Rural Indiana district to launch charter microschools, expand school choice

A rural Indiana school district is planning to launch dozens of charter microschools, in the latest example of public schools embracing flexibility in a school-choice state.

The Eastern Hancock School Corporation, about 30 miles east of Indianapolis, will create multiple schools of 20 to 75 students in conjunction with the newly created Indiana Microschool Collaborative, The 74 reports.

“Your child deserves something smaller, more personalized, and built around real relationships,” says the collaborative’s website. “At Indiana Microschool Collaborative, your child isn’t one of hundreds. They’re deeply known, supported, and given the freedom to learn in ways that work best for them.”

District Superintendent George Philhower, who created the collaborative, said parents increasingly want schools that fit their children’s needs.

“Our vision is that every kid should get to go to a school that feels like it was designed just for them,” Philhower said. “We think we can create that.”

Indiana is a leader in microschools, having the third-most in the country after Arizona and Florida. 

It’s also a leader in school choice. Lawmakers voted this year to lift all remaining income restrictions on the state’s Choice Scholarship Program, allowing all families to qualify for grants of up to $8,100 per student starting in 2026. 

The program is one of several Indiana families can use to pay private school tuition. 

The choice scholarship launched in 2011 and has expanded over time, meaning public schools have had to compete for students. As school choice grows, more districts are offering parents options beyond the traditional classroom. 

Rural areas tend to have fewer school options than urban areas, but Hancock is looking to change that, offering parents the same advantages that draw many to microschools in the first place. 

The schools will use a mastery- or competency-based approach, allowing students to learn at their own speed instead of advancing by grade level – a hallmark of many microschools. Learning will include a mix of ages. Indiana is reportedly encouraging schools to use this approach while it studies ways to use it broadly. 

As charters, the schools will qualify for state funding of about $7,000 per student. That also means students will be required to take state assessments, with each school’s results posted publicly. 

In a unique move, the district’s administrative team will support the schools, offering savings instead of each school developing its own human resources and bookkeeping departments. The district will charge a fee for those services, helping pay its employees. 

Experts say state funding and the shared services model could lead to rapid expansion. 

Scott Bess, a state school board member and a member of the collaborative’s board, said the microschool effort is “a way to get school choice and options for students into areas where there isn’t one today.” 

“In a rural area, the population is such that you can’t say, ‘Hey, we’re going to open up a 400-student elementary school,’ but you could open a 40-student school,” said Bess, who is a charter school leader at the state and national level. “We think there’s a huge amount of potential for this across the state of Indiana.” 

Beth Bray, a program officer for the Walton Family Foundation, called the initiative “incredibly creative” and said it “really has the potential to be a model for the country.”