When a Tampa Bay Times reporter asked to observe a day inside the tiny private school, the students considered the request and voted to allow it.
Florida’s new school choice law will allot tuition money for every student seeking education outside a public school — which families are already doing in record numbers.
Yet the curious school stands out even more amid a national “parental rights” movement, which has risen alongside Florida lawmakers’ reshaping of public schools.
In an era of consent forms, lawsuits and school board meetings swarmed with activist moms and dads, Spring Valley parents take a step back.
“(Students) can research anything they want, including social and political issues, and some have, but there’s no curriculum.
The school opened in 1997, modeled after the original Sudbury Valley School founded in Massachusetts in 1968.
Still, it seemed a lot of freedom to figure out, on their own, how to spend every day of a school year lasting nine months. »