The Daily Signal - It's Back to (Micro) School Time! And What Are Micro-Schools Anyway?

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

“Back To School” Yes, it’s back-to-school time in much of Virginia come the first week of August and as we enter a universe where the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the dismantling of the Federal Department of Education, many Virginians feel uneasy about what that future will bring.  As we said in the column from last week titled “Could an End to Funding Mean a Start to School Choice?” it is also a time of opportunity to go back to serving the children of Virginia and providing them with the tools to be great adults. In last week’s column we touched on the Virginia Micro-School Network and so many people asked about what that was, we decided that we needed to sit down with Lindsey Zea with the Virginia Micro Schools network to find out what they are and where they are going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast. I'm your host, Joe Thomas, Virginia correspondent for The Daily Signal. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to thank you for tuning in today. If you're a first-time listener, The Daily Signal, brings you fact-based reporting and conservative commentary on politics, policy, and culture. And I hope you join our band of regular listeners to our podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and also take it. Take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcast.

You can find additional content at DailySignal.com. Now, let's get started with today's conversation right after this. It was the phrase that dogged every single one of my summers growing up. The phrase, back to school. There are schools getting ready to start here in the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as August 6th. In many of our rural communities, back to school has already, emptied the shelves and they've moved Halloween products onto the big box store shelves because parents are already ready for it. And we began this conversation last week in one of my written

columns. And I wanted to follow up because we brought up a subject that brought a lot of questions, and that is the question of micro-schools. And what is a micro-school? And joining us to talk a little bit about it is Lindsay Z from the Virginia micro schools network. So thank you for taking some time out for us, Lindsay. Talk about the microschools network and how it all got started. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Joe. It's exciting to be talking about this and just getting the word out, helping people understand what microschools are. And it's such a growing movement. It's just so good to be able to help people get caught up with some of the new developments in education. So micro-schools basically are small learning environments, and it kind of helps to put it within the big picture.

So, of course, public schools serve a lot of students well, but public schools aren't for everyone, And especially if you have students that are shy or want to specialize in certain topics. And often feel disconnected in a public school if they are going to really thrive in a small environment. And of course, homeschooling has been around for a long time and is perfect for more tailored specialized education. But of course, not every parent has the ability to homeschool, right? and that type of education for their child. And micro schools really fit in the gap between those two. And of course, you've got like a few charter schools in Virginia, private schools as well.

But specifically, micro schools are often mixed ages together. They really take a lot of different shapes and forms. And so it's hard to put specific parameters around what they are. but most often they're mixed ages. They're very small groups, so it's a lot of one-on-one attention, and they're committed to student-centered education. And the exciting thing is that we have a lot of them in Virginia already. Really? Yeah, yeah.

And it's so interesting as we started hearing from just one here or another, there, we realized that they were not connected to each other. And so the Virginia Microschool Network is an organization that came together from the VEOA, just a group to connect these microschools to each other, to connect them to families that are looking for learning environments like this that can help their students succeed in small groups and to connect them to resources. It's funny. I listened to you described this, Lindsay,

And we homeschooled two of our children through their middle school years for several reasons, not because we thought we were better teachers, but the middle school in our city was not known for its discipline. And one of our daughters, we had too many other parents saying, you're not going to let your daughter go to that middle school, are you? So we chose to homeschool. But it was really, it was a micro school because my wife is math challenged. She has an allergy to math. She breaks out in hives. She's very good at it, but she says, I don't want to teach. So one parent would handle the math.

And my wife was very good with reading and literature. So she taught that part. And the science came from another parent. And so when I was reading about this, I said, we didn't homeschool. We had a micro school. Is that as simple as it is? No, that's a great question. And micro school is a very new term.

And it encompasses a few different, like I was mentioning, a few different forms. So a microschool can be a homeschool co-op where you have parents that are leading and directing the education. And you have different parents that are contributing different things. And you may even have like a teacher come in for a certain subject, right? So microschools are self-identified. So some are homeschool co-ops. Others are actually private schools, officially private schools that are just very small and are focused on innovative education models, right? So they don't often look like your traditional public school or even your traditional private school.

