what all of us need.” 

In the wake of these events, a petition was created to have a new vote on the $1.7 million proposal, since the cut 

was done so suddenly and by so few people. The petition was successful and the new vote is scheduled for May 

7. However, to even have the vote, at least half of the 565 registered voters need to show up, a high bar for local 

elections. 

Naturally, the board is looking for creative ways to provide education with such a radically reduced budget. “The 

current model that we’re looking at,” said Jody Underwood, “which seems to be the only viable model under the 

$800,000 budget, is to go to micro-schools. They’re just so much cheaper than the public school options.” She also 

mentioned that micro-schools provide more choice and that teacher evaluations of the micro-school model have been 

very positive in recent years. 

Though the debate in Croydon may seem small, it draws attention to a large issue, which is the growing inefficiency 

and administrative bloat that has crept into school systems across the country. School budgets have been 

skyrocketing, yet schools have little to show for it. 

Now, if there was free-market competition in education, schools could easily be held accountable for their spending 

decisions, because schools that spend money poorly would quickly go out of business as parents and students take 

their money elsewhere. But since public schools get money no matter how efficiently (or inefficiently) they are run, the 

competition mechanism can’t function properly. 

As a result, the only way to hold public schools accountable is to rein in their budgets. Of course, it’s possible that this 

will lead to a lower quality education, but that certainly isn’t the goal. The goal is to foster accountability and efficiency 

in an institution that so often lacks these attributes. Indeed, a lower budget may even make for a better education, 

because there is less bureaucracy getting in the way. 

Time will tell whether Croydon’s experiment in radical budget cutting is successful. If it is, it may only be a matter of 

time before other towns follow Croydon’s lead. 



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Essentially, she claims that educators have misread the intent of applying the growth mindset with students. Instead 

of analyzing the process, educators have fallen into simply praising the student, no matter the outcome. This is what 

she calls “false praise,” and it sends the wrong signals to the child, thereby teaching them that failure is an acceptable 

outcome. So how has this way of thinking settled into our schools? 

Public schools have and always will promote a fixed mindset. This is true because the foundation of schooling is based 

on force. Acknowledging this is vital to understanding why so many educators have misread Dr. Dweck’s attempt 

at challenging them—and to a lesser extent the system—on how we reflect on the learning process. The proverbial 

“one-size-fits-all” approach that schooling promotes does not allow for an inspection of the learning process. Any 

serious attempt to do this is simple lip service. Attempts to study learning languages, multiple intelligences, and other 

learning frameworks have resulted in a futile attempt to change what cannot be altered. 

Public Schools Are Inherently “Fixed” 

What cannot be altered is the fixed way in which schools approach educating children. In the modern school, children 

are corralled into classrooms and forced to learn concepts they may—or probably more likely, may not—care about. 

Even if a teacher attempts to cater to different learning styles, the bureaucracy of schooling stifles them. Standardized 

tests, standardized curriculums, and even standardized rules have pigeonholed students and teachers into conforming 

to the system. Clearly, you can see how this promotes the fixed mindset. 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2023 


Former Public School Teachers Find Happiness In 

Entrepreneurship 

Admittedly, I am awful at math. All through school, down 

to the last official class I took in college, I struggled with 

the subject. Since leaving the academic setting I have 

not gone out of my way to improve those skills. I would 

argue that the reason for this is my lack of ability to 

understand mathematical concepts. This, in turn, leads 

to a lack of effort and caring in how I perform mathrelated 

tasks. In short: I just don’t get it, so why bother? 

The Fixed Mindset 

What I have just expressed is often referred to as a 

fixed mindset. People who employ this line of thinking 

typically believe their abilities to succeed are based on 

talent and not effort. This leads to the line of thinking 

explained above: I am not talented/gifted at math. 

Therefore, no amount of effort will change that. 

How does one develop this mindset? Are we wired to 

believe this as people? Surely not! Otherwise, how on 

earth would we ever learn to do anything? We would 

drop our heads and stop every time we failed. We know 

this is not true since we persevere through learning to 

walk, talk, read, ride a bike, and so on. So again, how do 

we develop this way of thinking? The answer lies in an 

age-old institution that burns this into our minds. But 

first, we must examine the evolution of growth and fixed 

mindsets. 

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

and are spreading that joy to their learners. 

114 

Dr. Carol Dweck is a professor of psychology at 

Stanford University. In her 2006 book, Mindset: The 

New Psychology of Success, Dr. Dweck introduces the 

concepts of fixed and growth mindsets. As explained 

above, the fixed mindset is developed as children 

receive the message that they cannot change the 

outcomes they experience in learning. This is very much 

a fatalistic worldview that sees one’s learning ability as 

predetermined. No amount of effort or caring will fix 

this. Have you ever found yourself thinking this way? 

The Growth Mindset 

The growth mindset, on the other hand, focuses on 

processes of learning. Embracing this model encourages 

educators and learners to examine how outcomes were 

achieved and to be open-minded to changing strategies 

and techniques that were used. In a 2016 interview with 

The Atlantic, Dr. Dweck stated that applying this train of 

thought produces thinkers who “believe everyone can 

develop their abilities through hard work, strategies, and 

lots of help and mentoring from others.” As you can see, 

the takeaway is in encouraging students to overcome 

weaknesses by examining effort level and technique. 

In the same interview, Dr. Dweck discusses what she 

calls a “false growth mindset” that has emerged among 

educators. 

Dr. Dweck’s own experience could have been used as an opportunity to reflexively examine the negative effects of 

forced schooling. As a student at a public school in New York, she was subjected to a model that rewarded students 

based on IQ scores, where students were rewarded for having high abilities. Dr. Dweck took to remedy this in her work 

years later. While her theory is absolutely solid and has terrific merit, the vehicle of school fails to deliver on what 

embracing the growth mindset can do. In essence, instead of using this as a chance to call out forced schooling, she 

falls into the trap of believing it can be reformed. 

I am often amazed at the comments people make to me regarding teaching today. They usually range from sympathy 

to encouragement. No matter what I hear from people, there is one comment that almost always surfaces without fail: 

School isn’t like it was back when I was there. 

This may be true. Rules, regulations, people, books—they may have all changed. But one thing has remained constant 

from the start: Public schools promote fixed mindset thinking. No amount of reform will change that. Breaking down 

forced schooling and allowing choice and freedom—now that is a growth mindset. 



115



had to give up in 2021 because state regulators would not allow such an out-of-the-box educational model to exist in 

their state. 

Sudbury schools, modeled after the well-known Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, are found across the US and 

around the world. I featured the Sudbury model and Sudbury Valley throughout my Unschooled book. These schools 

embrace an educational philosophy of democratic self-governance and non-coercive, self-directed learning, with no 

adult-imposed curriculum requirements, classes, or evaluations. Sudbury Valley continues to operate today, more 

than 50 years after its founding, and has many successful alumni, including the Academy Award-winning documentary 

filmmaker, Laura Poitras. 

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023 


The (Further) Case for the Free Market in Education 

In 1964, Leonard Read wrote a powerful essay 

celebrating the free market in education. Read, who 

founded FEE nearly two decades prior to promote 

individual and economic freedom, recognized the ways 

in which government control of the K-12 education 

sector constrained choice and prevented diversity and 

abundance of learning options. 

