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It's time for innovation to transform education It's no secret that the U.S. education system is facing numerous challenges. The standardized, one-size-fits-all approach focuses on memorization and rote learning styles, often failing to cater to the unique needs and talents of individual students. This lack of personalization can lead to disengagement and poor outcomes, leaving students feeling unmotivated and unprepared for life outside of school. Innovation in education needs funding. But there's a catch: To receive funding, entrepreneurs usually need to show proof of concept - that their idea works. That can be tricky for education entrepreneurs who want to think outside of the box. In the United States, the trusted old models receive funding from legislators because they use old measures and assessments to decide "what works" in traditional models. But it's exactly those old models and measures that need to be transformed. Academic achievement among American students continues to fall behind their global counterparts: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, U.S. students rank 28 out of 37 across international countries in math proficiency and similarly low in reading and science. The fact is, in the U.S., education, from 1st to 12th grade, has long been more about tradition than innovation. For generations, our schooling experience has experienced little change. Our school may look the same as our parents' schools and their schools looked the same as their parents' did. It was more about listening to lectures, memorizing facts, and writing essays than it was about exploring the things that make you uniquely you. What if education and imagination could be synonymous? That is the vision the VELA Education Fund wants to serve through their work providing backing for a variety of education models for U.S. school system students. This nonprofit has flipped the script from handing large amounts of money to a select few individuals to offering millions of dollars in small grants to thousands of everyday entrepreneurs. This model generates new approaches to education in founders' communities. These creatives share a self-starting spirit, a desire to meet the needs of the learners and families they serve, and a willingness to stretch the canvas on the "where, how, and when" of school. VELA's model is unique because it instills trust and encourages autonomy in these educators, believing that those closest to the problem should be designing its solutions. Unlike other grants, VELA doesn't require as much proof of concept ahead of investment, allowing for funding to drive the outcomes - not the other way around. By giving out smaller grants to a larger pool of applicants, it is able to fund a more diverse array of ideas, experiences, and types of education institutions. These smaller grants also allow recipients to take more risks and get more creative. "We limit our potential when we limit the people who have access to opportunities, to drive social change," said Meredith Olson, president of VELA. "A few thousand dollars to the right person can fuel innovation to a scale we never expected was imaginable." So far, VELA has given out more than $35 million in grants to nearly 2,500 recipients - including microschool founders, homeschool leaders, and many others - who are serving more than 5 million students nationwide. The organization's continued support sends a strong message to other education funders: Trust that families and educators know how to support their learners best, and empower them with opportunities to do so.