Today is Thursday, December 19, 2024 and this is William Michael of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy. I’m sorry if my voice sounds a little hoarse, but we’re very busy in the midst of holiday preparations with kids coming home from all over the country, and we were up late last night, so I’m a little groggy this morning, but I wanted to post a talk to share some really great news for students of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy.
I’ve been asked for years by parents if the Classical Liberal Arts Academy provides diplomas and transcripts, and I have always told parents that the Classical Liberal Arts Academy does not offer diplomas and transcripts, but that families should register as home schooling families, and they should provide their children with home school diplomas and transcripts. I’ve told families that steadily and faithfully, because as far as I’ve been counseled by representatives of the department of education in the state of North Carolina, the classical liberal arts academy has not had the approval to issue diplomas in the state of North Carolina, because in North Carolina there are only three forms of schools that are recognized by the state, public schools, obviously home schools and private schools that have a brick and mortar presence. So since the classical liberal arts academy is not a public school, not a home school, obviously, and not a brick and mortar private school, representatives from the State of North Carolina have told me on multiple occasions that the Classical Liberal Arts Academy may not issue diplomas and transcripts.
Now, as I thought about that, I said to myself, and I’ve done this throughout my career, there’s no way that these representatives can be right about this; there’s no way that the Classical Liberal Arts Academy can’t be permitted, or that digital learning programs in general, can’t be permitted to offer diplomas. But because that was the counsel that I was receiving from the state, I obeyed it because I didn’t want to get into any trouble, and I didn’t want to get any of my students into any trouble.
So I decided to go through the accreditation process starting in 2023 through 2024 because I believed that what we were doing in the classical liberal arts academy satisfied, even exceeded all of the requirements of accreditation, and we did that. We went through the accreditation process, received accreditation from Cognia, which is the world’s largest accrediting agency, and we received a high score, 320 on our IEQ score, which is 70 points higher than what’s needed for accreditation. And so so it confirmed for me that as far as schooling goes, as far as preparing students goes, and satisfying even modern school standards, the CLAA is above the bar in everything.
So we received accreditation in July of 2024, but we still had this issue with the state of North Carolina telling us that we couldn’t, or I should make that clearer, we could not issue diplomas or transcripts, because we were not a brick and mortar private school. And so I continued pressing and pressing on this, but I could never get a response from the state. Never could get a reply. The only reply that I ever received was was an email. And again, this this happened on multiple occasions. I received an email confirming that we could not issue diplomas in North Carolina.
Nevertheless, I kept pushing and pushing, and finally, last night, I decided to get in touch with our state legislators. I did two things, actually yesterday, I sent emails to hundreds and hundreds of colleges and universities, and I told them, the Classical Liberal Arts Academy is an accredited digital learning program. As an accredited digital learning program, would you accept a diploma and transcript from the Classical Liberal Arts Academy? And they all began responding, yes, yes, yes, of course, yes, yes, yes–all positive feedback from colleges and universities all over the country. I also communicated with the military and their recruiting departments and asked whether our diploma be acceptable for a student to make him or her eligible for military service? They responded that, yes, our diploma would be accepted as an accredited diploma would be accepted for any students coming from the Classical Liberal Arts Academy.
So Cognia accredited us. The military accepts our diplomas. Colleges and universities all over the country confirm in writing that they will accept our diplomas, and yet we’re getting this negative message from the state of North Carolina that we’re not permitted to issue diplomas. So finally, yesterday, I decided to contact our legislators. It was probably around 10 o’clock at night, I sent emails to our two senators and our local representative telling them the situation, explaining how the program is accredited by Cognia. I’ve got confirmation from the military and from colleges and universities that they would accept our diploma, and yet the state has told me that we may not issue diplomas, and they’ve repeated that message, even though it really makes no sense. And so I asked the legislators to take up this issue and address this gap in North Carolina private school education legislation, because there’s obviously a gap, and the state is too lazy to acknowledge it. So that was last night at 10 o’clock PM, and I have been trying to communicate with the state for several years about this issue, knowing that their response could not possibly be right? So I contacted the legislators last night, around 10 o’clock PM, while my family is getting ready for Christmas and the house is crazy, I’m sitting at the dining room table with my laptop writing to our legislators about this issue. That’s 10 o’clock last night.