In “The Case for the Free Market in Education,” Read 

asked us to imagine that education had been freed from 

government interference and was instead “restored to 

the free, competitive market.” 

“What would happen?” wondered Read. “No one knows!” 

he answered. 

Rather than a flaw, Read recognized that the unknown 

of what would inevitably emerge from this restoration 

would be its strongest feature. In a free market, 

education would become an entirely decentralized sector 

based on voluntary association and exchange, with 

entrepreneurial individuals creating various learning 

opportunities and families deciding for themselves 

which ones they prefer for their children. Consent 

would replace coercion in education, sparking endless 

possibilities. 

As Read put it: 

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

schools” are preferable. 

116 

“Creative thought on education would manifest itself in millions 

of individuals. Such genius as we potentially and compositely 

pos sess would assert itself and take the place of deadening 

restraints. Any person who understands the free market 

knows, without any qualification whatsoever, that there would 

be more education and bet ter education. And a person with a 

faith in free men is confident that the costs per unit of learning 

accomplished would be far less…The free market is truly free: 

it is free of restraints against creative action; it presup poses 

free exchange; its services are as free as the sun’s energy.” 

Some might argue that we already have a free market 

in education outside of government-run schools, with 

private schools free to operate and compete for families 

who have the means to exit an assigned district school 

for private options. Yet, here too the government 

interferes in the private sector to varying degrees. 

Compulsory schooling laws in all states mandate school 

attendance, and most states require private schools to 

be registered with local or state officials. Some states 

influence private education more directly with various 

curriculum and evaluative requirements. And in a few 

states, such as Iowa, private schools can’t even exist 

without being accredited by the state department of 

education or one of only a few accrediting organizations 

approved of by the state. 

How this works in practice is heartbreaking. I wrote 

recently about a Sudbury-model school in Des Moines, 

Iowa that spent months trying to get launched but finally 

Yet, states such as Iowa won’t allow certain types of schools, like Des Moines’s Sunrise Sudbury School, whose 

cofounder is a former high school physics teacher with a graduate degree in teaching, to open their doors. 

Beyond such outright coercion in the private education sector are more subtle overreaches. Many states erect 

regulatory hurdles for private education providers, especially those that challenge the conventional schooling status 

quo. Zoning and occupancy restrictions can prevent experimental models, such as microschools and learning pods, 

from getting off the ground or growing, as can restrictive child care licensing laws that can ensnare non-traditional 

programs aimed at school-age children in a daycare regulatory morass. I talk more about these regulatory roadblocks 

in my State Policy Network report. Advocates in some states, such as Utah, are trying to push back against government 

overreach in the private education sector to encourage greater education entrepreneurship and innovation. 

By removing both the overt and subtle government control of education, and unleashing a free, competitive education 

market, a panoply of educational models will emerge, representing a wide assortment of different educational 

philosophies and approaches. As in any healthy, dynamic market, some of these models will succeed and others will 

fail. Quality programs that are responsive to parents and learners will gain popularity and traction, while undesirable 

and unresponsive programs will wither. 

We see early glimpses of a free, competitive education market in states such as Arizona, which has comparatively low 

private education regulations and has cultivated a culture of choice over the past several years, aided by expansive 

school choice policies that enable parents to opt out of a government school assignment. In Arizona, and increasingly 

elsewhere, parents are regaining responsibility for their children’s education and finding the best educational fit. 

This might include enrolling in one of many private school, learning pod, or microschool options, collaborating with 

others on homeschooling efforts, taking advantage of tutoring services, using individualized curriculum resources and 

materials, and exploring a host of learning supports. 

Auspiciously, Read spoke about this more than a half-century ago when he predicted the positive outcomes of a 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. There would be thousands of private schools, large and small, not necessarily unlike some of the ones we now 

have. There would be tutoring ar rangements of a variety and in genuity impossible to foresee. No doubt there would be corporate 

and charitably financed institu tions of chain store dimensions, dispensing reading, writing, and arithmetic at bargain prices. There 

would be competition, which is cooperation’s most useful tool! There would be a parental alertness as to what the market would 

have to offer. There would be a keen, active, parental respon sibility for their children’s and their own educational growth.” 

Read would likely say, and I would agree, that today’s school choice policies that redistribute taxpayer funds 

from government-run school systems to individual students to use as they choose are still rooted in government 

compulsion and distort the restoration of a fully free, competitive education market. Indeed, without vigilance, it’s 

possible that these policies could lead to even greater government regulation of private education—a tragic potential 

consequence. 

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But these policies, especially in low-regulation states such as Arizona, are showing that they can help to loosen the 

government’s grip on education, which is the first step in restoring a free, competitive education market. These 

policies help to put parents back in charge of their children’s education, and encourage the proliferation of new and 

diverse learning options through entrepreneurship and innovation. They don’t go nearly far enough, though. As Read 

explained, the only way to achieve a truly free education market is to eliminate compulsory attendance laws, remove 

government influence over curriculum, and end forced taxation of education. 

Read concluded his influential essay by stating that the “myth of government educa tion, in our country today, is an 

article of general faith. To ques tion the myth is to tamper with the faith, a business that few will read about or listen to 

or, if they do, calmly tolerate.” Today, more parents, educators, and entrepreneurs are tampering with that faith and 

challenging the government’s outsized role in education. They are increasingly seeking new and different education 

options, and building what they cannot find. They are pushing ahead despite many regulatory barriers, and creating 

bottom-up education solutions that outshine top-down incumbents. 

These parents, educators, and entrepreneurs are becoming champions of a truly free market in education. And, 

as Read reminded us in his final line, “becoming is life’s prime purpose; becoming is, in fact, enlightenment — selfeducation, 

its own reward.” 



118 

WEDNESDAY, NOV, 2023 

JON MILTIMORE 

Chicago’s Solution to Its Failing School System: Stop 

Grading Schools on Performance 

In 1987, U.S. Education Secretary Bill Bennett famously 

traveled to Chicago, where he ruffled feathers by telling 

a closed-room group that the Windy City’s school system 

was “the worst in the nation.” 

Local parents and educators bristled at the charge, 

which resulted in an awkward New York Times story. 

But decades of data would subsequently prove that Mr. 

Bennett was basically correct: Chicago’s schools were a 

total mess. 

The city’s own accountability report card would later 

demonstrate that huge majorities of students in the city’s 

worst schools—75 percent in elementary and 95 percent 

in high school—failed to meet the state standards. 

Things hardly improved during the pandemic, even 

though the Chicago Public School (CPS) system was 

spending roughly $28,000 per student (partly thanks to 

federal bailout cash). 

“Just 30% of Black students meet or exceed reading 

standards in the third grade, and the number falls to 14% 

for 11th graders, according to data from the Illinois State 

Board of Education,” The Chicago Tribune pointed out 

last year. 

Chicago schools clearly aren’t getting the job done, but 

It’s become abundantly clear that the greatest obstacle to educational reform is the government 

itself. 

119 

political leaders in the city have discovered a solution to 

the problem: stop grading schools. 