But they're integrating new things into education and learning, a lot of project-based learning, hands-on learning. So, yeah, it really does run the gamut from co-ops to private school. schools to, and I guess another important element as well is that a lot of these microschools are actually run by public school teachers who left the public school system because they weren't the fulfillment that they wanted to and had a lot of trouble with like bureaucracy. And so they didn't give up on education. They just started, they just started their own learning center. That wasn't cool.

Yeah. And that sort of feeds a question that I've had for years, probably since that wonderful debate between Glenn Yonkin and Terry McCullough, because it seemed like the power of the teachers union was more so than even I would have imagined doing this for as many years as I have when I watched Terry McColliffe incapable of backing down from his statement of parents not having any right in having a say. but it has always struck me that school choice would benefit the best teachers because the best teachers could go out and say, hey, hire me, I'm going to be a great teacher for you. And it seems like that's exactly what's happening if that's what you're saying. Yes. No, I'd say that is exactly what's happening. And to that point, parents in Virginia want to feel like they have more choices. And I know you mentioned this at the beginning too. And 50 can, which is a phenomenal national education organization, they're polling shows that only 54% of Virginia parents feel like they have a choice.

And part of that is just that there aren't very many schools, right? If you're looking for options outside of the public school system, sometimes you just don't have the availability of other educational programs to send your child to. And so these microschools offer more choices. So parents feel like they have more options. And that's partly why we formed the Virginia Microschool Network is to help connect with these microschools, but also just to be able to support the growth of the movement, right? the more that microschools have resources available to them, the more people who are interested in starting them are going to join the movement as well.

Do you sense on a grander social scale, Lindsay Z on with us from the Virginia Microschools Network and the Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance and the Virginia Institute for Public Policy? But, you know, some of our cultural discipline problem with young people is that feeling like I'm just a number in a mass. I'm just a statistic. It's perhaps not overtly dehumanizing. But I know that when I was going through public schools, our issue was bankruptcy. And we had classrooms with 40 kids in it. and let's face it, the kids who needed attention weren't always getting it. And that can lead to discipline problems and societal problems with kids feeling like,

well, society doesn't care about me, so I care about it. Yeah, no, absolutely. And that is illustrated as I've talked to microschool founders. And I have to say that talking to micro school founders in Virginia and even across the country has been such a highlight in my job recently because they're just filled with so much love and care and compassion for these that are often coming from places where learning was something that they hated. They didn't feel like they were good at. Like a lot of these students just are not getting the experience that they deserve where they're at.

And, you know, not to any fault of the teachers necessarily, right? just put in situations where they don't have the time and capacity to spend one-on-one time with each student. And yeah, I just have to say that these microschool founders, their schools are full of joyful learning. And it's just been so beautiful to hear about the individual students that these microschool founders work with every day and how the students, you know, they may come with behavior problems. But after spending some time at the micro school, they're just thriving. And it's really exciting to see anything about. So you talked about Virginia parents and feeling like they didn't have a choice. And some of that is the way Virginia's laws are written, to be fair,

maybe not to the General Assembly, but to the parents, because even a charter school in Virginia has to be started by the public school division. And so, unless it's kind of laughable. How do you get a charter school if it's just a public school with a different name? What are there legislators that get? Certainly Lieutenant Governor Sears was one of the great advocates of for it. And the reason I mentioned timing is four years ago, I don't think there was this micro-school movement. And that led to some of the rural communities pushing back against school choice in Virginia.

