(The Sentinel) — Dozens of Kansas homeschoolers and experts from around the country gathered in Overland Park recently to exchange ideas about how to become a successful “edupreneur” — a combination of educator and small business owner.

It was the second annual event, sponsored by the Vela Education Fund, Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and Kansas Policy Institute, which owns The Sentinel.

Among the speakers was Eric Wearne of Kennesaw State who offered the most recent survey data on home schooling, and found it is gaining in popularity:

• Hybrid schools seem to be growing in number and in size. The average enrollment has consistently grown over the past several years, from an average of 152 in 2018 to an average of 263 in 2023.
• The average hybrid school responding to this survey was founded in 2013, with a significant percentage founded in the last 3-5 years.
• Hybrid schools still seem to be a phenomenon of suburban areas, suggesting them as a school choice option for more middle class families.
• More hybrid school students than last year were considered to be “homeschoolers” than students enrolled in a school.
• The average hybrid school’s tuition is below the average education savings account (ESA) value in states with current ESA programs.

“Hybrid school enrollments are trending up and many parents express a diverse range of reasons for enrolling their children in hybrid schools,” Wearne said. “Yet little is known about the pedagogical goals pursued by hybrid schools. We aim to help close this gap in the literature with a stated preferences experiment of hybrid school leaders’ perceptions of program success.

“Sixty-three school leaders participated in a survey experiment in which we randomly assigned attributes to hypothetical programs and asked school leaders to identify the most successful program. We find that hybrid school leaders consider a broad range of student outcomes when evaluating program success, including labor market outcomes, civic outcomes, and family life.

“Students’ religious observance produced the largest effect sizes, a reasonable finding considering that roughly two-thirds of the schools represented in our sample have some religious affiliation. We do not find evidence that test score outcomes and higher education matriculation contribute meaningfully to perceived success.”

Wearne also shared information on homeschooling in Kansas, which he said is not their work but is a good summary.

Jeff Gorman, with Kansas Home Educators, told a heartbreaking but inspiring story that led him to a career as a home schooler:

“My wife and I were unable to have children; all our six kids are adopted.  We adopted our first child from birth; her birthmother was a drug addict, and the doctors told us that she would most likely have damage from her mother’s drug use, and that was true.

“She fought with ADHD with additional sensory issues, but she was very smart.  Her issues were being distracted and behavioral vs intellectual.  We considered placing her in public school, but knew that she would end up in a special-needs class, labeled, and a quality education would not be available to her.  So, we placed her in a private school hoping the smaller class sizes and more personal attention would help keep her on track with her ADHD and behavioral issues. But that failed.

“We tried three different schools, all ending with her being asked to leave.  We were on our fourth school and were called into a parent/teacher conference and were getting the same speech on how she was a distraction and disturbance to the class, her behavior was not acceptable, and her grades were failing.  Knowing where the conversation was going, I began looking around the room and noticed a desk in the back, facing the back wall.  I asked the teacher whose desk was that?  She replied, ‘that is your daughter’s desk.’  After hearing that, we removed her from the school, losing all hope.

“A friend of ours talked to us about homeschooling, which was new to us — how we could be her teachers and keep her at home, try to help her deal with her ADHD issues and try to get her a better education.  It was our only hope.

“So, we created a homeschool, created a school name and registered with the state.  It was a very difficult road but in the end, she graduated as a good student.  Now, she is 33 years old, mother of two and coordinates heart and lung transplants for three different large hospitals in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

“That little girl at the back of the room, forced to stare at a concrete wall, was able to turn her future around via an unconventional/alternative educational system.  Homeschooling helped us save that little girl, with all her issues, and now she is flourishing and successful.”

Homeschoolers face financial challenges

An important issue for those considering careers as homeschoolers is financing. Josiah Enyart is President and CEO of Educational Freedom Foundation:

“Homeschooling is a difficult thing in today’s economy, because we have more dual income earning homes than ever while also having more single parent homes than ever.  Both situations create less time for parents to be home with their children.

“The time a parent dedicates to educating their child takes away from their time to make money for the family. Curriculums can be very expensive, and as they get older, it just gets more costly if you want to make it a more hands-on experience with science labs and trips to different locations for real-world experience.

“On top of paying for property taxes that go towards the public school in their area that they are not even using, the cost for basic goods is just continuing to increase, making it harder and harder to afford homeschooling, let alone private or micro school tuition.

“Our foundation was created to help provide funding for those expenses, to remedy the lack of income earning and unused taxes the homeschool parent is experiencing. By providing financial support, more parents can do what they really want to do, meaning homeschooling or affording a micro-school’s tuition that aligns with their beliefs.

“As more generous donors donate to an organization like ours, that supports the alternative education and school-choice movement in our state, and eventually the entire country, the more support we can give to our families and the stronger we can build our country with well-educated, well-adjusted, and virtuous citizens to safeguard our future.”

Edupreneurs must also be aware of legal issues in their new venture. Daniel Suhr is an attorney with the Center for American Rights:

“Microschool founders encounter two sets of legal issues that require careful consideration. First is ensuring the right legal structure. Creating a new microschool is like creating any other small business—the founders want to make sure they have in place the right legal “home” for their entity, whether that’s a corporation, an LLC, or a non-profit corporation. These initial decisions about the legal form of the school are important later on to determine its governance, organization, and liability exposure.

“Second, microschools need to be aware of the laws governing a whole host of issues, like school licensure, zoning, and health codes. In order to ensure students are not charged with truancy, microschools need to comply with school registration or homeschooling laws. As students gather in different spaces, eat together, and play together, they may be subject to additional regulations for health and safety.

“Microschools are new, interesting, and innovative, and they face unique challenges, especially because most regulatory systems were built for traditional schools based on models from a century ago. Until regulations are updated with flexibility adapted to modern schooling methods, microschools must be especially vigilant.”