Students at the University of Austin are getting an overview of the nation’s rapidly expanding education choice movement, including its storied history in Florida.
The survey course includes guest lectures delivered by top national researchers and thought leaders, including Ron Matus, director of research and special projects at Step Up For Students. The nonprofit organization is Florida’s and the nation’s largest education choice scholarship funding organization. Matus, who spent 25 years as a journalist and eight years as the state education reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, has authored many white papers on education innovation in Florida for Step Up.
The topic of Matus’s lecture was “Freedom, Pluralism and School Choice: Competing Rationales and Contemporary Practice” and included a special emphasis on education innovation in the Sunshine State.
Matus shared the evolution of public education in Florida from its first model of neighborhood zoned district schools to the rise of charter schools, homeschooling, private school scholarships, educational savings accounts, a la carte learning, and even public schools now offering individual courses paid for with education savings accounts. He also described the many learning options now available, from traditional private schools to farm and forest schools to microschools and programs customized by families.
Matus also recommended reading that exposed students to various arguments in favor of education choice, including economist Milton Friedman’s 1955 groundbreaking essay “The Role of Government in Education,” which emphasized free markets and competition, and John E. Coons, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, who focused on dignity and fairness to all families regardless of income.
Erin Davis Valdez, executive director of the university’s Center for Education and Public Service, developed the course, which followed two K-12 practicums with rotations that began in the fall of 2025 at participating private and charter schools.
She describes the program as being in “the incubator phase,” and hopes to expand it into an academic minor.
“What we’re trying to do every term is offer a course for students interested in education policy as a career or in teaching as a career or something adjacent to it, like entrepreneurship,” she said. “But for now, students can take these as elective classes, and it builds their interest in the field.”
Valdez, who was homeschooled as a young child in Lakeland, Florida, a year before it became legal, said she chose the guest lecturers by looking for the best researchers and thought leaders in the movement. In addition to Matus, the list includes Eric Wearne, an associate professor in the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University and director of the Hybrid Schools Project. Wearne, who once described most traditional teacher prep programs as “thinly veiled arms of the HR department of the school district,” spoke on “Design Policy for New School Models.”
Others included Patrick Wolf, Distinguished Professor and 21st Century Chair in School Choice at the University of Arkansas, who spoke about the history of school choice policy, Jay P. Greene, senior fellow at the Defense of Freedom Institute, who spoke on the national responsibility of American universities; Katherine Bathgate, CEO and founder of SchoolForward, who spoke about economic foundations and emerging policy issues I education freedom; Mary K Wells, managing partner at Bellwether, who spoke on the last 30 years of education reform efforts; and Anita Scott, director of public policy for the Texas Home School Coalition, who spoke on connecting policy and practice in the homeschooling community.
Matthew Ladner, a senior adviser for education policy implementation at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy and former executive editor of the NextSteps blog, is scheduled to lecture on June 1 about new directions in education choice and the question of accountability. The class will conclude June 8 with a lecture by Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, whose topic is “The Last Days of Public School.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Parents, students, and education leaders who gathered at the Florida Capitol on Thursday had a message for the Florida Education Association, the teachers union that filed a lawsuit to end K-12 education choice scholarship programs used by nearly 540,000 children, as well as all charter schools.
Just drop it.
That was just one of the messages on the signs that supporters held up as they stood on the steps of the Old State Capitol building, as advocates proclaimed how education choice scholarships changed lives for the better. “My School My Choice” and “Protect Florida School Choice” could also be seen on the bright yellow signs. Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future organized the news conference. Bush launched the private school choice movement in 1999, right after he became governor.
“The scholarships are VERY important to me,” said Kiteka Walker, whose son, Rashad, is in seventh grade at Dixon School for Arts & Sciences in Pensacola. After attending previous schools and homeschooling Rashad, he asked to return to school. She sent him to Dixon because it was the right fit, offering Rashad opportunities to participate in student government, the robotics team, and other enriching activities. The Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship he received made it affordable for him to attend the private school while his two younger brothers attended a private elementary school. If the lawsuit succeeds in eliminating the scholarships, Walker said she would have to homeschool him again because she could not afford private school for three children.
“Parents choose where we send our children to daycare, we choose where to go to college. Why can’t we do the same with K-12 schools?”