“I personally don’t give a lot of attention to grades,” 

Mayor Brandon Johnson said during a recent interview. 

“How do you grade a system, when the system has not 

fulfilled its basic obligation of providing an equitable 

system that speaks to the needs [of students].” 

Mr. Johnson went on to explain a better way to evaluate 

Chicago’s school system. 

“My responsibility is not simply to just grade the 

system, but to fund the system,” he said. “That’s how 

I’m ultimately going to grade whether or not our public 

school system is working: based upon the investments 

that we make to the people who rely on it.” 

This isn’t mere idle chatter. 

Earlier this year, the Chicago Board of Education 

scrapped its school rating policy, which was designed to 

rate schools on a range of performance goals, including 

how students performed on state tests. 

WBEZ, an NPR-affiliated Chicago radio station, reported 

that Chicago’s system had been criticized for “relying too 

heavily on test scores and unfairly branding schools,” 

adding that the “new accountability policy veers away 

from any rating.”academic performance of students.


March 

March - 





One can see why leaders in Chicago favor grading schools by the amount of money they receive versus the academic 

Mr. Gatto wrote these words more than 30 years ago. And though I wouldn’t have described U.S. schools as a “horror 

performance of students. 

show” in 1992 (I was only 13), I certainly would today. 

Data from the Illinois State Board of Education show that not one student in the 22 schools analyzed in a widely read 

report can read at grade level. In 18 of those schools, there wasn’t a single student who demonstrated proficiency in 

math or reading. (Despite this, some of these schools were given the rating “commendable.”) 

Again, this is the state of Illinois’ own data. 

If you grade these schools by funding, it’s a different story, of course. Per-student funding at Chicago Public Schools is 

now approaching $30,000 ($29,400, according to WBEZ). That is nearly double the national average ($14,347), according 

to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Despite an objective decline in U.S. schools, which has resulted in a mass exodus of students, politicians seek to 

continue pumping more and more money into struggling schools. 

This wouldn’t have surprised Mr. Gatto, who observed years ago that the primary purpose of schools in modern 

America was no longer education (if it ever was). 

“We must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for 

the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands,” he wrote. 

Just like that—simply by grading schools by the funding they receive instead of their actual performance—CPS goes 

from one of the worst school districts in the United States to one of the best. 

We all know this is no way to judge schools, of course. Accountability matters, and it’s hard to think of a worse solution 

than simply sending more and more money to failing systems and demanding less accountability for how that money is 

spent. 

Years ago I would have brushed off Mr. Gatto’s words as fanciful hyperbole. I don’t today. 

Moreover, I think it’s become abundantly clear that the greatest obstacle to educational reform is the government 

itself—and politicians who want to grade schools by how much money they receive from taxpayers instead of whether 

students are actually learning. 

Indeed, it’s this paradigm that has brought us the failed, bureaucratic education system America sees today. 

More than 30 years ago, John Hood, the author and president of the John W. Pope Foundation, explained why the 

government was wholly unsuited to teach America’s students, and predicted U.S. schools would continue to decline 

despite steadily increasing government spending: 



“When every call for fundamental change in American education is rebutted not by arguments about student 

achievement but by arguments focusing on race, class, social mixing, and other social concerns, it is difficult to imagine 

real progress. 

“When teachers spend much of their day filling out forms, teaching quasi-academic subjects mandated from above, 

and boosting student self-esteem (as contrasted with serf-respect, which is earned rather than worked up), learning is 

difficult if not impossible.” 

Mr. Hood had gleaned the same truth the famous educator John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) had learned. 

Mr. Gatto, the Teacher of the Year in New York State in 1991 and author of “Dumbing Us Down,” understood it wasn’t 

“bad teachers” or a lack of funds responsible for America’s failing schools. It was the system itself, which was built on 

coercion, bureaucracy, and obedience instead of actual learning, discovery, and collaboration with families. 

“Independent study, community service, adventures and experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand 

different apprenticeships—the one-day variety or longer—these are all powerful, cheap, and effective ways to start 

a real reform of schooling. But no large-scale reform is ever going to work to repair our damaged children and our 

damaged society until we force open the idea of ‘school’ to include family as the main engine of education,” he wrote. 

“If we use schooling to break children away from parents—and make no mistake, that has been the central function of 

schools since John Cotton announced it as the purpose of the Bay Colony schools in 1650 and Horace Mann announced 

it as the purpose of Massachusetts schools in 1850—we’re going to continue to have the horror show we have right 

now.” 

120 

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Today, nearly 40 percent of all Americans hold a 4-year degree. Considering the vast increase in college attendance 

and completion, it’s fair to question if a college degree has retained its “purchasing power” on the job market. Much of 

the evidence seems to suggest that it has not.diagnoses occur in children under age six. 

What is Credential Inflation? 

The signaling function of college degrees may have been distorted by the phenomenon known as credential inflation. 

Credential inflation is nothing more than “… an increase in the education credentials required for a job.” 

Many jobs that previously required no more than a high school diploma are now only accepting applicants with 

bachelor’s degrees. This shift in credential preferences among employers has now made the 4-year degree 

the unofficial minimum standard for educational requirements. This fact is embodied in the high rates of 

underemployment among college graduates. Approximately 41 percent of all recent graduates are working jobs that 

do not require a college degree. It is shocking when you consider that 17 percent of hotel clerks and 23.5 percent of 

amusement park attendants hold 4-year degrees. None of these jobs have traditionally required a college degree. 

But due to a competitive job market where most applicants have degrees, many recent graduates have no means of 

distinguishing themselves from other potential employees. Thus, many recent graduates have no other option but to 

accept low-paying jobs. 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2021 

PETER CLARK 

Why College Degrees Are Losing Their Value 

The concept of inflation (the depreciation of purchasing 

power of a specific currency) applies to other goods 

besides money. Inflation is related to the Law of Supply 

and Demand. As the supply of a commodity increases, 

the value decreases. Conversely, as the good becomes 

more scarce, the value of the commodity increases. This 

same concept is also applicable to tangible items such 

as vintage baseball cards and rare art. These are rare 

commodities that cannot be authentically replicated and 

therefore command a high value on the market. On the 

other hand, mass-produced rookie cards and replications 

of Monet’s work are plentiful. As a result, they yield little 

value on the market. 

Inflation and the opposite principle of deflation can 

also apply to intangible goods. When looking at the 

job market, this becomes quite evident. Jobs that 

require skills that are rare or exceptional tend to pay 

higher wages. However, there are also compensating 

differentials that arise because of the risky or 

unattractive nature of undesirable jobs. The higher 

wages are due to a lack of workers willing to accept the 

position rather than the possession of skills that are in 

demand. 

The Signaling Function of College Degrees 

Over the past couple of decades, credentialing of 

intangible employment value has become more 

prevalent. Credentials can range from college degrees 

The signaling function of college degrees may have been distorted by the phenomenon 

known as credential inflation. 

122 

to professional certifications. One of the most common 

forms of credentialing has become a 4-year college 

degree. This category of human capital documentation 

has evolved to take on an alternate function. 

