"Our reporting has shown how easily people—some with questionable backgrounds—have founded their own private schools in barns, strip malls and other places. That led us to an experiment: If the hurdles to open a school are so low, could we do it?"
In collaboration with Arkansas Times, Mountain State Spotlight, and The Assembly, ProPublica reporters tested how easily they could launch new private schools in three states. The experiment revealed major gaps in oversight, from Arkansas, where the only requirement is displaying an American flag; to West Virginia, where reporters found a way to bypass building health and safety requirements by registering a “microschool” instead.
In Arkansas, all it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to form a bona fide private school with the Arkansas Times.
We established a school with Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia after filing our new school’s name and location with authorities on a piece of notebook paper, then exchanging a few emails.
And with The Assembly in North Carolina, we filed an online notice of intent to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, while perched on its metal bar stools, eyeing glasses of a crisp kolsch.
Joaquin Sapien | ProPublica | June 30, 2026 | 10,833 words
“Five years after Anthony Broadwater was belatedly cleared for the sexual assault of Alice Sebold, the questions of how he came to be wrongly convicted and how one or more serial rapists operated for years with little consequence have only deepened.”
Heather Vogell, Agnel Philip, and Lucas Waldron | ProPublica | January 8, 2026 | 4,133 words
“When SpaceX CEO Elon Musk chose a remote Texas outpost on the Gulf Coast to develop his company’s ambitious Starship, he put the 400-foot rocket on a collision course with the commercial airline industry.”
Max Blau and Zaydee Sanchez | ProPublica | September 13, 2025 | 5,149 words
“She was sold the American dream with a farmworker visa. She wound up in a nightmare.”
David Armstrong | ProPublica | May 8, 2025 | 6,970 words
“When I was diagnosed with cancer, I set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. I’ve covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What I discovered shocked even me.”
Rob Davis | ProPublica, co-published with The Oregonian/OregonLive | April 25, 2025 | 3,250 words
“Labor advocates have long pushed brands like Nike to pay what’s known as a living wage, calling it a basic human right.”
A.C. Thompson, James Bandler, and Lukáš Diko | ProPublica and Frontline | March 8, 2025 | 2,937 words
“To police at the time, the killings seemed like the act of a lone gunman rather than what they were: the culmination of a coordinated recruiting effort that spanned two continents.”
| # | Наименование новости | Тональность | Информативность | Дата публикации |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New private school opening with AI being the teachers | 0 | 5.73 | 01-08-2026 |
| 2 | Sexual assault claims at elite school ‘will forever taint the Dawson name’ | 0 | 7.54 | 15-04-2026 |
| 3 | NYC’s failing public schools: Letters to the Editor — July 9, 2026 | -5 | 7 | 08-07-2026 |
| 4 | Выпускник одной из самых дорогих школ мира рассказал о детях диктаторов | 0 | 10 | 27-07-2026 |
| 5 | Florida is running a radical experiment in education | 2 | 6 | 13-11-2025 |
| 6 | New AI driven school starts first day of class in popular downtown spot | 0 | 7.03 | 14-08-2026 |
| 7 | Schools for the poor are not poor schools | 0 | 7.79 | 24-09-2026 |
| 8 | Can Schools Afford an AI-First Future? | 0 | 11.19 | 10-06-2026 |
| 9 | Reality Bites: Students Say They Face Stark Challenges After High School | 0 | 9.22 | 30-07-2026 |
| 10 | Oklahoma rejected this Jewish charter school. Its founder insists it will open | 0 | 9.42 | 14-10-2026 |