Rashad Walker, who traveled to the event with his family, shared how he is thriving at the school his mother chose for him.
“Dixon has been the perfect fit for me. It has a lot of culture and provides a bunch of opportunities in band, art, singing, technology, and media,” he said.
Rashad, who also participates in robotics and serves on the student council, said the school encourages him to try new things, like playing a piano that had been gathering dust at home for years.
“Dixon inspired me to teach myself to play the piano. I practice every day on that piano at home. No more dust,” he said.
Last fall, when he was hospitalized for three weeks following knee surgery, Rashad created craft kits called DUCK bags that help kids combat boredom. He sold the kits at business fairs and is making some to donate to children’s hospitals.
None of that would have happened if it weren’t for Dixon, he said. And Dixon wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the scholarship.
“That’s why I don’t understand this lawsuit,” Rashad said. “Why get rid of something that is life-changing for other people? That helps them achieve better things in life?”
Rita Brown can see proof that education choice changes lives every day at Brownsville Preparatory Institute in Tallahassee, a private school she founded more than 20 years ago.
The school began as a pre-kindergarten and now serves 95 students through third grade. Brownsville is in a low-income community. Most parents can’t afford private education after their 4-year-olds complete the state-subsidized pre-kindergarten program.
The scholarships, Brown said, changed that.
It allowed her to add grades. Today, Brownsville students typically learn to read at age 3 and are adding, subtracting, writing, and learning cursive.
“We are the best school in our neighborhood,” she said. “Florida’s education choice scholarships have been a vital part of that.”
If the teachers union wins in court, Brown said, the school would lose most of its school-age children.
“That K-3 program would probably die. It would be devastating for our parents. We have all these students doing amazing things, but they would be forced to go to schools that don’t meet their needs. “
She called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “an attempt to turn back the clock.” But Florida is too embedded in education choice to return to a bygone era.
“At the end of the day, we need to be collaborative in educating all students,” Brown said.
The event inspired a lawmaker to attend to voice his opposition to the lawsuit.
State Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, said empowering parents to choose the best options for their children does not take away resources from other students and makes America “the light on the hill that Ronald Reagan talked about.”
Florida’s robust scholarship programs have led the way and “will continue to make sure our light stays the brightest, not just in this country but around the world.”
Editor's note: This post is shared by our sister organization, Step Up, Step Further Scholarship Fund, a new federal scholarship program launching in 2027 to support students in public and private schools.
At Florida TaxWatch’s policy forum, Step Up For Students Founder and Chairman John Kirtley shared how the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit will help expand opportunity for K-12 low income district school students. “The income levels that the federal law allows are, in my opinion, pretty generous,” Kirtley said. “They’re 300% of the area’s median income, which in Florida will be anywhere up to probably $250,000. However, a scholarship organization can set its own income limits.”
The new tax credit will continue to allow Step Up, Step Further, sister organization of Step Up For Students, to focus on serving the lowest-income students in Florida.
Kirtley went on to illustrate how Florida school districts have seen a dramatic increase in graduation rates since 1981, when the graduation rate hovered under 50%. He noted that a statewide push for greater accountability in schools and grading them has resulted in a graduation rate of over 90%.
“That’s an incredible improvement, and we should all be very proud of that. A great example of how the districts have responded is very close to home for me. My high school, Fort Lauderdale High School, when schools were first graded back in 1999, my high school was an ‘F.’ And it was an ‘F’ for several years,” Kirtley said.
Read the full article at Florida Politics > https://floridapolitics.com/archives/791109-john-kirtley-makes-case-for-choice-encouraging-use-of-education-savings-accounts/
When I think about the state of public education in Florida, I recall a song from “The Wiz,” the 1978 film reimagining of “The Wizard of Oz,” where Diana Ross sang, “Can’t you feel a brand new day?”
It’s a brand new day in our state’s educational history. Parents are in the driver’s seat deciding where and how their children are educated, and because the money follows the student, every school and educational institution must compete for the opportunity to serve them.
Public schools are rising to meet that challenge.
For the past year, helping them has been my full-time job.
Today, 27 of Florida’s 67 school districts have contracted with Step Up For Students to provide classes and services to scholarship students, and another 10 have applied to do so.