Outside of a few notable exceptions, a bachelor’s degree 

serves a signaling function. As George Mason economics 

professor Bryan Caplan argues, the function of a college 

degree is primarily to signal to potential employers that 

a job applicant has desirable characteristics. Earning 

a college degree is more of a validation process than a 

skill-building process. Employers desire workers that are 

not only intelligent but also compliant and punctual. The 

premise of the signaling model seems to be validated by 

the fact that many graduates are not using their degrees. 

In fact, in 2013; only 27 percent of graduates had a job 

related to their major. 

Since bachelor’s degrees carry a significant signaling 

function, there have been substantial increases in the 

number of job seekers possessing a 4-year degree. 

Retention rates for 4-year institutions reached an alltime 

high of 81 percent in 2017. In 1940, 4.2 million 

Americans were 4-year college graduates. Today, 99.5 

million Americans have earned a bachelor’s degree or 

higher. These numbers demonstrate the sharp increase 

in the number of Americans earning college degrees. 

The value of a college degree has gone down due to the vast increase in the number of workers who possess degrees. 

This form of debasement mimics the effect of printing more money. Following the Law of Supply and Demand, the 

greater the quantity of a commodity, the lower the value. The hordes of guidance counselors and parents urging kids 

to attend college have certainly contributed to the problem. However, public policy has served to amplify this issue. 

Various kinds of loan programs, government scholarships, and other programs have incentivized more students to 

pursue college degrees. Policies that make college more accessible—proposals for “free college,” for example—also 

devalue degrees. More people attending college makes degrees even more common and further depreciated. 

Of course, this not to say brilliant students with aspirations of a career in STEM fields should avoid college. But for the 

average student, a college degree may very well be a malinvestment and hinder their future. 

Incurring large amounts of debt to work for minimum wage is not a wise decision. When faced with policies and 

social pressure that have made college the norm, students should recognize that a college degree isn’t everything. If 

students focused more on obtaining marketable skills than on credentials, they might find a way to stand out in a job 

market flooded with degrees. 



123



The direct result was that Bangladeshi textile factories stopped employing children. But did the children go back to school? Did 

they return to happy homes? Not according to Oxfam, which found that the displaced child workers ended up in even worse jobs, 

or on the streets—and that a significant number were forced into prostitution. 

Powell also notes that the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that many of the children went right back to factory 

work in regions where monitoring was more difficult. Essentially, this ban was either ineffective or disastrous for 

children. 

“But what about those in forced labor?” In the child labor debate, many conflate child labor with slave labor. 

Conservatives do the same thing when talking about sex trafficking and prostitution. The truth is that the two are 

distinct, and to conflate them is to confuse the debate. Involuntary and voluntary servitude exist in all societies. It may 

sometimes be hard to differentiate them due to inadequate data collection, but not all child labor is slave labor. 

With that in mind, wouldn’t banning child labor be beneficial to the child in cases of slave labor? This is doubtful. 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2024 Child labor can be fairly brutal, but the alternatives are often far worse. 

BENJAMIN SEEVERS 

What Many Critics of Child Labor Overlook 

Mars, the candy company, is facing criticism over its use happen to children. 

of child labor. These criticisms are in light of a CBS News 

special report finding that many children, some as young Child labor is certainly not a great sight to behold. 

as five, work in fields in Ghana that supply the candy Little Johnny sweating bullets in a steel mill is clearly 

company its cocoa. 

not what parents desire for their children. But before 

we pronounce a judgment on this practice, we need to 

This is not the first time Mars, Inc. has faced heat over consider what the alternative is. 

the use of child labor. Back in August, International 

Rights Advocates sued the Biden administration to block When examining child labor, we must bear in mind that 

the importation of cocoa that utilizes child labor as an child labor is one option out of a set of options the child 

input. The targets of this proposed importation ban faces. What happens when you prohibit child labor? The 

would have been Hershey, Mars, Nestlé, and Cargill. children will go to their next best option. In countries 

that allow child labor, the next best option is usually 

Mars has been trying to cut down on child labor for 

starvation, poverty, or prostitution. 

more than two decades. However, because of inefficient 

monitoring of cocoa fields—or an unwillingness to 

Benjamin Powell notes in this article: 

monitor—they have been unable to eradicate the 

practice completely, as this report finds. 

Children work because their families are desperately poor, and 

the meager addition to the family income they can contribute 

This entire episode should demonstrate how economic 

is often necessary for survival. Banning child labor through 

trade regulations or governmental prohibitions often simply 

illiteracy has seeped into the minds of Western media 

forces the children into less-desirable alternatives. When U.S. 

and the general population. People honestly think 

activists started pressuring Bangladesh into eliminating child 

that prohibiting child labor will improve the welfare labor, the results were disastrous. 

of children. Anyone who has been in an argument 

with someone about the free market will undoubtedly Powell cites Paul Krugman on the disastrous effects 

bump against the child labor argument at some point. of a proposed child labor law that would have banned 

“Without regulation, child labor would be everywhere!” exports from countries that employed child labor. 

This argument, however, suffers from a major problem: Krugman states: 

it assumes that child labor is the worst thing that can 

124 

Consider slave owners. You must not ask what the child will alternate into, but what the slave owner will alternate 

the child into. In the case of slave labor, the slave owner is choosing between various alternative uses for the slave, 

and if you prohibit one form of labor, then the slave owner will direct his or her slaves out of that kind of labor and 

into others. Prohibiting all forms of child labor will cause the slave owners to direct child slaves into illegal industries 

so as to avoid detection by the authorities. Given the prevalence of violence in black markets, these slaves will likely 

be exposed to more violence than they were before. Again, in the case of Bangladeshi children mentioned above, 

prostitution might very well be the next best alternative that slave owners choose for their slaves. 

Ultimately, when regulating these actions, the policymakers are not choosing between enslaved children and freed 

children, but between enslaved children in legal industries (e.g., cocoa fields) and enslaved children in illegal industries 

(e.g., prostitution). Maybe your conscience will be dirtied if you buy the products made from slavery or child labor, but 

passing a universal ban on the importation of these products will only spell disaster for the children involved. 

Let’s apply this to the case of Mars’s use of child labor in Ghana. 

In CBS’s report, it is mentioned that the interviewed children long to be in school. Unfortunately, scarcity will face 

them regardless of their desires. Consider that many of the children who are in school on Mars’s dime harvest cocoa 

either before or after school. Forcing or blackmailing Mars to cease child labor will result in the mass expulsion of 

children from the fields and into jobs that are less desirable, such as prostitution, which is no small problem in Ghana. 

Perhaps they will even starve as a result. 

The CBS report does not imply that the children are slaves. In fact, they seem to be working in the fields as an effort to 

provide for their family. Depriving them of this stream of income, regardless of how meager the income appears, will 

only harm these children and their families. 

The bottom line is that forcing Mars to cease employment of child labor or prohibiting child labor altogether will have 

a disastrous effect on child welfare. Human rights groups need to learn this fact. Unfortunately, human rights groups 

seem to be merely satisfied with getting laws passed rather than actually enhancing the living conditions of children. 

But surely the latter is more important than the hollow words of politicians. 



