When Elmarie Hyman opened Learn Beyond The Book LLC in 2012 as a secular homeschooling resource center just outside of Los Angeles, she wanted to provide more education options for her four homeschooled children and their friends. An accountant who was born in South Africa, Hyman never heard about homeschooling until after she immigrated to the U.S. and had her first child. She was immediately attracted to the freedom and flexibility that homeschooling offers, as well as the opportunity to individualize learning around her children’s needs and interests. She wanted to create more opportunities for young people to learn from professionals in their fields.
Hyman launched her center with 20 homeschoolers in a single location in Santa Clarita Valley. Today, she has more than 400 K-12 students and 45 paid teachers across three locations in Southern California. All of the students take in-person classes in a range of core academic and enrichment areas. Some students attend classes all day every day, but most attend part-time. Learn Beyond The Book also serves an additional 100 students with virtual-only programming.
Hyman is one of more than 50 founders featured in my new book, Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling, published last week by PublicAffairs. This week, Hyman is one of hundreds of education providers in California who could see their programs threatened and their students displaced if a proposed education bill moves forward in the state legislature. Aimed at ensuring greater accountability for charter schools, particularly nonclassroom-based (NCB) charter schools, California Assembly Bill 84 would impose greater restrictions on these schools, which currently serve tens of thousands of students across the state.
“It will effectively shut down all businesses like mine,” said Hyman, explaining that the proposed bill would constrain the ability of online or hybrid charter schools to coordinate with educational providers like Learn Beyond The Book.
A 2022 paper published in the Journal of Distance Education reported increased interest in California’s NCB charter schools in recent years. In 2017, the roughly 125,000 students enrolled in independent study charter schools in California represented more than 20 percent of all charter school students in the state. Students in these programs are technically enrolled in a tuition‑free public charter school, but their learning often looks more like homeschooling and many families self-identify as homeschoolers.
Students in NCB charter school programs are currently expected to meet routinely with a certified teacher, use a curriculum that is aligned with state standards and participate in standardized testing. Learn Beyond The Book is an approved vendor for more than 20 of these charter schools in California, enabling participating students to take a variety of in-person classes each semester at no cost. About 90 percent of Hyman’s students are enrolled in one of these NCB charter schools.
If passed, AB 84 could impose significant changes on the NCB charter sector in California, including reducing funding and requiring more restrictions on instructor hiring and credentialing. Additionally, it would create enrollment limits and make it more difficult for vendors to serve students. This bill comes on the heels of a moratorium on authorizing new NCB charter schools in California, enacted in 2020, that expires next year. It also emerges at a time of declining public school enrollment in California, along with rising homeschooling and private schooling numbers throughout the state.
Proponents of the bill argue that it will create more accountability and reduce the potential for fraud in the charter school sector, while opponents say it will reduce educational choices for families and harm small businesses such as Learn Beyond The Book.
California Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi introduced the bill and is running for state superintendent of public instruction in 2026. I reached out to him for comment but did not hear back.
Emily Jones is a mother in Redding, California whose children are currently enrolled in a NCB charter school that could be threatened by this bill. As the founder and CEO of Home Tribe, a platform that connects families with vendors providing an assortment of educational experiences, Jones worries about the potential harm this bill could have on many of the families and founders with whom she works. “This is a bill that will destroy the education ecosystem that homeschool charter families and small business vendors across the state rely on,” said Jones, who was among the parents, providers, and charter school policy advocates opposing the bill last week at the state capitol.
The bill has until Friday, August 29 to be moved forward by the California legislature’s appropriations committees, and must be sent to the governor’s office by September 12.
If it becomes law, Hyman believes her small business will close. If Learn Beyond The Book does survive, she says it will only be able to serve a small number of more affluent families who can pay out of pocket for her services, leaving behind the majority of her current students. “Most students come to us because traditional schools didn’t work for them,” said Hyman. “It just doesn’t make any sense on any level.”