That’s up from a single school district and one lone charter school this time a year ago.
This represents a seismic shift in public education.
For decades, a student’s ZIP code determined which district school he or she attended, limiting options for most families. For decades, Florida slowly chipped away at those boundaries, giving families options beyond their assigned schools.
Then, in 2023, House Bill 1 supercharged the transformation. That legislation made every K-12 student in Florida eligible for a scholarship. It gave parents more flexibility in how they can use their child’s scholarship. It also created the Personalized Education Program (PEP), designed specifically for students not enrolled in school full time.
This year, more than 80,000 PEP students are joining approximately 39,000 Unique Abilities students who are registered homeschoolers. That means nearly 120,000 scholarship students whose families are fully mixing and matching their education.
Families are sending the clear message that they want choices, flexibility, and an education that reflects the unique needs and interests of their children.
Districts have heard that message.
Parents may not want a full-time program at their neighborhood school, but they still want access to the districts’ diverse menu of resources, including AP classes, robotics labs, career education courses, and state assessments. Families can pay for those services directly with their scholarship funds, giving districts a new revenue stream while ensuring students get exactly what they need.
In my conversations with district leaders across the state, they see demand for more flexible options in their communities, and they’re figuring out how to meet it.
For instance, take a family whose child is enthusiastic about robotics. In the past, their choices would have been all-or-nothing. If they chose to use a scholarship, they would gain the ability to customize their child’s education but lose access to the popular robotics course at their local public school. Now, that family can enroll their child in a district robotics course, pay for it with their scholarship, and give their child firsthand technology experience to round out the tutoring, curriculum, online courses and other educational services the family uses their scholarship to access.
Families can log in to their account in Step Up’s EMA system, find providers under marketplace and select their local school district offerings under “contracted public school services.” School districts will get a notification when a scholarship student signs up for one of their classes. From large, urban districts like Miami-Dade to small, rural ones like Lafayette, superintendents are excited to see scholarship students walk through their doors to engage in the “cool stuff” public schools can offer. Whether it’s dual enrollment, performing arts, or career and technical education, districts are learning that when they open their arms to families with choice, those families respond with enthusiasm.
Parents are no longer passive consumers of whatever system they happen to live in. They are empowered, informed, and determined to customize their child’s learning journey.
This is the promise of a brand new day in Florida education. For too long, choice has been framed as a zero-sum game where if a student left the public system, or never even attended in the first place, the district lost. That us-versus-them mentality is quickly going the way of the Wicked Witch of the West. What we are witnessing now is something far more hopeful: a recognition that districts and families can be partners, not adversaries, in building customized learning pathways.
The future of education in Florida is not about one system defeating another. It is about ensuring families have access to as many options as needed, regardless of who delivers them.
As Diana Ross once sang, “Hello world! It’s like a different way of living now.” It has my heart singing so joyfully.
Florida gives parents the ability to direct the education of their children. Today about half of all K-12 students in the state attend a school of choice, and 500,000 students participate in state educational choice scholarship programs.
Gov. Ron DeSantis accelerated these trends in 2023, when he signed HB 1 and made every student eligible for a scholarship. No school can take any student for granted, and state funding follows students to the learning options they choose.
Unfortunately, misleading claims amplified in the media have blamed this expansion of parental choice for school districts’ budget challenges.
Sarasota County Schools, for example, recently estimated that scholarships “siphoned” $45 million from its budget, a figure cited in a WUSF article. In reality, most of the $45 million represents funding for students that Sarasota was never responsible for educating, such as those already in private schools, homeschooling or charter schools. It also does not account for students who return to district schools after using a scholarship. Once those factors are considered, the actual impact is considerably smaller than the headline number suggests.
For the 2024-25 school year, Sarasota County lost just 330 public school students to scholarship programs, but only 245 of those students came from district-run public schools. If those students had stayed, they would have brought the district about $2 million, not $45 million. That figure still does not account for the students who returned to district schools after using a scholarship the prior year, so the real impact would be smaller.
Other districts have been vocal about their budget difficulties, often attributing them solely to growing scholarship demand, such as Leon County Public Schools, which in 2024-25 lost 240 students from district-run schools (0.8% of enrollment), and Duval County Public Schools, which lost 1,237 students (1.2% of enrollment).