125



America became obsessed with the story. In 1987 there was no Netflix, smartphones, or Twitter, so apparently 

everyone just decided to watch this barge carrying tons of trash for entertainment. 

The Mobro became, in the words of Vice, “the most watched load of garbage in the memory of man.” 

The Mobro also became perhaps the most consequential load of garbage in history. 

“The Mobro had two big and related effects,” Kite & Key Media explains. “First, the media reporting around it 

convinced Americans that we were running out of landfill space to dispose of our trash. Second, it convinced them the 

solution was recycling.” 

Neither claim, however, was true. 

The idea that the US was running out of landfill space is a myth. The urban legend likely stems from the consolidation 

of landfills in the 1980s, which saw many waste depots retired because they were small and inefficient, not because 

of a national shortage. In fact, researchers estimate that if you take just the land the US uses for grazing in the Great 

Plains region, and use one-tenth of one percent of it, you’d have enough space for America’s garbage for the next 

thousand years. (This is not to say that regional problems do not exist, Slate points out.. 

TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2022 Like many problems in American history, recycling began as a moral panic. 

JON MILTIMORE 

How America’s Recycling Program Failed—and Scarred 

In March 2019, The New York Times ran a shocking 

both Americans and the environment. 

story exploring why many prominent US cities were A Brief History of Recycling 

abandoning their recycling programs. 

Like many problems in American history, recycling began 

as a moral panic. 

“Philadelphia is now burning about half of its 1.5 million 

residents’ recycling material in an incinerator that 

The frenzy began in the spring of 1987 when a massive 

converts waste to energy,” Times business writer Michael barge carrying more than 3,000 tons of garbage—the 

Corkery reported. “In Memphis, the international airport Mobro 4000—was turned away from a North Carolina 

still has recycling bins around the terminals, but every port because rumor had it the barge was carrying toxic 

collected can, bottle and newspaper is sent to a landfill.” waste. (It wasn’t.) 

Philadelphia and Memphis were not outliers. They, along “Thus began one of the biggest garbage sagas in modern 

with Deltona, Florida, which had suspended its recycling history,” Vice News reported in a feature published a 

program the previous month, were just a few examples quarter-century later, “a picaresque journey of a small 

of hundreds of cities across the country that had 

boat overflowing with stuff no one wanted, a flotilla of 

scrapped recycling programs or scaled back operations. waste, a trashier version of the Flying Dutchman, that 

ghost ship doomed to never make port.” 

Since that time, cities across the country have continued The Mobro was simply seeking a landfill to dumb the 

to scrap recycling programs, citing high costs. 

garbage, but everywhere the barge went it was turned 

“The cost of recycling was going to double, and the town away. After North Carolina, the captain tried Louisiana. 

wasn’t going to be able to absorb that cost,” said Dencia Nope. Then the Mobro tried Belize, then Mexico, then the 

Raish, the town clerk administrator for Akron, Colorado, Bahamas. No dice. 

which ended its program in 2021 and now sends 

“recyclables” to a landfill. 

“The Mobro ended up spending six months at sea trying 

to find a place that would take its trash,” Kite & Key 

While many Americans likely are distraught about 

Media notes. 

America’s failed recycling experiment, a new video 

produced by Kite & Key Media reveals that abandoning 

recycling—at least in its current form—is likely to benefit 

126 

Mandated recycling efforts, meanwhile, have proven fraught. 

The Economics of Recycling 

During moral panics, it’s not uncommon for lawmakers to get involved. Recycling was no exception. 

Within just a handful of years of the Mobro panic, a recycling revolution spread across the continent. In a single year, 

more than 140 recycling laws were enacted in 38 states—in most cases mandating recycling and/or requiring citizens 

to pay for it. Within just a few years 6,000 curbside programs serving some 70 million Americans were created. 

Some people saw problems early on in this approach. 

“The fact is that sometimes recycling makes sense and sometimes it doesn’t. In the legislative rush to pass recycling 

mandates, state and local governments should pause to consider the science and the economics of every proposition,” 

economist Lawrence Reed wrote in 1995. “Often, bad ideas are worse than none at all and can produce lasting damage 

if they are enshrined in law. Simply demanding that something be recycled can be disruptive of markets and it does 

not guarantee that recycling that makes either economic or environmental sense will even occur.” 

The reality is recycling is incredibly complicated—something Discover magazine pointed out more than a decade ago. 

While it makes sense to recycle some products, there’s also circumstances where recycling makes no sense at all. 

Take plastic. For various reasons, plastic is not conducive to recycling. A Columbia University study published in 2010 

found that a mere 16.5 percent of plastic collected by New York’s Department of Sanitation was actually “recyclable.” 

That might not sound like much, but it’s actually much higher than the percentage of plastic that is recycled globally, 

according to other studies. 

Physics has a lot to do with this. In most cases, it’s less expensive to simply make new plastic than to recycle old 

plastic. But the costs of recycling are not just economic. 

The Environmental Costs of Recycling 

Proponents of recycling often acknowledge its economic costs. These costs can run high and recently got even higher 

(more on that later), but they say those costs are necessary to protect the environment. 

127



The argument ignores, however, that recycling—especially recycling done badly—also comes with severe 

The idea that mountains of refuse can just be turned into something of value with the right local mandates never 

environmental costs. It doesn’t just take dollars to recycle plastic but also energy and water (think about how much 

smelled right, largely because we have centuries of evidence that show markets are smarter than government 

water you spend rinsing your recyclables for a moment). 

bureaucrats because markets use infinitely more knowledge. 

This might sound simple, but the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman correctly observed it’s not. 

For plastic in particular, the environmental costs are even more staggering than the economic costs. 

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is that people operating separately, through their joint relations with 

“The newest, high tech methods of recycling [plastic] generate carbon emission 55 times higher than just putting it into 

one another, through market transactions, can achieve a greater degree of efficiency and of output than can a single 

a landfill,” Kite & Key Media says. 

central planner,” Friedman noted in a 2001 interview. 

But greenhouse gas emissions aren’t the only environmental cost. Did you ever wonder how we got a patch of plastic in 

This is not to say recycling can never work. It can. 

the ocean that is twice the size of Texas? 

Items like cardboard, paper, and metals (think aluminum) account 

The Great Pacific garbage patch is a mass of debris in the Pacific Ocean that weighs about 3 million tons. How it got 

for as much as 90 percent of greenhouse gas reduction from 

there is not exactly a mystery. It’s a collection of trash that came from countries in Asia, South America, and North 

recycling, research shows, and they also make the most sense 

America that researchers believe has increased “10-fold each decade” since the conclusion of World War II. 

economically, since they are less expensive to recycle and offer 

more value. 

Americans who’ve spent the last few decades recycling might think their hands are clean. Alas, they are not. As the 

Sierra Club noted in 2019, for decades Americans’ recycling bins have held “a dirty secret.” 

