This year, Florida lawmakers wanted to give students more freedom to attend schools across district lines, arguing students' educational options shouldn't be limited by geographic boundaries.
In some places, this is happening already. Take, for example, The Villages, the sprawling age-restricted development spanning Marion, Lake and Sumter Counties, which runs a charter school for its employees. The K-12 school enrolls nearly 3,000 students, making it one of the largest charter schools in the state.
It is one of just two schools in the state known as "charter schools in the workplace," where students' eligibility is based on where parents work, instead of where they live.
The Leesburg Daily Commercial recently reported the school is over capacity, and changed its rules governing which parents qualify.
The Villages has cut nearly 140 students from its rolls for next year. The students will have to be zoned back to the public schools they were assigned to attend, according to parents.
Parents said the students are being disqualified as the result of a new policy requiring business owners to lease a property directly from The Villages. If they sublease the property from a non-Villages entity, they are disqualified, parents said.
But The Villages Charter School officials say it is simply an issue of overcapacity at the schools.
“It’s a wonderful testimony to our teachers and faculty that so many folks want to send their kids to our school,” Principal Randy McDaniel wrote in an email. “However, just like other Florida schools we are restricted by the law limiting class sizes and our facilities have reached that capacity.”
The school is located in Sumter county, and authorized by the school district there, but it draws its students from the three surrounding counties in roughly equal proportions. Spokeswomen for the Lake and Sumter districts said they would likely have little trouble absorbing the 30 to 40 students turned away by the charter school.
