Forget apples—this Teacher Appreciation Week, how about giving educators something they can actually use: freedom. Florida did this with a 2024 law that opened the door for educational innovation by easing zoning and land-use restrictions on microschools, making it easier for alternative learning models to flourish outside the traditional system.
Following the passage of House Bill 1285, veteran educator Alison Rini repurposed a vacant day care center in the middle of a government housing project in Sarasota, Florida, and opened a microschool. A microschool generally refers to elementary, middle, or high school programs that are tiny by design, averaging just 16 students each.
Parents at Rini's school previously sent their children on a seven-mile bus ride to the nearest public school. But now they can enroll their kindergartners in a neighborhood program just steps from home. Rini is still a teacher, but she is also her own boss.