At 10 o’clock this morning. I’m sitting with my laptop at home, and all of a sudden my phone rings, and I look and the the name on the on my mobile phone is North Carolina Department of Education. So I answer the phone, and it’s the Director of the Department of Non-Public Education in North Carolina, calling me. His name is Bobby Dixon, just so you know, just for the record, calling me out of the blue all of a sudden, you know, literally 12 hours after I contact the legislators, telling me that everything that we’ve been told by the state representatives is false. Their message that we are not permitted to offer diplomas in North Carolina was false.
Now think of how significant, think of how significant this problem is. And if you listen to my talks on school administration, starting schools and so on, you know that I harp on this again and again, that these representatives are often wrong about legal issues. They’re often wrong, and we can’t ask a question, get an answer, and then just act as if that answer is coming from the mouth of God himself. The answers that we receive from state representatives are often wrong. So the director of non public education here in North Carolina calls me this morning and tells me. That what the representatives have been telling me, and have told me on multiple occasions, was false, that the classical liberal arts academy is perfectly free to offer diplomas and transcripts to students, especially being accredited, and so he apologized for that, and this is what he told me, those emails that are sent out from the Department of Education are often sent out by administrative assistants who, in short, have no idea what they’re talking about. They basically work like bots. They just copy and paste information from the state websites. Again, think of how significant this is. This this feedback from what as far as we can tell our official state representatives, because they’re not identified. We don’t know who these people are. They they just they speak on behalf of the state and write, you know, on, you know, with, with emails, with, with state information, state signatures, state letterhead, as it were, and so on. We have no idea who the people are that are giving us these answers, but it’s coming from the state with all of the appearances of being official state communication, and yet the director here tells me that that those emails are often written by assistants who really don’t know what they’re talking about. And now again, think of this. These responses are causing people to make major business decisions, especially people who are like us, who are concerned about observing the laws. They’re causing us to make decisions in our policies and procedures, in what programs we offer, what programs we don’t offer, what we tell our students to do, what we tell our students they shouldn’t do, all of our operation as as a school program is being influenced by the responses that we receive from the state, and they’re false. So the director told me this morning that the classical liberal arts academy is 100% free and clear to offer diplomas and transcripts to students in the classical liberal arts academy. So thanks be to God. This issue is finally settled and we can move forward in 2025 Now, having said that the classical liberal arts academy is not set up to offer diplomas and transcripts. I have changes to make. I have policies to establish, procedures to establish before I would ever grant a diploma or a transcript to a student in the name of the classical liberal arts academy, because our reputation as an institution is at stake. So what I’m going to be doing for the remainder of the year, which is, you know, just a week or two, I’m going to be working on publishing a page on the academy website, which is going to outline the policies and procedures for an online school program, excuse me, an online school program in the classical liberal arts academy that will issue diplomas and transcripts directly for students that they can use to apply to college, universities, job opportunities, military recruiting and so on in the future. So any students studying in the classical liberal arts academy who enroll in the online school program, it’s going to require a separate formal enrollment, because there are going to be requirements for what students need to do. Any students who participate in this program will be able to graduate from the classical liberal arts academy and apply to their future destinations as students of the classical liberal arts academy. They will not need to present themselves as home school students. They will not need to use home school transcripts or diplomas. We will be able to provide all of the documentation. Now remember, as I said, I’ve been communicating with hundreds of colleges and universities, and I have their responses in writing, confirming. That they will gladly accept transcripts and diplomas from the classical liberal arts academy. So not only do I have accreditation from cognia Now, not only do I have confirmation from the state of North Carolina, but I also have direct confirmation from the colleges and the universities themselves, saying that that our transcripts, our diplomas, will be accepted, and students applying from the classical liberal arts academy will be eligible for admission. And you know these, these colleges, you know they’re coming in minute by minute, because I sent hundreds, and I’m going to continue sending hundreds more emails, but they already include Catholic University of America, Georgetown University, on and on. So there’s going to be no problem, but this is going to be a major change in the classical liberal arts academy, one that I think everyone has been looking forward to, but I’ve just been refusing to budge until I had clarification from the state of North Carolina. And this, this thing was resolved.
