When fellow professors discover that I homeschool my children, their most common reaction is: “How do you get any work done?” Hand to God, I’ve never found it hard. I started homeschooling my older sons back in 2015 when they were 12. They were already more mature than most adults will ever be, so Caplan Family School ran like clockwork. Since the pandemic, I’ve added my younger kids to my student body. While I don’t have Caplan Family School 2.0 running like clockwork yet, we’re well on our way. All kids have a schedule – and the schedule includes specific time slots for feedback from me. The rest of the time, my kids are supposed to work independently and let me do my regular work. Compliance, though imperfect, is high.
My system works so well that I’ve been toying with the idea of opening my own school. Legally, I would probably call it a tutoring center for homeschooling parents, but I’d use the same system for customers that I use for my own kids. As a professor, of course, I have immense freedom to manage my time as I see fit, so I wouldn’t have to quit my existing job to explore this entrepreneurial venture.
Why bother? Here are the positives as I see them.
1. I deeply enjoy teaching highly-motivated, mature students. If I were running my own school, I could select such students exclusively.
2. I like fostering my intellectual sub-culture – and my pedagogical approach is so radically different from the mainstream that I could realistically reshape my students for life.
3. I cherish making new friends and enriching existing friendships, and the pandemic has made both tragically hard. Running a school would give me much-needed human connection.
4. While I have little concrete use for extra money, earning money doing something I love is gratifying.
5. I’d like to have a viable family business to pass on to any of my children who want high autonomy.
6. I enjoy accomplishing things I haven’t done before.
The negatives, unfortunately, are weighty.
1. General rule: Almost everyone is bad at doing stuff they haven’t done before. “I’m good at educating my own kids, so I could run a school well” may well be akin to “I’m good at cooking, so I could run a restaurant well.”
2. I do not like dealing with mundane hassles, like getting a lease, setting up wifi, or keeping business records.
3. I intensely resent bureaucracy. I don’t want to figure out how to get a business license, file new tax forms, or learn about government regulations on running a tutoring center versus a school. Much of the appeal of running my own school is to get more autonomy, but in practice I’d probably have less than I already do.
4. Couldn’t I hire someone else to do this unpleasant work? Someone good enough to do the job could easily eat up my whole budget and more. And as soon as I had a full-time employee, another pile of regulations kicks in.
5. I could probably get five or ten outstanding students during the pandemic. Once the schools re-open, though, demand for my unconventional product could easily dry up. Since almost every start-up has high fixed start-up costs, this is a big risk.
6. What about liability? Part of what I would be offering is a risk-tolerant environment; I believe in erring on the side of normalcy – not the side of caution. The state of Virginia, however, is bad on waivers. If my students get sick, I don’t want to lose my house. Yes, I could get insurance, but that too would probably be a tangled mess.
All things considered, then, I’m in a holding pattern. What would tip the scales? Most directly: If GMU cancelled in-person classes again, my motivation to create a space where I could work with real students would be high. More generally: The longer the gross social overreaction to the pandemic continues, the more eager I will be to build my own sphere of normalcy.
One other factor that would make a big difference: If I had a queue of eager would-be customers. If you’re a parent of a highly-motivated, mature kid grades 7-12 and you’re interested, please email me!
READER COMMENTS
Brian Combs
Aug 31 2020 at 12:25pm
My daughter doesn’t hit the grade range (she just started virtual third), but I’m potentially interested. So far, things are better than last spring, but less than great.
Michael S.
Aug 31 2020 at 1:14pm
Your ability and readiness to try out something radically different and hard will most likely decline for a long time from now on. Maybe with the exception of the midlife crisis, but that’s entirely the wrong kind of motive.
Your idea is fascinating, there’s a decent chance you would create serious good in your little part of the world, and it is relatively low risk (for a startup).
You may consider the risk of eventually regretting not having tried it out.
(Most your reasons against — except the doubt about competence — sound like excuses.)
