Elon Musk Dives into Education with Exclusive Grade School

Elon Musk, tech billionaire of Tesla and SpaceX, is quietly tinkering with education by developing a small school in the corner of a SpaceX factory in California, according to Ars Technica. The school, called Ad Astra, was formed when Musk pulled his five children out of elite schools in 2014. The homeschooling operation then opened up to children of SpaceX employees. The school features a “heavy emphasis” on math, science, engineering, and ethics. Students can opt out of subjects they don’t enjoy, and select about half of the curriculum. The school has replaced sports, music, and language education with talks about AI, corporations, and geopolitics. Ars Technica reports that knowledge of the school’s existence spread through word-of-mouth and some local Los Angeles kids have joined the ranks, rounding out the class size to 31 students. The school’s IRS filings state that Ad Astra will “probably never exceed 50 students” due to the “intense staff to student radio.”