Students at Eagle-based private school Freedom Academy can pursue a bachelor’s degree before they graduate high school. The path runs through Texas-based company Smarter By 1 Degree, which connects high schoolers with online college courses and participating universities.
Many Idaho public high schoolers already earn some college credit and even associate degrees(opens in new tab), but Smarter By 1 Degree says its students can earn a bachelor’s degree alongside their high school diploma by taking online courses at “partner” universities. The company touts its compatibility with a dozen private school choice programs.
Becky Butlin, a Freedom Academy administrator who oversees high school students, said she was researching homeschool coursework last year when she came across the program.
Smarter By 1 Degree seemed “a little sketchy” at first, Butlin said, but she later spoke with representatives from the company and parents whose children graduated from the bachelor’s degree program. “That’s where I became more comfortable and said, ‘Oh no, this is a real thing.’ It’s a good curriculum, solid curriculum, and … has that partnership with the universities.”
Some of those university relationships appear tenuous, however. When Idaho Education News reached out to the institutions that offer courses through the program, one president denied having a “partnership” with the company — and threatened to sue EdNews if it described the arrangement that way.
Smarter By 1 Degree subsequently removed its university partners from its website and asked EdNews not to name them.
“These partnerships are important business and academic relationships, and we have intentionally chosen not to publicly identify certain university partners,” Chloe Whiteford, the CEO’s assistant, said by email. “Publishing information that was provided to you directly during a conversation … could negatively affect those partnerships.”
Freedom Academy partnered with Smarter By 1 Degree last year. About 20 students are enrolled in its high school, and enrollment grows each year, administrators said.
One student is scheduled to graduate in 2028 with a business administration degree from Crestpoint University.
Who’s who?
Freedom Academy: A private, for-profit nondenominational Christian school in Eagle. Started in 2022, it integrates lessons about faith and the Socratic method into its pedagogy. Freedom Academy began using Smarter By 1 Degree about a year ago with a small cohort of high school students.
Smarter By 1 Degree: A Texas-based alternative learning company and online private school primarily serving homeschool families. Smarter By 1 Degree has students in every state and a handful of other countries.
Crestpoint University: A private, online university based in Arizona. It offers coursework and degrees to students it receives from Smarter By 1 Degree, but it denies any sort of partnership with Smarter By 1 Degree. The university is formerly known as National Paralegal College.
Mixing faith-based learning with higher education
Ashley Meyer, the K-12 school’s founder, built Freedom Academy based on what she experienced in her spiritual life after leaving home. Unable to answer questions about her faith, she walked away from the Catholic Church she was raised in. Now a nondenominational Protestant, Meyer’s goal is to equip Freedom Academy students with the ability to endure questioning and remain faithful.
The Socratic method is baked into Freedom Academy instruction to make critical thinking and learning natural for students. Teachers and administrators weave Bible lessons into the coursework.
“Faith is woven into everything we do, so you can’t escape it,” Meyer said of Freedom Academy.
The school’s approach to academics is similarly unconventional. Using Smarter By 1 Degree, the school aims to help its students sidestep their undergraduate college years entirely.
Freedom Academy administrators said the high school diploma is accredited through Smarter By 1 Degree by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, an accrediting body for public and private schools. The college degrees get accreditation from their respective colleges and universities.
Tuition is around $9,000 annually at Freedom Academy, going up to $10,000 – on par with Boise State tuition – in high school to cover the cost of tuition from Smarter By 1 Degree. Every student goes through the bachelor’s degree program.
In ninth or 10th grade, Freedom Academy students have a “discovery year” where they find an area of interest. Like all Smarter By 1 Degree students, they spend the first half of their program as business administration majors, Butlin said. After that, students can change their major.
During the discovery year, Freedom Academy students begin taking college classes for their bachelor’s degree.
Typically, Smarter By 1 Degree serves homeschooled students through online, asynchronous college courses from a handful of universities. Freedom Academy offers more structure, even though the college courses are still online and asynchronous. Teachers provide in-person instruction, and students work in “blocks,” or dedicated periods focused on subjects such as math and English.
