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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