FreedomProject Education in the News

FREEDOMPROJECT EDUCATION IN THE NEWS

Following years of growing enrollment, FreedomProject Education, an online school that offers homeschooling families classes with conservative curriculum, opened the doors of its new headquarters on Aug. 9.

The company was founded by Appleton’s American Opinion Foundation, a constitutionalist group, and began operating around 2008, said FreedomProject Executive Director Alan Scholl. Homeschooling families across the country have signed up with the school, and it now employs about 260 teachers.

The new site houses administrative offices and classrooms. The school offers classes for pre-kindergarten through high school that focus on “instilling a love of God and Country” in students, according to its website. Students who live in the area can attend some in-person classes, but most are taught online.

Article courtesy of the postcrescent link here. Written by Megan Nicolai.

 “The only thing we don’t teach is physical ed,” Scholl said.

Laurie Benoit, of Menasha, walked out of the building’s grand opening confident she had found a solution to teaching her children. The public school system is “only just working,” she said.

Though she had homeschooled her children for 20 years, circumstances led Benoit to enroll her children in public schools for the first time. But differences in her values and those being taught in the classroom led to long discussions with her children after school.

“It’s very frustrating,” Benoit said.

The company receives no government funding, Scholl said. Debts incurred from opening the school have already been paid off through donations.

Classes cost $150 a semester, or $1,600 for a full year of instruction.

State Rep. Michelle Litjens, R-Vinland, said she is excited about the school’s commitment to teaching a more traditional view of the country’s Founding Fathers, who are so often “demonized,” and trying out a new educational system that encourages critical thinking.

“I think we’ve stopped tinkering and exploring in our schools, and I think public education is sorely missing something because of that,” Litjens said.

The online school’s curriculum follows Judeo-Christian values, and avoids the biases and prejudices against the U.S. found in the public school system, academic director Duke Pesta said.

Pesta said people shouldn’t think the school injects politics into education. Instead, he said it removes the politics in public school curriculum.

“The liberal bias is already there,” Pesta said. “We’re just responding to it, and appealing to people who share our views.”

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, said the school’s innovative approach to learning through technology gives students a leg up as they approach the working world.

“In these days of constrained resources, we really need to look at our educational system; what are we teaching, are we inserting values, are we teaching American exceptionalism, and are we doing it effectively and efficiently,” Johnson said.

“These kinds of online schools really do drive that continuous improvement process of educational efficiency.”

Article courtesy of the postcrescent link here. Written by Megan Nicolai.