A Community Alternative to Our Failing Government Schools - Barry Hinckley
Saturday, February 22, 2020
In Rhode Island, and across America, it’s no secret that the government school system is a really expensive failure which disproportionately affects families who can’t afford private school or to uproot their children and move to an expensive zip code with better public schools. You can read my thoughts in a previous article on the subject here:
So, instead of sitting by and bemoaning the terrible state of affordable education choices for our children, my team and I took action and have designed a solution for hard-working families. We are addressing the “choice gap” - which is a term we’ve coined to define the lack of choice between awful and free (government) OR expensive, private and good. For most American families, let’s face it, the government school system has let you down and spent a boatload of tax dollars in doing so…The results are out, the government product is poor and is dooming the upward mobility of future generations. There is no denying this, why else would rich people opt out? They know that force-feeding children a subpar education can bring on a lifetime of struggle.
As an entrepreneur, I’m attracted to solving important problems and this my friends, is our nation’s most important problem…In other words, while our leaders continuously vote against school choice for you and your family, my team and I have done what we can, to close the choice gap, and give you an affordable alternative. Believe me, I wish we could do it for free, I wish our government would allow vouchers for families to opt-out of a failing school. However, short of that reality, our goal is to provide a quality, full time, curriculum for roughly $7200* / year. That is 1/3 of the cost the government spends on its failed product and far less than the average private school.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTImagine a platform where retired educators and subject matter experts can offer courses at the local library, the YMCA, a local business or any number of underutilized spaces around town…Imagine a platform where parents can login, set up a profile for their children, browse local educators and completely design a custom curriculum for their learner, focusing on their child’s individual interests and strengths, rather than the standard force-fed, coercive curriculum at the local school.
Yah, we’ve built that. It’s called www.Unschool.school and our motto is: “Lets Parents Decide, Let Educators Provide” We launched the beta-platform this week and in the first 48 hours over 250 families and educators signed up! Conceived in Newport and Boston, I have been working with a great team led by the nation’s leading educational innovator, our CEO, Kerry McDonald. (You can get her new book on Amazon entitled Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom.)
We’ve built this platform, which people are referring to as the Airbnb of education, to offer a wide array of courses so parents can explore the path of self-directed learning AND leverage the homeschool exemption, to opt-out of the failing government school system. Prior to Unschool.school, homeschooling was a luxury enjoyed by few families, who could afford to have one parent stay home to educate the children. Furthermore, it can put undue stress on the primary educator, because it’s unrealistic to think that one person can do it all.
Unschool.school is turning our communities into our classrooms. We are leveraging retirees and other subject matter experts who have the knowledge to transfer to the next generation. After all, isn’t that what education is all about, the transfer of knowledge from the exiting generation to the entering generation? As we all know, the gig economy is exploding in America. Unschool.school offers under-employed or retired educators and subject matter experts the opportunity to earn a few extra bucks, by leveraging their knowledge, while providing an invaluable service to children and families in their neighborhood.
We are piloting Unschool in 6 cities across America, including Newport and Boston. Of course, the platform is infinitely expandable and can take off in any town where parents, learners and educators get on the platform and activate their community… So, if you are frustrated by your local choices, please visit www.Unschool.school and build a profile as a parent and search for local educators… start exploring the options for your child. If you are a retired educator or subject-matter-expert with knowledge to offer the next generation, please visit Unschool.school and consider building an educator profile to offer a class or extra-curricular activity. We firmly believe as a community we can rise up and solve the problem that our government has refused to solve for our children…After all, we don’t drive government cars, we don’t wear government clothes and we don’t eat government food, it’s time to take back our educational freedoms and stop consuming lousy government education! Viva la Unschooling
*Don’t worry once we get the platform up and running we will endeavor to build a scholarship program so ALL families can participate in this revolution, whether they can afford to “opt-out” of a failing school or not…
Barry Hinckley is a tech entrepreneur who lives in Newport, RI. He ran for the United States Senate in 2012.
About Unschool.school: "Unschool.school offers families access to a wide variety of alternatives to conventional K-12 schooling. From in-home microschools run by local parents and educators, to in-person group classes led by dynamic subject-matter experts, to out-of-school enrichment activities in your community, Unschool.school supports and champions real-life learning without schooling."