While Smarter By 1 Degree offers the degree, Freedom Academy administrators said it’s not enough on its own.
“Can you think critically? Do you know who you are? Can you defend your faith? Can you solve problems? Smarter By 1 Degree is not necessarily going to teach that,” Meyer said. “So we have to teach that.”
Public dollars for private tuition
Smarter By 1 Degree does business nationwide and has students in other countries. Freedom Academy is one among thousands of customers. CEO Janine Deems was not familiar with the school when EdNews interviewed her.
In testimonial videos on Smarter By 1 Degree’s website(opens in new tab), students tout academic feats like completing 90 college credits in a year or starting graduate school at 18 years old.
Deems said Smarter By 1 Degree is for all students. When asked how it’s for families who cannot afford tuition, Deems said the starting tuition of $3,000 per year (for students going directly through Smarter By 1 Degree, not the Freedom Academy) is affordable and fits with many states’ educational savings accounts, or ESAs. These programs, similarly to Idaho’s Parental Choice Tax Credit, allocate taxpayer dollars to private schools and homeschooling expenses, often with little oversight.
On its website, Smarter By 1 Degree advertises its compatibility with various private school choice programs like Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts(opens in new tab).
It does not tout compatibility with the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit program, but several families at the Freedom Academy have applied for the tax credit and their applications are pending, said Meyer.
The Idaho State Tax Commission said it doesn’t pre-approve schools for the tax credit.
“We tell parents it’s their responsibility to determine if the education they’re choosing meets the requirements of the program,” said Tax Commission spokesperson Julie Eavanson.
Company’s higher education ties raise questions
With credits accumulated from their classes, Deems said Smarter By 1 Degree students can earn degrees from five higher education institutions:
- Kentucky Wesleyan College
- Liberty University
- Crestpoint University
- Thomas Edison State University
- Excelsior University
Smarter By 1 Degree sends most of its students to Crestpoint, a for-profit, online university based in Phoenix.
Crestpoint President Avi Katz denied any sort of partnership with Smarter By 1 Degree when contacted by EdNews. Katz threatened to sue EdNews if it mentioned Crestpoint in connection with Smarter By 1 Degree.
But he acknowledged Smarter By 1 Degree sends students to Crestpoint and that learners receive lower tuition than traditionally-enrolled students. Crestpoint has “similar arrangements” with around 25 other organizations, but they’re not partnerships, Katz said.
Several hours after EdNews’ phone call with Katz, Smarter By 1 Degree’s Whiteford emailed EdNews requesting it withhold the names of universities the company works with and saying the partnerships were removed from the school’s website.
Deems told EdNews the list of universities is not published and inquiring families can find a list of universities by scheduling a free consultation with Smarter By 1 Degree.
Days after EdNews received the email from Smarter By 1 Degree, the company’s website still mentioned Crestpoint University as a partnering institution.
Excelsior University spokesperson Jason Bonafide said the university entered an “educational partnership” with the company in 2022.
More than 100 students from Smarter By 1 Degree have earned degrees through Excelsior since then – mostly in Liberal Arts, “due to Excelsior’s generous transfer credit policy and our ability to accept outside sources of credit to meet degree requirements,” Bonafide said.
Excelsior advertises its partnership with Smarter By 1 Degree on its website.(opens in new tab)
Only a handful of Smarter By 1 Degree students have earned degrees from Thomas Edison State, where they have to pay standard tuition, according to Michael Mancini, a spokesperson for the New Jersey university.
Freedom Academy reaction
Freedom Academy administrators were surprised to learn of Smarter By 1 Degree’s unwillingness to disclose the universities it works with.
“I’m actually kind of surprised by that because it used to be on the Smarter By 1 Degree website. It was plain as day for anybody looking into that program of which universities and what degrees each university offered,” said Becky Butlin, a Freedom Academy administrator who oversees the high school students.
Meyer worried that being connected to Smarter By 1 Degree would damage the reputation of the Freedom Academy and did not wish to be included in “an exposé about Smarter By 1 Degree.”
