Elon Musk’s Texas kindergarten Montessori school can now open its doors.
The school, which has been in the works since last year, received initial approval from Texas daycare regulations on Thursday, paving the way, according to the agency. Elon Musk Begin building ambitious STEM-focused education plans that could eventually include multiple independent K-12 schools and even a state university.
The Montessori school—”Ad Astra” (Latin for “the stars”) in a nod to Musk’s plans for interplanetary travel—is located about 40 minutes outside of Austin in Bastrop County. Musk several companies have operations The independent school in Bastrop could eventually enroll 54 students in the upper and lower elementary grades, with a dedicated faculty and an overall mission to provide a learning facility “at the highest levels dedicated to STEM education,” according to Musk’s documents. Reviewed by non-profit funded luck.
Ad Astra’s first students in Bastrop will be ages three to six and attend a preschool that focuses on exploration and activities such as painting, making collages, and studying maps and globes.
The school faced initial application errors and inspection delays, but after passing an inspection earlier this month, Ad Astra received its initial state permit on Nov. 14 and is now considered a licensed child care program, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. , which regulates state kindergartens. The Ad Astra daycare can enroll nearly two dozen children, according to the agency, though it initially expects to enroll only 16, according to application documents the school filed with the state. luck Through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Bastrop Ad Astra is Musk’s second big attempt to push education. An earlier “Ad Astra” school was created a decade ago, when Musk approached his son’s then-fourth-grade teacher about starting a school for his children and children. SpaceX the workers The school opened in 2014, but after Musk’s children graduated, Ad Astra and its faculty became an independent remote school called “Astra Nova” in 2020, according to an interview given by the founder in 2021. Ad Astra sold the mobile home, furniture, employees and intellectual property to SpaceX non-profit proceedings. In 2018, the new school “The discovery” He started working on the SpaceX campus, which is run by a company called Xplor Education, which also runs a Montessori school in Hawaii.
This time, Musk’s school plans seem bigger. Musk’s Foundation earmarked nearly $100 million for a nonprofit called the X Foundation, which will build an initial elementary and middle school and eventually open a university, should all go well, according to the nonprofit’s filings. Ad Astra is the latest branch in a wide range of Musk-related businesses and projects. the richest person in the worldwho was recently appointed by the president-elect Donald Trump to oversee a new government efficiency department.
Work and Play
For now, little Musk starts — in a white farmhouse with a long porch off a busy road to a farmers’ market in Bastrop County, Tex. — just a few streets away. Musk’s company facilities live and where X’s new headquarters (social networking site formerly known as Twitter Musk acquired for $44 billion in 2022) will be built.
Ad Astra preschool will be led by Xplor Education CEO Greg Marick under the state’s pre-school application, and three additional teachers have been hired, starting this summer. And its approach to learning will revolve around exploration, children will learn to button things, color and draw, collage, build words and explore globes and maps. Outside, there is a basketball court, and the little ones will be able to play with tricycles and balls, according to the documents. The curriculum itself—which includes periods of “work” and “play” and where children learn to sweep, apologize to others, and “resolve a conflict”—is inspired by the work of two psychologists, Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. and educators, “to teach young people to be responsible, respectful and resourceful members of our community,” according to Ad Astra’s permit application. As a Montessori school, the school will likely also emphasize self-directed learning, hands-on experiences, and cooperative play. One of Musk’s six youngest children — who are under the age of five and reportedly live in a Musk compound near Austin — is unclear. The Wall Street Journal– will participate.
In practice, Ad Astra is likely to be similar to Hala Kahiki Montessori School in Lāna’i, a school in Hawaii also operated by Xplor Education. Some of the questions on Ad Astra’s enrollment application are almost identical to Hala Kahiki, and Ad Astra’s permit application appears to misidentify the school as Hala Kahiki in one case, when it says students will work with local elders and professionals. “to learn about the island community”.
It is unclear how much parents will pay for their children to attend the Bastrop Ad Astra school. Tuition at Hala Kahiki Montessori School is $968 per month, according to the school’s website.
In X Foundation documents describing the Ad Astra school in Bastrop, the plan calls for the elementary and high school to expand beyond its initial capacity of 54 students “based on the needs of the local community and based on a timeline that provides a quality education and overall experience.” The school will also include distance students. According to the document, in one case it was misspelled as Bastrop.
Musk’s name isn’t on the application materials themselves, though Tesla and CEO of SpaceX fingerprints are all over the new school project. The X Foundation, which is funded by the Musk Foundation, owns the property on which the school sits and describes plans for the project in archives. The initial status of Ad Astra was presented by the request Jared Birchall, Musk’s financial advisor and longtime confidant. And Xplor Education, behind the “The discovery Preschool” has listed job openings for the new Bastrop school near SpaceX’s campus in Hawthorne, California, and has a “coming soon” page for Ad Astra on its website.
Musk and Birchall did not respond to a request for comment. upon arrival luckMarick said he was not authorized to speak to reporters and declined to comment.