Statewide, 32,284 students left public schools in 2024-25 to use a scholarship. That is only 1.1% of all public-school students in Florida, and even that total includes those who previously attended charter schools, university-affiliated lab schools, virtual schools, and other public-school options.
Looking at district-run schools alone, just 24,874 new scholarship students left for scholarship programs in 2024-25. Another 5,507 came from charters, and 1,897 came from virtual schools. In fact, as a percentage of their total enrollment, charter schools lost more students to scholarship programs (1.4%) than district-run schools did (1%).
This means that the expanded scholarship program may be having a bigger impact on charter schools than districts. Charter schools, however, haven’t been as vocal about vouchers, and that is likely because charters continue to grow enrollment while district schools have started to shrink.
Enrollment declines in some districts have been real, even if the blame on scholarships is misplaced.
Declining enrollment is being driven by parent preferences – but also by shifting demographics and the ebb of the post-Covid population boom. Florida is one of the few states where overall K-12 population is expected to continue growing, but the growth will be uneven, and every school will have to compete for students.
Even as they face intense competition and demographic headwinds, Florida’s charter schools have kept growing. Some innovative district leaders have signaled a willingness to hear the demand signals from parents and create new solutions to meet their needs.
Understanding what parents seek in private and charter schools, and how new public-school models can better meet those demands, would be a good place for districts to start.
Pre-K and Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) have also been major feeders for Florida’s scholarship programs. In 2024-25, 53,825 new scholarship students came from pre-K — somewhere between one-third and nearly half of all VPK students statewide.
Public schools have limited Pre-K offerings. Statewide, there are less than one-third as many Pre-K students as kindergartners enrolled in public schools. Private schools, by contrast, have used it as a key pipeline to recruit future students.
Districts have other avenues to respond to changing parent demands. Since 2014, when the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA) was introduced as the Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts, districts have been allowed to offer classes and services to scholarship students.
The passage of HB1 in 2023 transformed every state scholarship into an education savings account. K-12 families now have more flexibility to use scholarships for “a la carte learning,” in which they pick and choose from a variety of educational options. By offering part-time instruction, tutoring, therapy, and other services, districts can win back students and the associated funding. So far, 21 of Florida’s 67 districts have taken advantage of this opportunity, with 10 more in the pipeline.
Florida’s enrollment shifts are real, but data shows the “voucher drain” narrative overstates the impact. The real challenge for districts is not money being “siphoned;” it is families choosing other options. Districts that adapt and compete for students will keep both enrollment and funding – leaving students, families and taxpayers better off.
By Ron Matus and Dava Cherry
Florida’s choice-driven education system is the most dynamic and diverse in America, but it’s facing new tests. This year, 41,000 Florida students were awarded school choice scholarships but never used them.
We wanted to know why, so we surveyed their parents.
The 2,739 who responded had a lot to tell us. Not only about supply-side challenges, but about the extent to which families are migrating between different types of schools, and their expectations for finding just the right ones.
As education choice takes root across America, we thought other states could learn from these parents, which is why we boiled their responses down into a new report, “Going With Plan B.”
We saw three main takeaways:
A third of the respondents (34.7%) said there were no available seats at the school they wanted. This, even though the number of Florida private schools has grown 31% over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, a fifth of the respondents (19.7%) said the scholarship amount wasn’t enough to cover tuition and fees.
Even without scholarships, a third of the respondents (36.5%) switched school types (like going from a traditional public school to a charter school). And between their child’s prior school and the school they ended up in, more experienced a positive rather negative shift in satisfaction (20.4% to 10.5%). We didn’t see that coming.
Two thirds of the respondents said they’d apply for the scholarships again, including 63% of those who switched school types, and 55.5% of those who were satisfied after doing so.
Things got better, it seems, but not better enough.
Perhaps as choice has grown, so too have parents’ expectations.
See the full report here.
Dava Cherry is the former director of enterprise data and research at Step Up For Students, and a former public school teacher.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The whiplash of uncertainty has buffeted the nation’s charter school movement during the past five years. First, COVID-19 disrupted learning for millions of students . That was, followed by restrictions on federal grant money. Then came a lawsuit challenging the public status of charter schools.