The problem isn’t recycling, but the means we use to recycle. The 

author Leonard Read, the founder of FEE, was fond of a Ralph 

“Half the plastic and much of the paper you put into it did not go to your local recycling center. Instead, it was stuffed 

Waldo Emerson poem that touched on ends and means. 

onto giant container ships and sold to China,” journalist Edward Humes wrote. “There, the dirty bales of mixed paper 

and plastic were processed under the laxest of environmental controls. Much of it was simply dumped, washing down 

“Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be 

rivers to feed the crisis of ocean plastic pollution.” 

severed;” Emerson wrote, “for the effect already blooms in the 

It’s almost too hard to believe. We paid China to take our recycled trash. China used some and dumped the rest. All that 

cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed.” 

washing, rinsing, and packaging of recyclables Americans were doing for decades—and much of it was simply being 

thrown into the water instead of into the ground. 

What Emerson and Read understood was that noble ends are not enough. If the means we use to achieve a desired 

result are rotten, the fruit itself is likely to be rotten as well. 

The gig was up in 2017 when China announced they were done taking the world’s garbage through its oddly-named 

program, Operation National Sword. This made recycling much more expensive, which is why hundreds of cities began 

The ends desired from recycling—a cleaner planet— were pure. The means we chose to pursue those ends—dictates of 

to scrap and scale back operations. 

central planners—were not. 

China’s decision provoked anger in the United States, but in reality the decision was a first (and necessary) step toward 

improving the environment and coming to grips with a failed paradigm. 

Means and Ends 

Americans meant well with their recycling efforts. We thought by recycling trash instead of burying it in a landfill, we 

were doing some good. Instead, tons of it (literally thousands and thousands of tons) was thrown into rivers and other 

waterways, contributing to the ocean plastic pollution problem. 

How did this happen? 

By relying on government coercion, we ended up with a recycling system that made no sense—economically or 

environmentally. And that’s why we ended up with tens of thousands of tons of recycled items dumped into the ocean. 

Putting government in charge of recycling was a big mistake. 

If Americans are serious about recycling to create a better future for humans, they’d get government out of the 

recycling business and make way for entrepreneurs armed with local knowledge and the profit motive. 

Instead of seeing recyclables dumped into our rivers and oceans, we’d see them creating value. That’s a win for humans 

and the planet. 

There are several answers to this question. NPR says Big Oil—always a convenient scapegoat—is to blame for letting 

people believe that recycling plastic made sense. But I think basic economics and moral philosophy are a better place 

to start. 

There was a reason Larry Reed, who today is president emeritus of FEE, sniffed out the false promise of recycling nearly 

30 years ago. 



“Market economists—by nature, philosophy, and experience—are skeptical of schemes to supplant the free choices of 

consumers with the dictates of central planners,” Reed explained at the time. 

128 

129



“God” is whatever aspects of the dominant cultural narrative most impact them. Prestige. Parental love and approval. 

Being normal. 

If it were really about careers, it would only take a few minutes of solid reflection to realize that specific employers 

want nothing more than specific value creation, proven in specific ways. A degree is one of the weakest, least common 

denominator efforts to doing this and is easy to surpass. 

College persists for the ambitious—and thus the self-reinforcing data about successful people having degrees— 

because of a religious-like belief in its necessity. But it’s not necessary at all. 

Okay, sure, if you know what you want, you can get it more directly. But most students don’t know what they want for 

their career. That’s normal and good in most cases. You can’t know until you’re several years into working and trying 

stuff (and maybe not even then). But that doesn’t mean entering the five-year, six-figure black box will help you move 

towards a question mark any more than it helps you move toward a specific goal. 

In fact, the sooner you can grapple with and solve specific problems for specific people and create specific value 

provable in specific ways, the sooner you open up your ability to translate that into self-knowledge about what you do 

want, and transfer it to other activities and narrow down your search for a career fit. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2018 Attending college is the most pervasive religious act today. 

ISAAC M. MOREHOUSE 

Belief in College Has Become Religious 

Imagine a town. Maybe an early New England village. for ambitious people is pervasive, ambitious people go 

There is a dominant belief in this town that one must more than less ambitious people. When employment 

attend church every Sunday if they want to live a 

or pay data are analyzed, they show that college goers 

prosperous life. 

do better on average than those who don’t. Of course. 

Because more ambitious people go to college more. 

Because the belief is pervasive, those who want to be You might object that the market would not allow such 

prosperous attend in high numbers. Those who don’t 

an inefficiency to survive. But we’ve seen towns like the 

above in real life. People’s beliefs shape their actions, 

care about being prosperous attend less. Since those 

and their beliefs are not always those that lead to 

who care more about prosperity choose church more 

material prosperity. People make themselves materially 

than those who care less, if you were to look at data on 

worse off all the time in service of beliefs, even crazy 

the prosperity level of the townspeople, you’d find that superstitions in some cases. 

those who attended church were more prosperous than 

those who didn’t on average. 

The psychological benefit of going along with the 

dominant belief, gaining the prestige it entails, and not 

risking being seen as a non-believer motivates all kinds 

This would provide further fuel to the idea that 

of actions detrimental to a person’s individual goals and 

prosperity requires church. It would be considered 

aspirations. 

a must, not even worth questioning. Even skeptics 

would say things like, “It’s not the only or main cause of Attending college is the most pervasive religious act 

prosperity, but you’d better attend just to be safe and today. 

decrease the odds that you don’t succeed.” 

Why Do They Really Go? 

Most ambitious people do it. And the reason they do 

That is the world we live in now. 

has nothing to do with causal connection between 

attendance and achievement of their individual goals 

The Church of School 

(most of the time they don’t have any so it would be 

The religious belief is that ambitious people have to 

impossible to help them achieve it). The reason most 

attend college or they will be losers, or at least fail to ambitious people go to college is this: they believe that if 

realize their potential. No one knows what actually 

they don’t, God won’t love them. 

happens in college or why it’s supposed to make you 

more successful. Since the belief that college is needed 

130 

Why It’s So Tempting to Go Anyway 

College is a complete waste of time and money for ambitious people. 

Most know it in their gut. But they’re there because they are afraid to be and do something specific. They fear 

becoming a solid, concrete, autonomous individual, and all the effort and responsibility it requires. College is the only 

way to defer becoming a fully differentiated person while mom and dad pay the tab without judgment. 

I get it. But it comes at a cost. Every minute you live off others, delay becoming a specific individual and languish in a 

murky sea of imaginary “options,” you reduce the potential of what you can become. The longer you live in limbo, the 

lower your ceiling when you emerge into the world of concretes. 

Don’t Worry, This is Good News for You! 

This isn’t bleak, bad news. This is the greatest news ever! 

To use a different religious analogy that my friend Michael Gibson likes to use (Michael and his partner Danielle’s VC 

fund invests in college opt-outs and dropouts, check them out), it’s like Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. It’s the revelation 

that you were lied to. You don’t need to buy indulgences to have a chance at Heaven. You have agency, and you can 

determine your own fate without appealing to some bloated bureaucratic institution for an official stamp of approval. 

Break out the champagne, and get busy doing real stuff in the real world. Don’t live your life by averages and 

aggregate data that reflect little more than the superstitions of the day. 



131



the 25 years of 1991 to 2016, using Census Bureau data. In the first part of that period, say 1991 to 2005, the master’s 

payoff grew substantially, but since then, that is decidedly not the case for men. 

Looking at the average earnings differential in inflation-adjusted terms, the average master’s degree advantage for 

working men declined over 28 percent from $20,768 in 2005 to $14,877 in 2016. 

