In Arkansas, all it took to establish a school was filling out a form on a state website, $45 and the purchase of an American flag.
asserted
it → take → flag
Having no experience running a school — or even teaching — didn’t stand in the way of founding schools.
asserted
Having → have → schools
We discovered that opening microschools, which are proliferating nationwide, offer an even easier route.
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which → discover → route
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
We have no business running a private school.
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We → have → school
We’re reporters, not teachers.
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We → ’re → ?
That doesn’t matter.
asserted
That → matter → ?
Inexperience has hardly been a barrier for those who want to start their own schools, as we have reported this year.
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we → want → schools
And it didn’t stop us, either.
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it → stop → us
Over the last few months, to test the process, reporters from ProPublica partnered with local journalists in three states to establish private schools.
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reporters → test → schools
None required much effort.
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None → require → effort
In Arkansas, all it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to form a bona fide private school with the Arkansas Times.
asserted
it → take → Times
We established a school with Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia after filing our new school’s name and location with authorities on a piece of notebook paper, then exchanging a few emails.
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We → establish → emails
And with The Assembly in North Carolina, we filed an online notice of intent to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, while perched on its metal bar stools, eyeing glasses of a crisp kolsch.
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we → file → kolsch
We used our names and news organization email addresses, following each state’s rules for starting private or microschools, a type of private school intended for just a few students.
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We → use → students
Experience running a school wasn’t needed.
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Experience → run → school
No one from any of the states asked us about our backgrounds or qualifications, though West Virginia did ask for proof of a high school diploma.
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Virginia → ask → diploma
No one questioned what we plan to teach or how we would measure whether students are learning.
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students → question → whether
And yet we could enroll students in two states right now, if we wanted to.
uncertain
we → enroll → states
Arkansas even suggested ways our school could accept public money through the state’s voucher-style program.
uncertain
school → suggest → program
For the record, we are not enrolling students and have no intention of operating our new schools.
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we → enrol → schools
We did, however, register a website for our new school ventures, ProPublicaAcademy.com, and even designed some fun pencils to show our school spirit.
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We → register → spirit
This year, a team of ProPublica reporters has been documenting how the American education landscape is shifting dramatically as states use public money to help fund private schools.
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states → document → schools
With few regulations, hundreds of new private and microschools have proliferated.
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hundreds → proliferate → private
Our reporting has shown the relative ease with which people — some with questionable backgrounds — founded their own schools in unusual places.
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people → show → places
They’ve popped up in barns and on farms, in strip malls between an antique shop and an ax-throwing business and in churches, where lighting and sound for worship services is part of the curriculum.
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lighting → pop → curriculum
All of this led to a clear reporting question: If the hurdles to open a private school are so low, could we do it?
uncertain
we → lead → it
And what would we learn along the way?
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we → learn → way
Inside a flag shop in Little Rock, we surveyed our options.
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we → survey → options
State law in Arkansas doesn’t require much to open a private school, nothing about teacher skills or what kids learn.
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kids → require → what
But it does require that all schools display an American flag, and we wanted to follow the rules.
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we → require → rules
So, at the Arkansas Flag and Banner store, we decided on a smallish one that could fit in a circular base atop a newsroom cubicle.
uncertain
that → decide → cubicle
We also bought an Arkansas flag — even though only public schools are required to have those.
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schools → buy → those
Picking the flags for our new school was the hardest part of an astoundingly easy process.
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Picking → pick → process
Early in our reporting in Arkansas, we tried to figure out what steps we’d need to take to make a private school.
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we → try → school
We couldn’t find all the answers online, so we called the state.
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we → find → state
“We don’t have rules for opening a private school,” Kaelin Clay, an Arkansas Department of Education spokesperson, told us earlier this year.
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Clay → have → us
In fact, we didn’t even have to file anything with the Education Department.
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we → have → Department
All it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state’s website, where we registered the ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy LLC as a business, listed ourselves as agents and officers, and paid a fee.
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we → take → fee
“We picked a name.
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We → pick → name
…and 104 more, not listed.
The Aporia