The leader of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools empathized as the movement’s annual conference kicked off on Monday.
“Starting, running and teaching at a charter school has never been easy,” the alliance’s CEO Starlee Coleman said during her keynote speech to more than 4,000 charter school representatives. She said plenty of changes lie ahead.
“Some of the changes you’re going to like, and some will be hard.”
But charter school supporters also had plenty to celebrate, including the sector’s growth alongside private school choice, students who outperformed district peers on national tests, and state laws that require charters to receive a share of capital funding. The U.S. Department of Education also infused an additional $60 million into the fund for charter schools, bringing the total to $500 million to support charter school expansion.
Leaders also hailed the opportunities created by the rise of private school education savings accounts, or ESAs, which have skyrocketed in popularity in states that have passed them.
“Choice is working. Choice is here to stay,” said Hanna Skandera, CEO of the Daniels Fund and a former secretary of education in New Mexico. Skandera was one of a four-member panel that discussed the future of charter schools.
Leaders in Texas and Florida discussed how to seize those opportunities by offering a la carte courses to students with ESAs. Florida, where in 2023 lawmakers made all K-12 scholarship programs into ESAs that are universally available and created the Personal Education Program for students not enrolled full-time in a public or private school, has already recruited school districts and charter schools to provide access to part-time classes. The latest to sign on is Charter Schools USA, which announced a collaboration with Step Up For Students earlier this week to expand options for students.
"This is the future, and it's great to see,” said Derrell Bradford, president of 50CAN and who serves on several charter school boards. “These sorts of collaborations are what happen when families are in the driver's seat, and they have real resources to direct the education of their children. I hope more states and providers follow them on the path to educational pluralism."
Texas won’t start offering its ESA program until 2026, but in preparation a coalition of charter school leaders has already started a pilot program for private-pay students at four schools. They offer a la carte classes online and in person, including some after school.
“We think this is an opportunity, not as a threat,” said Raphael Gang, K-12 education director at Stand Together Trust.
The panel advised those considering offering part-time services to capitalize on their strengths when deciding what to offer, start small and educate parents on how to access the programs.
In Florida, where education choice scholarship programs have been in place since 1999, representatives shared the history leading up to the state’s 2023 passage of House Bill 1, which converted all choice scholarships into ESAs and made them available to all K-12 students. That law also established a new ESA, the Personalized Education Program, for students who are not enrolled full-time in a public or private school. PEP allows parents to use $8,000 per student to create a customized education for their children.
“It has been a game-changer,” said Keith Jacobs, assistant director of provider development at Step Up For Students. Jacobs, a former charter school leader, works to recruit and onboard charter schools and school districts as providers of part-time services for ESA students.
Jacobs said school choice used to exist only for families who could afford private school tuition or buy a home in a certain ZIP code, but ESAs have taken choice to a new level.
“We have placed the funds in the hands of the parents,” he said.
What does that look like?
It might be a virtual class in the morning, band at a public school in the afternoon, and a session with a private tutor.
“Or it might be ‘My child needs an AP bio class and the charter school down the street has a good bio teacher,’” he said.
Charter Schools USA Florida Superintendent Dr. Eddie Ruiz said the decision to offer courses to part-time students was easy given the demand for flexibility.
“Charter Schools USA believes in innovation,” Ruiz said. “It’s given parents the flexibility to really design their student’s education.”
He said when he approached his principals about the idea, they wondered how it could be done. Ruiz compared it to Amazon.
“Parents can just pick and choose,” he said. “Whatever it may be, they design their educational experience.”
The implementation will look different for each state based on the laws, but in Florida, approved providers can list their offerings and prices on an online platform, where parents can purchase the services with their ESA funds.
Charter schools set their prices based on local costs, said Adam Emerson, executive director of the Office of School Choice for the Florida Department of Education. In calculating those, leaders should not overlook operational costs, such as putting the students in the school information system.
Emerson said serving ESA families is a financial win for charters, but also the chance to make a positive difference for students in their communities.
“Yes, it’s a revenue stream, but it’s also a calling,” he said.
Two of the leading organizations in Florida’s united education choice movement are joining forces to expand access to learning opportunities at charter schools across the state.