Then there is a new American Enterprise Institute study by Mark Schneider and Jorge Klor de Alva, “The Master’s as the 

New Bachelor’s Degree.” The payoff from a master’s degree varies vastly by field of study. Census Bureau data for 2009 

shows that for social science majors, the master’s degree earnings advantage was less than $100 monthly, but it was 

more than $3,000 monthly in business administration. 

The authors gathered unique data from Colorado, Texas, and Florida. It turns out that earnings for those receiving 

master’s degrees are extremely low in some situations — less than those with bachelor’s degrees typically make. 

Philosophy master’s graduates in Colorado had annual median earnings under $30,000, while “area studies” master’s 

graduates in Texas typically earned a relatively paltry $36,000 annually. Yet petroleum engineers with master’s 

degrees in Colorado had typical earnings of $176,500 annually, six times the earnings of philosophy graduates. 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2018 

RICHARD VEDDER 

Should We Really Be Encouraging the Master’s Degree 

for All? 

There has been mounting evidence that the financial 

payoff from the traditional bachelor’s degree is declining, 

particularly for men. For example, the Census Bureau 

data suggest that from 2005 to 2016, the average 

earnings differential for male workers holding bachelor’s 

degrees compared with those holding high school 

diplomas fell from $39,440 to $37,653 (in 2016 dollars)— 

at a time when college costs were rising. 

Other evidence from the New York Federal Reserve Bank 

confirms that a large portion of college graduates are 

underemployed, working jobs traditionally held by high 

school graduates. 

There are two interpretations of this data, one by 

the general American public and the second from the 

“College for All” crowd, the cheerleaders for higher 

education who believe the nation benefits from more 

students earning more degrees. 

Time to Upgrade the New Standard 

Turning to the first interpretation, in light of rising costs 

and at best stagnant benefits, more Americans are 

simply not going to universities. The National Student 

Clearinghouse reports enrollments are down for the sixth 

consecutive year, which is unprecedented in modern 

American history. Even during the Great Depression, 

enrollments grew. 

The College for All interpretation is that the diminishing 

The advantage gained by having a college degree is rapidly diminishing. 

132 

payoff to the bachelor’s degree means students need 

to get more degrees, specifically master’s degrees. 

Historically, a bachelor’s degree was a powerful and 

reliable signaling device, telling employers that the 

college-educated individual was almost certainly smarter, 

more knowledgeable, disciplined, ambitious, and harderworking 

than the average American. College graduates 

were special people — the best and the brightest, 

deserving a nice wage premium in labor markets. 

But now that one-third of adult Americans have 

bachelor’s degrees, some college graduates have pretty 

ordinary levels of intelligence and the other positive 

attributes that employers like. The fact that American 

college students on average spend less than 30 hours 

weekly on academics for perhaps 30 weeks annually 

reinforces this point. Therefore, to get a positive 

“sheepskin effect” from a diploma, one now has to go for 

the new standard, a master’s degree. If trends continue, 

by 2025 we will be offering master’s degrees in janitorial 

science. 

Yet there are two pieces of evidence showing that even 

obtaining a master’s is not a surefire path to economic 

success; indeed it may be an increasingly risky one. 

Not All Master’s Degrees Are Created Equal 

First, I examined the earnings differential between 

workers with master’s and with bachelor’s degrees over 

This study shows the dangers of looking at broad aggregate statistics. The field of study is as important in determining 

earnings as the level of degree earned, and labor market location importantly matters as well. Additionally, there are 

important gender differences. While on average, the payoff to earning a master’s declined for men after 2005, it rose 

significantly for women. 

Although the AEI and Census data don’t show it, I suspect the payoff from a degree also varies dramatically by 

institution. The U.S. Department of Education, when it is not harassing colleges by mandating Star Chamber 

procedures for student judiciary proceedings, occasionally publishes some interesting statistics. Looking at 

undergraduates, for example, I learned that the average student at M.I.T. makes $94,200 after graduating, 2.3 times 

the average $41,000 earnings at Salem State, located only 18 miles away. 

As Bryan Caplan points out in his new book, The Case Against Education, most of the earnings differential associated 

with college does not reflect stuff colleges teach their students, but rather the already-existing advantages that college 

graduates possess (more intelligence, greater discipline, more ambition, more prior learning, etc.). The Sheepskin 

Effect is real. We expend enormous resources in producing pieces of paper (diplomas) conveying labor market 

information. The move toward getting a master’s degree — more diplomas — aggravates an already hugely inefficient 

system. 

Are There Better Ways to Provide Evidence of Potential Competency? 

Suppose every person seeking highly-skilled employment in America took a standardized National College Equivalency 

Examination (NCEE) that was 3.5 hours long, testing critical reasoning and writing skills (perhaps the existing CLA+ 

exam), general knowledge that all college graduates should know (via a 75 multiple choice question test), and maybe 

25 questions in the student’s area of major interest. 

My guess is that the correlation of scores on that test with either college reputation or the actual post-graduate 

earnings of those tested would be quite high. With some exceptions, the best jobs would go to the kids with the 

highest scores. So why even require degrees? Why mess with college accreditation — look at the scores on the NCEE 

for each college’s graduates. Why isn’t the business community devising such a test? 

No doubt there are other approaches to stop the gamesmanship leading students to obtain master’s degrees that 

often do relatively little to truly improve employment skills or much else, such as making students more virtuous. 

As America increasingly engages in massive federal budget deficits, incurs ever larger obligations associated with 

a costly welfare state serving an aging population, and faces increasingly expensive international challenges from 

terrorists and emerging nations like China, can we afford to continue to certify predicted employment competence the 

same way some Europeans did in the late Middle Ages? 



133



Diversity and accessibility are key priorities for Revolution School, which emphasizes rigorous, albeit personalized, 

academics, college and career advising and, most importantly, connection with the larger community beyond the 

office building. “We are breaking down walls between communities and classrooms,” said Moore, who noticed 

that many of the college graduates she interviews have stellar grades and prestigious credentials, but “they can’t 

communicate or collaborate well with their teams.” 

Revolution School focuses on meaningful internships where students, known as “Rev-terns,” partner with local 

businesses to learn workplace skills and gain valuable experience. Students also take advantage of dual enrollment 

opportunities at the nearby Community College of Philadelphia, accumulating college credits while being mentored by 

Revolution School teachers. 

“That’s how we can push more to the middle of the tuition range, around $15,000 per student,” said Moore, whose goal 

is to leverage community resources to lower tuition costs. For example, Moore explained that if students take calculus 

at the community college then the school doesn’t need to hire a calculus teacher and current teachers can guide 

students through their calculus work. 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2024 


Why Doesn’t Every Office Building Have A Microschool? 

In 1967, the Philadelphia Public Schools launched 

the Parkway Program, widely known as the “school 

without walls,” that enabled young people to have 

greater freedom and flexibility over what and where 

they learned. Various community partnerships were 

formed with businesses, museums, cultural centers and 

universities, and classes were held in these locations 

as students became fully immersed in learning in and 

from their city. The program was so innovative that, in 

1970, The New York Times called it “one of the nation’s 

boldest experiments in public education,” noting that 

over ten thousand students applied for only five hundred 

available slots. 

