Vouchers that once paid only for tuition at private and parochial school can now, in some places, be used for home-schoolers. Most sweeping are
co-op created during the pandemic that has expanded its reach with the help of charitable giving. It now serves 111 families. Her message of empowerment was echoed all over the building. “You Were Built for This, Mom,” read one signAs the pandemic struck, Bradley, a longtime parent advocate in Michigan, saw frustrated parents who felt abandoned by their schools try home schooling, and she created the co-op.
VELA’s primary funders are longtime powerful advocates for school choice programs: the Walton Family Foundation and conservative billionaire Charles Koch’s foundation, Stand Together. “There’s a larger recognition that more parents are interested and able to find other ways to educate their kids besides four square walls,” Allen said.
Another beneficiary of the influx of charitable giving is the Cultural Roots Homeschool Cooperative, serving 125 students of color in Richmond, which won $60,000 through two VELA-funded grants in 2020 and 2022 and is applying for the Yass Prize this year. The makeshift campus is part of Rose’s home, set on five acres of land in a woodsy suburb just outside Manchester. Her sprawling house includes an in-law suite — a large one-bedroom apartment — built over the two-car garage. A tenant was moving out right around the time Rose was creating her microschool. Rose realized that with some cosmetic touches, it could be the perfect place.