It began as a casual question — and a flicker of curiosity — uttered during a meeting of ProPublica journalists who this year are reporting on publicly funded private schools.
asserted
who → begin → schools
We were discussing how, in many states, basically anyone can open a private school wherever they want.
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they → discuss → school
No experience, no training, no curriculum required.
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experience → require → ?
One of our editors jumped in and asked: What if ProPublica tried to establish a private school?
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ProPublica → jump → school
We were intrigued.
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We → intrigue → ?
Would that matter?
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that → matter → ?
Where, if anywhere, do states draw the line on who is fit to run a school — and in some cases, collect public money to fund their ventures?
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who → draw → ventures
We decided that testing the thesis that anyone can open a school would be valuable to our ongoing reporting, particularly at a time when we have found that private schools are growing rapidly across the country — in barns, farms, co-working spaces, people’s homes and parks.
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schools → decide → barns
These new schools are fueled by taxpayer-funded vouchers and other programs, and our reporting has revealed states have little interest in monitoring them.
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states → fuel → them
We had some inspiration to draw from: In 2015, comedian John Oliver founded a tax-exempt church to show how easy it was for televangelists to avoid paying taxes while soliciting millions of dollars.
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televangelists → have → dollars
Some of us live in Chicago and are well aware of the lore of the Mirage Tavern, a real bar that undercover reporters operated in the 1970s to expose corruption in the city.
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reporters → live → city
While that investigation had a substantial impact, and led to a new city oversight agency, it also drew criticism for its deceptive practices.
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it → have → practices
We drew lessons from that reporting and set some ground rules at the start of our experiment.
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We → draw → experiment
To be clear, we had no intention of operating schools.
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we → have → schools
We won’t enroll any students.
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We → enroll → students
Most importantly, it would be critical for us to be transparent about who we were in our applications, using our newsroom phone numbers and email addresses.
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we → use → numbers
In one state, we even disclosed that we were “journalists exploring opening a microschool.”
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we → disclose → microschool
We also decided we would stop the experiment if it would require doing something illegal or using public resources for our own benefit.
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it → decide → benefit
Have you had trouble finding a school or using a voucher-style program?
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you → have → program
Do you have concerns about schools — public or private — in your area?
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you → have → area
Help us understand how families across the country are navigating their school options.
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families → help → options
Here’s how we went about the experiment in Arkansas, West Virginia and North Carolina:
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we → ’ → Arkansas
First, we partnered with newsrooms in the three states — the Arkansas Times, Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia and The Assembly in North Carolina — and pursued creating the schools together.
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we → partner → schools
No one knows their states better than reporters who live there, so we wanted to work with the experts.
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we → know → experts
Plus, the school applications required local addresses and we reasoned that newsroom addresses, which state officials could easily look up, would be extra transparent.
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officials → require → which
Then, we came up with names for the schools.
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we → come → schools
We aimed to call them Curiosity Academies to reflect our curiosity as journalists.
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We → aim → journalists
We succeeded with the ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy and ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy.
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We → succeed → Academy
A word-count limit required us to scrap curiosity for our school in North Carolina.
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limit → require → Carolina
We simply called it the ProPublica-Assembly Academy.
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We → call → it
Next, we filed paperwork with each state.
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we → file → state
That turned out to be easier than working through the legal and ethical questions with our editors, our legal team and our standards editor to design our experiment in the first place.
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That → turn → place
In Arkansas, we didn’t need permission from the state Education Department, which does not regulate private schools.
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which → need → schools
All it took was filling out a form on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to be recognized as a private school business (yes, Arkansas requires all schools to have an American flag — but only public schools also are required to have the Arkansas flag).
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schools → take → flag
The secretary of state’s office even emailed us a certificate.
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office → email → certificate
But when it came to applying for our private school to become eligible for public funds, a process that does add some guardrails, we didn’t think we could do it.
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we → come → it
In Arkansas, private schools participating in the voucher-like program have to be accredited or working toward it, which often requires creating curriculum and school handbooks.
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which → participate → curriculum
That seemed like a step too far since we weren’t actually opening schools.
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we → seem → schools
However, we discovered that Arkansas allows a subset of schools called microschools to use public money with fewer requirements.
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subset → discover → requirements
So, we decided to apply for public funds as a microschool.
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we → decide → microschool
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia
