An app that has a concept similar to Uber is connecting parents with specialized schools while many are\u00a0fleeing the public school system.<\/p>\n
Edefy<\/a>\u00a0was launched in 2021 by a family with experience in investing in private schools overseas. The app\u2019s website explained that the software was \u201cinspired by the rapid rise and outstanding results generated by Pod\/Micro-Schooling.\u201d<\/p>\n The creators of the app told\u00a0Fox News Digital\u00a0that this app was finalized this month after some piloting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been funding the development of the Edefy app\/platform for two and a half years, and began using a very rudimentary version of our app last year for some pilot pods, but the first real version for public use was just finalized and released a few days ago. We consider this version 1, but have a robust product pipeline so will be rapidly updating it with new features each week,\u201d a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n Edefy\u00a0was launched in 2021 by a family with experience in investing in private schools overseas.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, I was just very frustrated with public education, and wanted to break its infrastructure and logistics monopoly, and from experience saw that the\u00a0Pod school model created a better system for children and teachers,\u201d the founder of the app, who does not want their name to be disclosed, told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n \u201cIn-person education requires a three-sided marketplace\u2026 essentially an Airbnb for education space, meets Uber to connect families directly with\u00a0teachers. It was quite the technical challenge, which is why it took so long to build, but the implications are pretty exciting,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n What are pod schools and microschools?<\/p>\n The app\u2019s website explained that the software was \u201cinspired by the rapid rise and outstanding results generated by Pod\/Micro-Schooling.\u201d<\/p>\n School choice advocate of the American Culture Project, Corey DeAngelis, told Fox News Digital that \u201cUber revolutionized transportation by connecting drivers with riders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt lowered costs, increased quality, and improved the taxi business through competition. The concept behind Edefy is the Uber of education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The app creators began manually coordinating families and teachers with places to meet to form \u201cpod schools.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an emerging market\u00a0so terms are still somewhat undefined, but in our view, Pod schools are when families gather together and compensate the teacher they\u00a0want directly,\u201d the founder told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n The app creators began manually coordinating families and teachers with places to meet to form \u201cpod schools.\u201d<\/p>\n Pod schools operate similarly to microschooling,\u00a0which is a hybrid of homeschooling<\/a>\u00a0and the traditional public school setting.<\/p>\n These education models could be privately run or held at public institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Indiana Microschool Collaborative<\/a>\u00a0describes microschools as \u201ca small learning space in your local community where each student has a personalized learning plan built around their needs, interests, and goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Parents fleeing failing public schools<\/p>\n Pod schools operate similarly to microschooling,\u00a0which is a hybrid of homeschooling\u00a0and the traditional public school setting.<\/p>\n There has been an\u00a0uptick in parents choosing\u00a0to homeschool<\/a> their children since the coronavirus pandemic, indicating a growing trend of parents overlooking public schools. While microschools<\/a> are not a new concept, they operate similarly to homeschooling.\u00a0<\/p>\n After Arizona launched its $800 million universal school choice program giving parents $7,000 to put toward their child\u2019s education expenses,\u00a0Tucson Unified School District is reportedly\u00a0recently facing financial and enrollment struggles\u2013citing losses of $20 million as parents overlooked the district.<\/p>\n Several other states followed Arizona in passing universal school choice legislation,\u00a0responding to the trend of parents\u00a0seeking alternative options to traditional public schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n DeAngelis added that Edefy \u201ccould revolutionize education by connecting teachers with students while putting parents in the driver\u2019s seat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPublic schools spend about $20,000 per student per year. Imagine if that money followed the child with school choice and a teacher set up a microschool with 12 students. That teacher could pull in $240,000 in revenue each year, make more money than in the public school system, and have the freedom to teach without bureaucratic red tape,\u201d DeAngelis said.<\/p>\n He concluded, \u201cThis concept shakes up the entire factory model school system\u2026 Parents want alternatives to the one-size-fits-all government school system, and the best teachers are ready to jump ship, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An app that has a concept similar to Uber is connecting parents with specialized schools while many are\u00a0fleeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[8543,526,29013,165,154,232,14488,74,194],"class_list":["post-35244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apps","tag-education","tag-homeschooling","tag-mobile","tag-public-schools","tag-schools","tag-students","tag-technology","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}