A new initiative in Wichita aims to bring a classical education to the urban city core — and hopefully in time to rural areas in Kansas.
Called the C5 Urban School Initiative, the idea is to take the Classical Model of education — currently in use by the Classical School of Wichita — and spread it to neighborhood microschools in the inner city in Wichita.
According to Josh Dyson, most recently the head of CSW and now executive director of the C5 Initiative, the vision for C5 is to “take the education that we’re able to give at a place like Classical School of Wichita, but to take that into the inner city, to the urban core, particularly to families who can’t access high quality education the same way that people that have means are able to.”
CSW — upon which the curriculum will be modeled — is a kindergarten through 12th grade Christian private school, following the classical education model.
“It follows the liberal arts tradition,” Dyson said. “Trivium — grammar, logic, rhetoric — quadrivium, the ‘great books’ approach to education.”
Dyson said the classical model is growing rapidly in the U.S. and “actually worldwide.”
“But like most private schools, it costs money to be able to do that,” he said. “It’s all almost completely funded by tuition dollars and some donations.
“Our hope in our new endeavor … is to take that same model (of education) but to make it radically accessible to those who don’t have financial means.”
The way C5 hopes to do that is to partner with neighborhood churches within the urban core.
“By partnering with churches … that already have facilities in the urban core, that already have a heart for reaching their neighborhood, their neighbors … that will then give us … locations that are accessible.”
Dyson said that one concern for parents in sending their children to a private school is transportation, but by locating microschools within neighborhoods, they can alleviate that issue.
“The hope is to have, eventually, 13 to 14 micro school campuses or across the whole city, so that there’s a school within walking distance of every child in a neighborhood of need, and which is in the communities,” Dyson said. “That’s the community side of things. Instead of telling families, they have to come out to a school that’s maybe on the perimeter of town, that we’re going to take school to you and come to those people in need.”
Dyson said they intend for 10% to 20% of the cost to be tuition dollars, but there will also be a program — similar to Compassion International — where community members can sponsor a child’s education.
Currently, full tuition is projected to be around $9,000 per year but through donations and other means hope to be able to reduce that cost to around $35 to $40 per month.
Dyson said they are also working on getting approved for the Kansas education tax credit program and, to that end, are working to become accredited.
“You have to either be accredited by a recognized agency or be “in good faith, seeking accreditation with a recognized agency.'” Dyson said. “So we’re taking the steps right now to demonstrate to the Department of Education that we are indeed taking those ‘in good faith steps.’ Then, Lord willing, here, you know, next year or two, will be positioned to participate in school choice, education savings accounts, and whatever that may be, whenever that comes.”
Dyson said C5 is working to gain accreditation through a cooperative agreement between the Society for Classical Learning and the Middle States Association — which is a recognized accrediting agency in the state of Kansas. Jay Scott, director of accreditation and design for KSDE, confirmed that Middle States Association is a recognized accrediting agency by KSDE as it is recognized by the federal government for similar purposes.
Scott said KSDE recognizes accreditation from all agencies on a list maintained by the federal government.
“If a private school is accredited by one of the accrediting organizations on this list, then they are eligible (for the Kansas Tax Credit Scholarship program),” Scott said in a release.
Dyson said the classical learning initiative is just “trying to build the scaffolding” to expand quickly when school choice expands in the Sunflower State.
“Long term, you know, I would love for this to be something that is able to help serve communities throughout the whole state of Kansas,” Dyson said. “Our hope is to be ready, whenever school choice comes, then we can have a structure in place that can just explode.
“That we have the framework already going and to be able to utilize it to really take those funds to those that just have no chance of being able to access high-quality education at present.”
