The team at Libertas Utah was selected as a winner of State Policy Network’s 2024 Ed-Prize award, which recognizes innovative, forward-thinking projects that offer creative solutions to current and future K-12 challenges.
After passing the country’s first microschool protection law to empower education entrepreneurs, we spun up the Education Innovators Association, a 501(c)(6) trade organization to support microschool founders and other education innovators.
After meeting with these founders, it became clear that they needed networking opportunities, business help, and an advocate with the government. Thus, the association was born—the first of its kind in the country to support education entrepreneurs as they establish and grow their businesses.
Microschools are popping up across the country, but founders and aspiring founders face several key challenges as they grow their schools or businesses. These challenges include regulatory barriers, a lack of business skills or funding, or little expertise in marketing their school/program to potential students and families. The Education Innovator’s Association will help microschool founders, as well as any education innovator, overcome these barriers in Utah. The association will provide participating entrepreneurs with ongoing support, training, and advocacy to help them thrive long term.
This is another example of the Libertas policy team offering innovative solutions to widespread problems—creating new opportunities that are the first of their kind in the country. Now, the Libertas Institute national team can take this example and scale it to other states to support education entrepreneurs across the country.