Enrollment in Florida’s private schools made a big jump during the 2015-16 school year.
Private school enrollment rose by more than 14,000 students, its biggest annual increase since 2002, according to a fresh annual report released by the Florida Department of Education.
For the first time in more than a decade, private school growth outstripped two steadily expanding school choice programs, which for years have helped shore up enrollment.
In recent years, McKay Scholarships for special needs students and tax credit scholarships for low-income students have grown by thousands of students annually. They now subsidize tuition for more than 109,000 children, or more than 36 percent of K-12 private-school students statewide.
The just-finished school year was the first since 2003-04 in which K-12 private school enrollment grew faster than the two scholarship programs, suggesting a rare increase in the number of private-school students whose parents paid full tuition.
Gardiner Scholarships, the state’s newest private educational choice program, served more than 4,800 special needs students, and helped many of them pay private school tuition. The program’s exact impact on private-school enrollment is not yet clear, however, since many parents use the funds to cover home education expenses, save for college, or hire therapists and private tutors. Two nonprofit organizations — Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, and the AAA Scholarship Foundation — help administer the scholarship accounts.
There’s wide variation in private school enrollment patterns across the state. The school districts with high private school participation rates appear to have little in common.
Jefferson County, a tiny district east of Tallahassee with high-poverty, academically struggling public schools, tops the state, with nearly a third of its students in private schools. Exurban Martin County, on the Treasure Cost, ranks second. Miami-Dade, home of the fourth-largest school system in the country and known for its diverse demographics, rising test scores and wide range of public-school choice offerings, ranks third.
