No Background Checks, No Proof of Education: ProPublica and Private Schools

Reporters partnered with local journalists to test how easy it is to found a private school in Arkansas, West Virginia and North Carolina, and they were able to establish bona fide schools with minimal effort. In Arkansas they formed an LLC online for $45 and bought an American flag because state law requires one; West Virginia accepted a handwritten application and only requested proof of a high school diploma; in North Carolina they filed an online notice while sitting in a brewery. No state official asked about teaching qualifications, prior experience running a school, curriculum, assessment plans or conducted inspections of the chosen locations. The team even registered a ProPublicaAcademy.com site and designed pencils to demonstrate how little stood between them and formal recognition.

The experiment also showed how easily these private and microschools can tap public money. Arkansas’s Education Freedom Accounts provide $7,208 per student, and the state’s private-school count rose from under 100 in 2023 to more than 220, with 143 microschools approved this year (up from about 100). Microschools face fewer entry requirements - no accreditation or proof of financial solvency - and state officials in at least one case explained vendor or microschool routes to access funds. The rapid, low-barrier proliferation of small private schools in barns, strip malls and churches underscores major gaps in oversight and invites concern about who is running publicly funded education.