now that this has become more real, is this something that maybe that opposition four years ago has turned around and said, oh, we get it now. And now we see what people were talking about when they were talking about school choice in Virginia. Great, great question. I certainly hope so. I think that the micro school movement is so new and has been kind of invisible as it's been getting started. Like I mentioned, microschool founders that we talked to commonly would say, oh, like, are there other people doing this? I had no idea. I thought I was the only one. And that's why, that's when we truly realized we needed a connecting piece here. So I think that it's not as visible as it's going to be. And Virginia Microschool Network is pretty recently launched. So we are planning to be very involved going forward. And definitely, talking to the General Assembly and attending events around the state, like the Education Summit that Virginia Institute for Public Policy and Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance

are having in the first week in September. And I would say that I know that in the rural areas, another concern is that the public school systems are a huge employer in those places. But I do think that having more options in those areas is certainly going to help those students in those areas be able to take advantage of new options and opportunities and that they'll be able to see success from that. Oh, without question. Talk about that event for a moment. Let's just stick a pin in the further conversation and talk about if somebody is interested in joining into that because since I've talked about it, I've found more people saying, oh, we're doing this here. I have a friend who started one, it seems like almost a decade ago, and I didn't know about it.

And they started it. Now they had to buy their own school buses. Luckily, they were able to find some secondhand that they could use because it became like a wildfire of success through their neighborhood. Yeah, no, absolutely. the education summit we have done this for several years and the middle resolution led the charge for most of those events but yeah September 6th which will be in Glen Now in Virginia there's going to be an education summit and we'd love to have everyone attend we're going to talk about microschools for sure as well as just all of the options that parents have both for specializing within the public school system.

I think there's programs out there that parents might not be aware of. And then additionally, all of the private options, including private schools, micro-schools, homeschooling. I think there's more options out there than parents are aware of it. And so we want to make sure they get that information that will help them make the most informed choices for their child's education. Does that answer your question? Yeah, absolutely.

And it's a perfect time, too, because that'll be just at the time when the House of Delegates candidates will be knocking on doors looking for support. So please ask, regardless of party, you know, what do you stand and where do you stand on this? Talk about those founders. I told the story of my one personal friend who did this, and it became a wildfire success in the communities. I mean, it's not something you're trying to get students flying in from 50 states to your school. because if you started out with the plan and the leadership, you're going to have more than enough students from anywhere. You just go on Facebook Messenger and say, hey, we're starting this school.

Anyone want to join? And here's what we're doing. It seems like that because you don't need scale, that this is pretty straightforward stuff to get started. Exactly. No, I would definitely agree with that. There's one micro school that we work with a lot. Path of Life Learning that's in Yorktown. And the founder there is Mercedes Grand, and she's just a tremendous educator and just has so much passion for helping meets kids. And so she started so small. I mean, honestly, just to give an idea of this. small scale that we're talking about here. Some micro schools have four kids or six kids. You know, the apparent teaching their kids and a couple of other kids, but they can also be up to 100 and 100 plus

students, but they keep the small group mentality and the innovation and the hands-on project-based learning. But path of life learning, like I mentioned, has so much, there's so much demand, but Mercedes has a long wait list for Path of Life learning in Yorktown. And she is doing everything that she can to encourage other people to start micro schools. Because like you said, it's not about the large scale. There are so many families that are looking for options like this. Years ago, I used to work in southeastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. And there was an attempt made in a poorly, I guess I'm going to be kind here.

here, poorly performing public school in North Philly that said, well, we're going to operate the school like a charter school. And we're going to keep the kids, you know, K through 12 in the school. We're going to use the upperclassmen as mentors and teachers' assistance for the lower grades. We're going to have accountability throughout. There's not going to be a whole bunch of busing or anything like that. We're going to be super focused on the kids in this neighborhood. And we're going to keep them here till 12th grade and make them responsible for the young ones coming up and everything else. And they taught and they worked it like they brought in rocket scientists, for example. They weren't hamstrung to the idea of, well, if you're going to teach, how do you get a kid to

be excited about rocket science, bringing in a rocket scientist? And they did innovative things like that. And one of the things they noticed after the fact, not only did the kids go to college at a higher percentage. Not only did the kids graduate college at a higher percentage, but the kids came back to the neighborhood at a higher percentage. The school became, you know, indicative of the neighborhood and they wanted to succeed in their neighborhood. And on a grander kind of deep think thing, one of the things we're seeing missing in

the United States is. that feeling of this is my town. And I want to be successful in my town. And I think the micro-school movement is exactly that kind of thing where you've got, you know, older kids, younger kids, they're all working together, but they're also all working together in their community with one another to achieve things. And I know it's too soon to say, have we seen fruits of that? But I've seen it in big places like Philly, Philadelphia, have that happen.