The collaboration between Charter Schools USA and Step Up For Students will give Florida’s education choice scholarship students access to individual classes at 62 charter school campuses.
“By opening its campuses across the state for scholarship students, Charter Schools USA is helping set the pace for education innovation,” said Gretchen Schoenhaar, CEO of Step Up For Students. “Working with charter schools in a united movement expands access to flexible, quality learning options for Florida families.”
Florida’s 500,000 K-12 scholarship students are allowed to use their scholarships to purchase individual classes and other services from charter schools and school districts. More than 100,000 of those students use scholarships that allow them to fully customize their child’s education without attending a private school full time.
By the time school starts in August, one in three of the state’s 67 school districts and five charter school networks will offer flexible learning opportunities to scholarship students.
“We are thrilled to work with Step Up on this groundbreaking opportunity to further expand school choice,” said Dr. Eddie Ruiz, the Florida State Superintendent of Charter Schools USA. “By giving parents, especially those who teach their children at home, easy opportunities to access higher level educational opportunities while maintaining their customized scholarship option, we are providing ultimate flexibility. Schooling in the future will be all about flexible options, and this allows us to be on the forefront of this exciting endeavor.”
Keith Jacobs, Step Up’s assistant director of provider development, is a former charter school leader. He has made it his mission to collaborate with school districts and public charter schools to find creative ways to serve scholarship students.
“Charter schools began more than 30 years ago with a mission to bring much-needed innovations to education,” Jacobs said. “At Step Up, we are committed to supporting public schools across the state as they explore new opportunities to reach scholarship families. Charter Schools USA, with its proven ability to serve students across Florida, will supercharge these efforts.”
Education choice is the norm in Florida, where 3.5 million K-12 students attended schools or learning environments chosen by their families, a testament to decades of efforts by the state’s leaders to support a united movement to increase opportunities for students.
For the first time in Florida’s history, more than half of all K-12 students are enrolled in an educational option of choice. During the 2023–24 school year, 1,794,697 students, out of the state’s approximately 3.5 million K-12 population, attended schools outside their zoned neighborhood assignment.
Since the 2008–09 school year, Step Up For Students, in collaboration with the Florida Department of Education, has tracked enrollment across a variety of choice programs. While methods and program structures have evolved, 2023–24 marks a milestone: more than 50% of Florida’s students are now learning in environments selected by their families.
The Changing Landscapes report draws from Florida Department of Education data and removes, where possible, duplicate counts to provide a clearer picture of school choice participation. For example, it adjusts for home education students supported by the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA) and eliminates double-counted students in career and professional programs. It also excludes prekindergarten students in FES-UA and programs like Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK), as the report focuses solely on K–12 education.
While many families still choose their neighborhood public schools, Florida’s education system now offers a broad range of options to meet diverse student needs. Public school choice remains dominant, occupying four of the top five spots in overall enrollment. Charter schools are the most popular option, followed by district open enrollment programs, career and professional academies, and Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) programs for upperclassmen.
On the private side, the 2023–24 school year marked a historic shift: For the first time, a single scholarship program now serves more students than all private school families who pay tuition out of pocket.
In total, over 116,000 additional students enrolled in choice programs compared to the prior year. The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO) and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) saw the greatest growth, along with AICE and FES-UA. Altogether, scholarships for private and home education increased by approximately 142,000 students, while private-pay and non-scholarship home education enrollment declined, likely due to the expanded availability of financial aid.
Among public-school options, magnet and district choice programs saw slight declines, with 28,000 and 8,447 fewer students, respectively. Still, public-school choice remains strong: 1.1 million of Florida’s 2.9 million public school students (40%) are enrolled in a choice-based public option.
Altogether, nearly 1.8 million students attend a school chosen by their parents or guardians. This shift reflects a fundamental transformation in Florida’s educational landscape—one where families are increasingly empowered to find the best fit for their children.
But with so many students opting for alternatives to their zoned public schools, it raises an interesting question: What about those who stay? If families are surrounded by options and still choose their assigned public school, isn’t that a choice, too? In that light, Florida may already have a 100% choice system, because staying is just as much a decision as leaving.
