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Karli Kemper believes a school should be an environment that inspires children to love learning and embrace their creativity. It’s personal for Karli. She watched her own family and friends ...struggle in traditional public school environments at a time when other options weren’t readily available. Inspired by her experiences, Karli started teaching when she was nineteen years old, eventually teaching in public, private, and charter schools. Over that period she saw time and again how important it is to tailor education to kids, rather than forcing kids into a one-size-fits-all box. That is why Karli created State 48 Arts and Academics, a home-based microschool on her family’s 1.5 acre property in Pinal County, Arizona.

Education entrepreneurs are constantly creating innovative solutions for kids who may not excel in traditional educational environments. Microschools are one of many alternatives to traditional schools that took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Karli saw the explosion of microschools as an opportunity to create an environment where kids with special needs, like her own, could learn and grow. Using her theater and education backgrounds, she created State 48 to combine her love for teaching with her passion for theater and the performing arts.

State 48 teaches traditional subjects in the morning before offering performing arts electives like musical theater, band, and show choir in the afternoon. Karli and her family teach at State 48, along with three others who have years of education experience and a shared devotion to State 48’s mission. Originally, Karli planned for State 48 to be something like a home-school co-op involving a handful of special needs families she had worked with over the years. But as word about State 48 spread, interest grew and more families reached out to Karli, and she expanded her plans. Today, State 48 is in its third year and has about 35 students, most with special needs. For Karli and her family, it’s all about helping provide a supportive environment that fosters a lifelong love of learning in the students. The kids love the personalized classes and performing arts opportunities, and the school now has a waitlist.

But State 48 ran into a problem in 2025: Pinal County’s outdated zoning code does not specifically address microschools. When Karli decided to start State 48 on her family’s property in their rural Arizona neighborhood, she and her husband saw that the zoning code allowed “schools” as of right in her area. Understandably, she thought this meant State 48 was allowed. After all, there is a 1,700-student charter school just down the road in the same zone, and State 48 would have nowhere near the same impact on the area.

But the County disagreed. The County told Karli that she would have to either get a special use permit or stop operating. Confused, Karli explained that she thought State 48 was allowed because it was a “school,” but the County told Karli that “school” as used in the code meant only public or charter schools. Without a category for microschools, the County deemed State 48 a private school, and under the County’s absurd interpretation of its own code, a private school is not a “school.” If Karli turned State 48 into a charter school, the County explained, she could continue operating, but otherwise, State 48 would need a special use permit.

State 48 began the onerous process of applying for a special use permit, and the County attached 19 conditions to the application. However, even if Karli went through the process and accepted the conditions it wouldn’t guarantee getting the permit. The County retained discretion as to whether to grant the permit and could deny her.

So, Karli and State 48 have teamed up with the Institute for Justice and its Education Entrepreneurship Project to fight Pinal County’s absurd government restrictions to traditional public education. The government can’t regulate schools differently just because they are private, and it shouldn’t put up barriers to creative solutions for gaps in the traditional educational landscape. Microschools like State 48 work, and the Constitution protects the rights of educational entrepreneurs like Karli to develop those alternatives.Show More

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Supreme Court to Hear Ranchers’ Fight for Fair Compensation (Part 4)

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