A wealthy Silicon Valley father on Tuesday defended his idea to start a “microschool” in his backyard as a “creative solution” to help his daughter and the children of other families with distance learning as schools ban in-class instruction to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and podcaster who has invested in such Bay Area startups as Uber and Robinhood, caused a furor on social media Sunday, tweeting that he was looking for “the best 4-6th grade teacher in Bay Area.”
The father of one offered to pay the teacher a salary “that will beat whatever they are getting paid” to lead a small group of two to seven children at his home using the online curriculum provided by his local public school. He also offered a reward to anyone successfully referring a teacher to him: “a $2k UberEats gift card.”
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Calacanis followed up with other tweets that promised to offer 100-percent scholarships to families who can’t afford to help pay for the teacher. “If you live in the bay and are in the 4th or 5th grade we will take applications based on merit,” he tweeted.
With his tweets, Calacanis landed in the middle of a growing controversy over the rise of “pandemic pods” and “microschools” in the lead-up to the start of the school year. There are concerns that pods will exacerbate racial and economic inequities that already exist in American education because many families won’t be able to afford to hire teachers or tutors to lead in-person instruction for their children.
Clara Jeffrey, the editor in chief at Mother Jones, replied, “Rethink everything about your family’s priorities.” Twitter user Cory Christian added: “Everything that’s wrong with the Bay Area all wrapped up in a nice little tweet.”
Another user wrote that he didn’t blame Calacanis for wanting to give his child and others the opportunity to socialize with their peers, but added: “Think about the millions of kids who won’t get a personalized learning experience if they don’t go back into the classroom and can’t afford a micro school.”
During an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday, Calacanis shrugged off the furor as the tendency of people on Twitter to try to dismiss anyone with “a creative solution.”
had some thoughts about China, TikTok, Generation Snowflake and pandemic pods https://t.co/uvYIsbGKOC
— @jason (@Jason) August 4, 2020
“Anytime anyone comes up with a creative solution or an entrepreneurial solution, we feel the need to destroy them,” he said.
Calacanis suggested he was trying to do his part to address America’s unemployment crisis by giving a job to an out-of-work college graduate or teacher. Meanwhile, he believes he is pursuing a model that could reshape the education system. “I think microschools and pods might be with us post-pandemic because it’s not a bad model,” he added.
Calacanis moreover denied that his idea for a microschool is the “pinnacle of privilege.”
“If you’re talking hiring a teacher who makes $60,000, $70,000 or $80,000 a year for one student, yes, that is privilege,” he said. “That is not what I’m doing. I’m going to pay the bill for this — three or four families who can’t afford it can hang out in our backyard until hopefully this is all over.”
Calacanis disputed the argument that the costs of a learning pod would be out of reach for many American families. He said a small group of six families could divide up the costs of paying a college graduate $15 to $20 per hour for five hours a day — with the families paying anywhere from $10 to $20 each per day. “I think that’s affordable for most families,” he said.
Last week, Oakland Unified School District said that it will not endorse the formation of learning pods. “Although we appreciate parent resourcefulness in creating small ‘pandemic pods’ to help manage the demands of this time, we do have some concerns,” the district said in a statement.
In the Squawk Box interview, Calacanis did not address the many other logistical concerns shared by parents across Facebook groups and in interviews with this news organization. Parents have expressed worries about how to vet teachers or tutors, work out schedules and curriculum, and ensure that everyone is on the same page about COVID-19 safety, especially when families have multiple children in multiple pods.
A Twitter user, Sam Zodin Wears a Mask, addressed the COVID-19 safety issue in a reply to Calacanis Tuesday: “The reason that schools aren’t open right now is the pandemic. The goal is to avoid having clusters of people together for long periods of time. Having 7 kids in your yard means 7 families and a teacher are clustering together and possibly spreading the virus.”
“So how do you screen the kids for COVID19?,” Sam Zodin continued. “How do you screen their families? What restrictions are placed on families to limit exposure within their bubble so they don’t bring COVID19 into school bubble? What happens if a kid or a parent gets COVID19 during the year?”