As of today, December 19, I have that clarification directly from the mouth of the Director of Non-Public Education here in North Carolina, and the Classical Liberal Arts Academy is free to offer diplomas and transcripts to our students.
So as I said, I’m going to be working on preparing the details of this online school program, giving all of the details for what students and parents are going to need to do. It’s going to require that students enroll as premium students, because they’re going to have to have assignments graded. We’re going to have to track attendance, you know, all of those normal school responsibilities. We’re going to have to do those things. I’m going to have to work directly with students to help them plan their studies, manage their studies, record their studies, check in, keep their attendance, all of that kind of stuff. I’m going to have to work with the kids directly. So many of the services that we could offer in the classical liberal arts academy, I have not offered simply because of this legal hang up that we’ve had, but that’s all cleared now, and we’re really ready to let it rip. So I’m going to get this together. I’ll post this information again, if you want to be updated, just keep your eye on the Academy website. You’ll see information published for our “Online School” program, and that’s going to be the program that that allows students to receive diplomas and transcripts from the Academy.
So it’s pretty exciting. I’m very happy to have all of this finally cleared. I’ve just been working with this, this cloud over my head for two years now, really not understanding what the state was thinking and and that’s that’s all been confirmed for me. So this is a very significant change, because even though we’ve been accredited since July, I’ve just been dragging my feet because I’ve been saying, you know, we’re accredited, but who really cares if we can’t offer diplomas and transcripts? I’ve even been thinking about relocating my office across the border into South Carolina, where the laws are different because they don’t have this silly, this silly idea about private schooling. So I obviously don’t need to do that, but, but I’ve been, I’ve been working through all of my options, what I could do and what my options were, and finally, all of that’s behind us, so keep an eye out for information on an online school program in the classical liberal arts academy, because we’re going to do it, we’re going to begin offering diplomas and transcripts for Academy students that they can take with them anywhere. So I’m excited about this. Thank you all for your patience. Thank you for being willing to operate as home school families, even when it seemed like that shouldn’t be necessary, but, but you’re willing to do that, and I’m very thankful, and now we get to reap the benefits of having committed to classical Catholic studies, because We can do it and have diplomas and transcripts that colleges are are eager to to accept. So I’ll have information on that in coming weeks.
This may be the last time I speak before the holiday. Like I said, my kids are coming in from all over the country. Samuel just got home from his military training in Virginia. David’s home from college and will be deploying soon. My daughter Elizabeth’s coming home from Colorado next week as she prepares for her last semester as an ROTC Cadet. My son Jonathan is coming home next week also from Fort Bragg. So all the kids, all 10 of the kids, even though they’re spread out all over the place are coming home this week, and our house is going to be a circus, so I’m not sure if I’m going to have much time for any talks or work.
The academy Fall Term ended on Friday, December 13. I was able to get all submitted grading done and finished last a couple days ago, so the Fall Term is entirely closed out. Our Winter Term begins on Monday. I think the date is January 6, so we get back to the office and open everything up full speed. But I’ll still be working between now and then, just not as not as efficiently as usual, because of all the holiday craziness. So if you if your kids are still working, that’s fine. I’ll continue to grade assignments and respond to emails, but just expect a slower response until we get through the New Year and and if I don’t speak again until then, I’d like to thank you all for all of your friendship and support through the year, and wish you all a very
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
God bless you all,
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
