Dear Parents,
There’s a quiet frustration building in homes across Texas—and if you’re reading this, chances are, you’ve felt it too.
You’ve watched the headlines. You’ve seen how public education seems to be unraveling under pressure. Teachers—some of the most talented and passionate people we know—are leaving in droves. They’re burned out. Tied down. Told how to teach and what to teach, with no room to actually connect or inspire. They’re forced to teach to a test, and that test—STAAR—has become the North Star of a system that’s lost its way.
Meanwhile, the same schools celebrating their “successes” are usually just shining a spotlight on the kids who managed to rise above it all. Kids who, despite the chaos, found a way to excel. But what about everyone else? What about the children being quietly left behind—the ones mislabeled, overlooked, and dismissed?
If your child has ever come home anxious, defeated, or worse—indifferent—you’ve probably asked yourself: “Why didn’t anyone tell me they were struggling?” Or maybe you’ve asked for help, only to be met with a shrug, a standardized form, or silence. Some parents are even fined for not fundraising, as if raising a child isn’t hard enough.
And now, with school vouchers threatening to take even more funding away from a system that’s already breaking, it’s hard not to wonder: What happens next?
We’ve been there. We’re not administrators. We’re not politicians. We’re parents. We asked the same questions you’re asking now. We were met with the same indifference. And instead of waiting, we built something different.
Nerd Academy wasn’t born out of convenience. It was born out of necessity.
We couldn’t stand by while our kids got swept up in a system that prioritizes test scores over curiosity, compliance over creativity, and fundraising goals over actual learning. We didn’t want our children to simply survive school—we wanted them to love learning, to question things, to build things, to feel safe, and to grow into thoughtful, capable humans prepared for their future, not our past.
We built a school where education is relevant to the world our children are growing up in—a world shaped by technology, creativity, collaboration, and rapid change. We built a school where frustrated teachers—those who still want to teach, not just follow a script—could be part of something different. We built a school where we, the parents, still have a voice.
We don’t have a billion-dollar fund behind us. We don’t believe in programs that take money from already underfunded public schools. We believe in public education and the teachers doing their best within it. But we also believe time is not on our side—and waiting for change wasn’t something we were willing to gamble our children’s education on.
We’re doing the hard work. We’re buying and creating curriculum. We’re studying, taking courses, building systems, and surrounding ourselves with educators who are in this for the right reasons. We’re applying what we’ve learned as parents, as professionals, and as people who refuse to accept “this is just how it is.”
We don’t claim to have all the answers. But we are asking better questions.
If you’re a parent who feels like the school system has stopped listening… if you’ve ever felt dismissed, talked over, or blamed… if you’re tired of feeling powerless while policies shift, budgets shrink, and nothing changes…
Come talk to us.
We may not have the solution to the public education system’s problems, but we are promising something honest. Something built on purpose, not policy. A school founded by parents, for parents—and for kids who deserve better than what the system has been offering.
Sincerely,
The Founders of Nerd Academy
Odessa, Texas