As with many in-system education innovations that begin 

with great promise and possibility, the Parkway Program 

eventually became reabsorbed into the larger public 

school system, losing its experimental edge. 

Today, intrepid educators continue to try to make change 

within the traditional schooling system, but increasingly 

entrepreneurial teachers and parents are working 

outside the system to create innovative, accessible K-12 

learning models that push beyond the four walls of a 

conventional classroom—literally and figuratively. 

“We are breaking down walls between communities and classrooms,” said Revolution 

School founder, Gina Moore. 

than 25 zip codes across the city. “Zip code diversity is 

really important to us,” said Gina Moore, who founded 

Revolution School and hosts it within her investment 

advisory firm’s Center City office building. The school 

opened in 2019 with a small freshman class and today 

has 31 students in ninth through twelfth grades, with 

grade-mixing a common feature. 

According to Moore, only five students pay the full 

$25,000 tuition, which is almost half that of traditional, 

secular private high schools in Philadelphia and 

comparable to the annual per pupil expenditure of the 

Philadelphia Public Schools. Most students pay nearer to 

the $5,000 lower rung of the tuition scale, with several 

students further off-setting the cost through private 

scholarship-granting organizations. 

When I visited Revolution School earlier this week, I spoke with students about their experience in this innovative 

learning environment. Tasneem, 18, was part of Revolution School’s founding class and graduated in 2023. She 

said she attended private Islamic schools in Philadelphia through middle school and her mother was attracted to 

Revolution School’s immersive, individualized vision. “I met a lot of people throughout the city and had so many 

opportunities,” said Tasneem, who is enrolling in nursing school this fall with plans to become a nurse anesthetist. 

Another student explained how personally transformative attending Revolution School has been for her. “I didn’t get 

a lick of the opportunities there that I have here,” January, 14, said of the Philadelphia charter schools she attended 

before joining Revolution School this year as a freshman. “I feel really seen here. Last year, I felt like a background 

character, like I had no voice,” she said. 

Student stories like these are what motivate Moore and her team of experienced educators to look for ways to grow 

Revolution School to include more students, while retaining the small learning community that fosters personalization 

and relationship-building. Moore would also like to see more members of the business community join the 

microschool bandwagon and create these small schools in their office spaces, which today have high vacancy rates as 

remote-work becomes commonplace. 

“I have completely turned around my perspective on microschooling,” said Moore, whose daughter was part of 

Revolution School’s founding class. Moore acknowledges that many businesspeople are disconnected from K-12 

education while also heavily focused on scalability. “Microschools can scale, just scale small,” added Moore. 

The good news is that more businesspeople like Moore, as well as employers, are recognizing the value of small, 

personalized schools and similar learning spaces and are exploring ways to bring microschools into their office 

buildings. “Increasingly, we’re seeing employers and other organizations realize that they can bring important value 

for the families of their employees and communities serving as the host partner in partnership microschooling 

arrangements,” said Don Soifer, CEO of the National Microschooling Center, which supports microschools across 

the U.S. and works with employers to create partnerships with microschool founders. “Whether they provide facility 

space, financial resources or even staffing support, these partnerships can support deeper relationships with the 

families most important to them, while also helping parents become more active partners in their children’s schooling 

trajectories.” 

One such program is Revolution School, a private, 

accredited high school located in a downtown office 

building in Philadelphia that draws students from more 

134 

More than 50 years after the Parkway Program made headlines, Philadelphia is again showing what is possible when 

Students and a teacher in a math class at Revolution School (Photo: Kerry 

McDonald) Source: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) https://fee.org/ 

135



Catherine Hicks 

Dec. 22, 2023 

HOME-SCHOOLING PARENTS IN MANATEE AND SARASOTA FIND A NICHE THAT 

WORKS FOR THEM 

Jessica Bakeman 

Nov 13, 2023 

IN POST-PANDEMIC SOUTH FLORIDA, UNCONVENTIONAL EDUCATION IS 

THRIVING 

https://www.wunc.org/2023-11-13/in-post-pandemic-south-florida-unconventional-education-is-thriving 

Matthew Hennessey 

Dec. 20, 2023 

WHY IS THE PRESS ATTACKING HOME SCHOOLERS? 

on-savings-account-programs 

https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/12/22/home-schooling-parents-manatee-sarasota-find-niche-thatworks-them/ 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-is-the-press-attacking-home-schoolers-washington-post-teachers-unions-covid-9290468a 

Dixie Dillon Lane 

Oct 23, 2023 

OUT OF THE GRAY: A HISTORY LESSON ON HOMESCHOOLING | EP. 122 

https://hslda.org/post/out-of-the-gray-a-legal-history-lesson-on-homeschooling-ep-122?utm_ 

source=Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10-25-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

Free 45-minute webinar 

Oct 11, 2023 

Jim Burress 

Oct 16th, 2023 

AI AND YOUR HOMESCHOOL: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW! PART 1 

SUPPORT GROUP FOR BLACK HOMESCHOOL FAMILIES SEES INCREASED 

INTEREST DUE TO CHANGES IN GEORGIA’S DIVERSITY EDUCATION 

Amanda Oglesby 

MONTANA HOMESCHOOL ENROLLMENT SPIKED DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC 

Maria Lockwood 

Oct 03, 2023 

SUPERIOR FIREFIGHTERS OFFER TRAINING FOR HOME-SCHOOLED STUDENTS 

David Hicks 

Nov 27, 2023 

TOURETTE SYNDROME DIDN’T STOP HER FROM OPENING HER DREAM STUDIO 

https://hslda.org/post/tourette-syndrome-didn-t-stop-her-from-opening-her-dream-studio?utm_ 

source=Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1-4-2024&utm_id=Jim-Mason-Message 

Katy Van Horn 

Dec 18, 2023 

SECOND GENERATION HOMESCHOOL MOM | EP. 126 

https://sentinelksmo.org/homeschooling-jumps-57-in-kansas-while-public-school-enrollment-declines/ 

Janae Bowens 

Dec 30, 2023 

HOMESCHOOLING SURGE REIGNITES DEBATE OVER TAXPAYER FUNDING AND 

GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT 

https://hslda.org/post/ai-and-your-homeschool-part-1?utm_source=Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10-18-2023&utm_id=HSLDA 

https://www.wabe.org/support-group-for-black-homeschool-families-sees-increased-interest-due-to-changes-in-georgias-diversity-education/ 

https://eu.app.com/story/news/education/education-trends/2023/12/05/homeschooling-grows-acrossnew-jersey-heres-where-its-most-popular/71595567007/ 

https://www.superiortelegram.com/news/local/superior-firefighters-offer-training-for-home-schooled-students 

https://keprtv.com/news/nation-world/homeschooling-surge-reignites-debate-over-taxpayer-fund- 

ing-and-government-oversight-covid-19-pandemic-taxpayer-dollars-school-choice-policies-educati- 

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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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11809 US Route 127 

Sherwood, Ohio 43556 

Info@NewHeightsEducation.org

NHEG EDGuide March-April 2024

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