No, yeah, that is a very strong point that, yeah, less quantifiable at this point, but still very clear that this kind of learning environment where you have a community, right, a unique beautiful community of people who care about each other and care about the growth of each other in every way, right? It truly makes a difference in these kids' lives are going to be changed in ways that they'll see the fruits of forever. And I think to your point as well, that focus on education and individual care for each other, it also emanates out to the whole community as well.

Is there, and this is the last question for you, Lindsay, Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance, Virginia Institute for Public Policy, as well as the Virginia Microschools Network. I guess it's two-part question. Number one, are there microschooled network? across the country, or is this really a Virginia uniquely Virginia thing? But moreover than that, I'm curious, is there a peril that the government might get too involved in it? Because I certainly see, and I've talked to folks who say, well, it's good because the government knows about us and they're aware of us, but they're not trying to

over-regulate us and that kind of thing. Yeah, no, thanks for bringing that up. Those are great points. So to the first part, there is a phenomenal organization called the National Microschooling Center, and they are just a resource hub for microschools all over the country. It's run by Don and Ashley Soifer, who are just beautiful people, so kind. And they started to microschool themselves years ago, and through their own experience and talking to other people realize that there was such a need for a community across the country of microschoolers and microschool founders specifically. And so they started the National

Microschooling Center. And so they've been a huge help to us. But as far as state organizations in some states, there have popped up groups to support microschools, but not as much as needed. Honestly, there's a lot of places that still have a hole and need an organization that is supporting and bringing together a community of microschool founders. So there's your homework out there listening right now. You get on that. Okay. Yeah, that's right. You know, it's been so beautiful to watch this group as it has gotten launched as we're still looking for people that are out there that don't know about the network yet.

yet. But the microschool founders feel lonely. You know, they don't have, often it's just them and they have these beautiful visions for the education programs that they're developing, but they don't have other people around to talk with them and for them to share good ideas and solve problems together. And so the Virginia Microschool Network is that it's a place for those people to come together and be able to come together and be able to lean on each other and have a community. And what about the Virginia General Assembly? Is there peril?

I guess there's peril in anything that happens. Oh, yeah. Right, right. Yes. To that aspect of the question, so Virginia currently is pretty free as far as the ability for someone to start a micro-school, there's not too many barriers and regulations at the state level. However, localities have a lot of leeway for things like zoning, right, like getting the licenses and permits for the building that you're going to use.

If you're going to do a micro school business licensing, things like that that are handled at a local level are really hit or missed across the state. And so that's what we've found as we listened to the founders in this microschool network. is that in some places, things are pretty simple and go pretty easily. And in other places, they run into a lot of just confusion about setting up their micro-school. Yeah. So the local regulations are really where we're trying to overcome those barriers right now. How do people join in with you online, Lindsay? Oh, perfect.

Yes. So Virginia microschools. dot org is our website. And just to reiterate, there is a map on there. So we've just started putting microschools on that map. But if you're interested in finding a microschool near you, please visit the website, Virginia Microschools with an S.org. And we'll be adding to that map and trying to connect families to those microschools. Well, thank you for everything you do. I was so pleased to find you on the board of this group because I know the passion and the intellect you bring to all the projects that you do. And so I'm sure this is going to be a runaway success.

I think it already is there. But thank you for your visit this week. Yeah, thanks so much, Joe. It's great to have an opportunity to talk about this education initiative. And don't forget, folks, it's back to school in a lot of areas first week of August. So if you're feeling that feeling like school, what, what? Yeah, it's coming soon, especially in rural parts of Virginia. Until next week, I'm Joe Thomas.

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