Kyle Walter
Aug 31 2020 at 5:19pm
You left the most important question unanswered: what does your wife think of this?
Craig
Sep 1 2020 at 5:04am
Can you elaborate on your pedagogical approach? What literature did you read to arrive at that approach?
Scott G
Sep 1 2020 at 6:12am
Yes! You should start your own school! And I understand your concerns (above).
You’ve already taken some impressive baby steps in this direction with Caplan FH. Continue to take baby steps as your judgement deems worthwhile. Let boredom and a reasonable amount of prudence be your guide. Of course, there will be a time for a huge step, a huge commitment. Maybe you’re already there?
This will work out best if you have a partner to help run the school; someone who is just as committed to your school as you are and who is willing to work for little to no wage. And I’m not suggesting that you partner with a GMU-aged student for this role. This is a start-up. You’re Steve Wozniak and now you need to find someone like Steve Jobs. Oh wait, that might be too dramatic. I love Steve as the founder of Apple: you need an ideological partner who is willing to let you run the technical side of things while he does everything you don’t want to or don’t have time to do. He’s not just an administrator though. He’s got to love founding the school as much as you. You’re both founding partners and will hire more help as prudence and profits guide you. We can adjust the strategy later, but how does this sound?
Split ownership of the company 50/50, or whatever percentages provide the best incentives.
Once you find this person, you’re off to founding Caplan School.
Oh, a few more things, you might need to move. Virginia may not be the best place for this school. You might find desirable, another state with lower operating costs, and lower liability more to the liking of your new business partner and better customer base. And even if you don’t move consider these other locations as possible satellites. And without the right partner, Caplan School will not flourish, so choose wisely, and try again if Steve 1.0 isn’t a fit. You will be generating positive externalities with any failure. I know you can succeed at this Bryan, so don’t let the doubters talk you out of your dreams.
Jose Pablo
Sep 1 2020 at 1:11pm
The idea is really good. As you point out in The Case Against Education, education at all levels is ready for disruption. The actual model is totally dysfunctional and can be improved in almost any imaginable way. Yes, but …
1.- Yours is the perfect example of why regulations hamper growth. In case anyone still had doubts.
By the way, if you are serious about this you also have to hire a tax advisor that helps you optimize the corporate structure of your business from the very beginning (always be prepared to be successful). Your tax liabilities can be reduced dramatically. Don´t even try to understand the ridiculous complexity of the American tax code. The ability to think rationally is not the right tool for that task.
2.- If your idea grows (and it is, indeed, a wonderful one) and became a real success convincing a lot of people to voluntarily depart from their money (a very difficult task), be aware than some people, surprised by the fact that they don´t get your success just by doing nothing relevant, will build a guillotine in front of your house.
3.- Never try to operate in more than 3 states. It is materially impossible to comply with the regulations of 3 different states simultaneously.
4.- As you mention, avoid hiring people. The administrative mess will make you forget what the real purpose of your business was. You will be happy just surviving.
My grandfather will bet you are not going to make it. He always said that entrepreneurship is for people that have run out of good options. You already have a well-paid job. Starting a new business is not worth the hassle … except you truly has no other option to survive … and you do.
Phil H
Sep 2 2020 at 1:58am
I recently started an English training school in China with my wife, and I think BC’s concerns are all very well-founded. I think you’ve missed one area that we constantly run up against, which is the level of courting and interest that parents need. When you’re offering something that is expensive or a bit different to the mainstream, the people you are trying to attract are those parents with a significant interest in their children’s education. They *want* to come and engage you in conversation, to follow up on their kids’ progress, and generally to be involved. And obviously, that’s something you have to welcome, but it’s also time that you have to manage. We split it with me doing the teaching, while my wife does front-of-house, communicating with the parents. And it’s pretty much a full-time job for her.
Jim Dunning
Sep 3 2020 at 2:04pm
Not to take away from Brian’s opportunity here, but he will have a resource limit. This is a great time to check out self-directed education options (Unschooling) — after all, many kids have already been doing that for months…
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