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Microschools — for-profit institutions with typically fewer than 150 students and largely operating beyond government oversight — are becoming popular with Silicon Valley’s elite.
The Big Picture: The classic education system is being disrupted by the rise of AI, government cutbacks, and an evolving job market that’s making college a less viable option for many people. For those used to “disruption,” microschools are emerging as a way to shape a child’s destiny in a rapidly changing environment.
Behind The Lesson Plans: Research organization RAND estimated in 2024 that between 750,000 and 2.1 million students in the US are going to some form of microschool.
- Elon Musk founded Ad Astra School out of his mansion in Bel Air, where students study nuclear chemistry in middle school, work on independent-study engineering projects, and have tech execs as guest speakers.
- Xplor Education, which has also received funding from Musk, has built Montessori-style schools in Texas and Hawaii. Oracle founder Larry Ellison sends his kids to the latter.
- LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates have all backed alternative-learning platforms or school-choice initiatives.
- Several microschool startups and alternative-learning platforms have raised significant funding from VC firms, including Primer, Prenda, Outschool, Wonderschool, and Altitude.
The Future: These microschools are about to undergo a disruption themselves thanks to AI, which is theoretically equipped with all the knowledge. Precedence Research believes the global market for educational AI will hit $112.3 billion by 2034. Musk’s Alpha School (which has locations in Austin, Miami, and Brownsville, Texas) already provides kids with personalized AI tutors.
Next Semester: Mirroring the fractionalism of culture, expect several different types of microschools to pop up, each catering to highly specialized subjects — such as a trade school for grade schoolers.
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