Inside Elon Musk’s new private preschool plan in Texas that has just been licensed to open

The school, which has been operating since last year, received its initial license from the Texas child care regulator on Thursday, according to the agency, paving the way for Elon Musk to begin building ambitious STEM-focused education plans that could eventually require multiple independent K-12 schools and even a college in the state.

The Montessori school—dubbed “Ad Astra” (Latin for “to the stars”) in support of Musk’s interplanetary travel plans—is located about 40 minutes from Austin, in the Bastrop district car. some of Musk’s companies there is activity. The independent school in Bastrop could eventually enroll up to 54 students in the upper and lower elementary grades, with a dedicated faculty and an overarching mission of providing a learning facility “dedicated to educating STEM at the highest level,” according to Musk-funded nonprofit reviewed by Luck.

The first Ad Astra students in Bastrop will be between three and six years old and attend a preschool that focuses on exploration and tasks such as coloring, collage, and studying maps and globes.

The school encountered some obstacles during the initial application process and inspection delays, but after passing an inspection earlier this month, Ad Astra received its initial state license in Nov. 14 and is now considered a licensed child care program, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. , the agency that regulates child care centers in the state. According to the agency, the Ad Astra preschool could enroll nearly two dozen children, although initially only 16 appeared to be expected, according to registration documents the school filed with the state. obtained. Luck through a Freedom of Information Act Request.

Bastrop Ad Astra is Musk’s second major effort to promote the field of education. A previous “Ad Astra” school was conceived about a decade ago when Musk approached his son’s fourth-grade teacher about starting a school for himself and his family’s children. . SpaceX workers. The school opened in 2014, but after Musk’s children graduated, Ad Astra and its faculty branched out into an independent remote-only school called “Astra Nova” in 2020, according to an interview. consulting that the co-founder gave in 2021. The nonprofit that runs Ad Astra sold mobile homes, furniture, workforce and intellectual property to SpaceX, according to Non-profit profile. In 2018, a new school named “Discover” started operations on the SpaceX campus, which is run by a company called Xplor Education, which also operates a Montessori school in Hawaii.

This time, Musk’s study plan seems more grandiose. According to nonprofit records, the Musk Foundation spent nearly $100 million through a nonprofit called the X Foundation to build an initial elementary and middle school and eventually open a university. . Ad Astra is the latest in a series of businesses and projects connected to Musk, richest person in the worldwho was just appointed by the president-elect Donald Trump will oversee a new government efficiency department.

Work and play

For now, Musk is starting small – in a white farmhouse with a long porch near a busy farm-to-market road in Bastrop County, Tex. – one street away from some Musk’s company facilities are located there and where X’s new headquarters is located (social networking site formerly known as Twitter which Musk acquired for $44 billion in 2022) will be built.

Ad Astra Preschool will be run by Xplor Education CEO Greg Marick, according to the preschool’s state application, and three other instructors have been hired as of this summer. And its approach to learning will revolve around exploration, with toddlers learning to button, color and draw, collage, build words, and study globes and maps. According to the document, there is a basketball court outside and toddlers will be able to play with tricycles and balls. The curriculum itself—which includes sessions for “work” and “play” and has children learn how to clean up, apologize to others, and learn how to “resolve conflicts”—was inspired by the work by Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs, two psychologists. and educators, to “teach young people to be responsible, respectful and resourceful members of our community,” according to Ad Astra’s license application. As a Montessori school, the school will likely also emphasize self-directed learning, hands-on experiences, and cooperative play. According to the report, it is unclear whether any of Musk’s six youngest children – who are under 5 years old and are believed to live on Musk’s property in nearby Austin – are present. Wall Street Journal—will attend.

In fact, it looks like Ad Astra looks quite similar to Lāna’i’s Hala Kahiki Montessori School, a school in Hawaii also run by Xplor Education. Some of Ad Astra’s admissions application questions are nearly identical to those of Hala Kahiki, and Ad Astra’s license application appears to mistakenly refer to the school as Hala Kahiki in at least one case, saying that students will work with local elders and experts to “learn about the island community.”

It is unclear how much parents will pay for their children to study at Bastrop Ad Astra school. According to the school’s website, tuition at Hala Kahiki Montessori School is 968 USD/month.

In X Foundation documents describing the Ad Astra school in Bastrop, the plan calls for the elementary middle and high schools to expand beyond their original capacity of 54 students “based on the needs of local community and following the quality assurance process”. overall education and experience.” The school was also able to include distance learners according to the document, which in one case misspelled Bastrop as Bastop.

Musk’s name is not on the application documents, though Tesla And CEO of SpaceX Fingerprints are all over the new school project. Foundation X, funded by the Musk Foundation, owns the school’s assets and describes plans for the project in the filing. Ad Astra’s application for initial status was submitted by Jared Birchall, Musk’s financial advisor and longtime confidant. And Xplor Education, the company behind “Discover Preschool” near SpaceX’s campus in Hawthorne, California, has posted job openings for the new Bastrop school and has a “coming soon” page for Ad Astra on the school’s website.

Musk and Birchall did not respond to requests for comment. When reached by LuckMarick said he was not authorized to speak to reporters and declined to comment.