Rather than a battle between public and private education, Florida is showing how both sectors can coexist and thrive, working together to provide high quality learning opportunities for all students. The future of education isn’t one-size-fits-all; it’s about ensuring every family has access to an option that fits their child’s unique needs. In Florida, that future is already here.
Around the state: A wide-ranging education bill was passed recently regarding high school diploma requirements, lawmakers are working on bills to make it easier to establish charter schools in Florida, a contract that aided the mental health of students is coming to an end in Sarasota and funding cuts loom in districts. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Sarasota: The school district here is ending a longstanding contract that placed full-time mental health therapists in elementary schools at a time when demand for these services remains high. The annual contract with The Florida Center for Early Childhood, which has been in place for seven years and served more than 475 children last year, is set to expire at the end of June and will not be renewed, officials say. The district is now weighing a new approach that shifts away from the in-school therapy model that once made Sarasota a national leader in student mental health care. WUSF.
High school diploma requirements: The Florida Senate passed a wide-ranging education bill on Thursday that eliminates a requirement that high school students pass algebra and language arts tests to earn standard diplomas. Senators approved SB 166 unanimously. Halfway through the legislative session, it is unknown if the House will take up the proposal. The bill would require that a student’s performance on the English-language arts assessment make up 30 percent of the student’s course grade. Several school districts lobbied in support of the bill, which would expand eligibility for teachers' professional certificates, removes requirements for schools to have internal auditors and looks to enhance teachers recruitment. Third-graders who score a 1 out of 5 on their third and final reading progress monitoring tests could advance to fourth grade if they scored a 2 on the first two progress-monitoring tests. “If all they (students) learn how to do is take a test, then I think we have failed in our education system,” said Senate Education Pre-K-12 Chairman Corey Simon, who is sponsoring the bill. WCJB. WUFT. Florida Phoenix. Yahoo News. Tampa Bay Times.
Charter schools: Lawmakers in the state are working to pass two different bills to make establishing charter schools easier in Florida. House bill 123 and Senate Bill 140 would eliminate a requirement forcing charter schools to get approval from 50 percent of teachers before converting a public school to a charter school, among other changes. According to the latest data from the Florida Department of Education, charter schools serve 12% of the enrollment in public schools. Charter school enrollment has more than doubled over the last decade, the data shows. During the 2022-2023 school year, 23 conversion charter schools operated in Florida, representing approximately 3 percent of the total number of charter schools in the state. WPTV. WLFX. South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Also in the Legislature: An Orange County school board member is voicing concerns about Florida House Bill 5101, which, if it is passed, would ax funding for certain programs at high schools statewide. If approved, the bill would cut funding for AP, IB, Cambridge, Dual Enrollment and career and professional courses for high school students. “If these cuts go through, our students will suffer, our families will suffer, and our economy will suffer,” said Orange County School Board member Stephanie Vanos. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, said during a budget committee meeting that concerned families should talk to school district officials about how they use their money. If passed, HB 5101 would go into effect on July 1. Spectrum News.
Colleges and universities: Undocumented college students affected by the repeal of in-state tuition rates and their advocates recently appealed to lawmakers. The Florida Legislature earlier this year repealed a 2014 law allowing individuals brought into the U.S. as children without documentation, referred to as "Dreamers," to pay in-state tuition rates at Florida college and universities. The Florida Policy Institute reports that this will affect about 6,500 undergraduates. Florida Phoenix. The Florida House's proposed budget would take away funding for almost 22,000 Florida students who attend private, non-profit colleges and universities in the state. The Effective Access to Student Education Grant, or EASE, provides scholarships to Florida residents at some private, not-for-profit institutions to help ease the burden of the cost of a higher education. The proposed cut would impact students at 15 of the 30 schools that fall under this designation. WUSF. College of Central Florida launched a program that guarantees transfer admission to the University of Florida for students who successfully finish one of 19 pathways. Ocala Star-Banner. Meanwhile, the nation's historically Black colleges and universities, some of which are in the state of Florida, are wondering how to survive as cuts continue for higher education funding. The 74th.
Opinions on schools: Florida has long been a national leader in expanding educational choice, especially at the K-12 level, where policymakers have championed the right of families to select schools that best meet their children's needs. However, when it comes to higher education, that same commitment to choice is under threat. Arthur Keiser, chancellor of Keiser University.
