The number of Jewish schools in Florida nearly doubled over the past 15 years, boosted by parents using state school choice scholarships and the migration of families from New York, according to a new report from Teach Coalition and Step Up For Students.

Student enrollment between 2007-08 and 2022-23 rose 58 percent, from 8,492 to 13,379, while the number of Jewish day schools and yeshivas grew from 40 to 74, the report shows.

Over the same span, the percentage of Jewish school students using choice scholarships increased from 10 to 60 percent.

The growth of Jewish schools in Florida is historic and unmatched anywhere else in America. The analysis is also likely to understate the trend lines, given it does not cover the 2023-24 school year, the first year every student in Florida became eligible for a choice scholarship. (The data for 2023-24 is not yet available.)

On a cautionary note, the report also points to increasingly pressing issues that could limit future growth – and not just for Jewish schools.

The vast majority of newer Jewish schools are on the smaller side, with fewer than 175 students. That’s not a function of parental preference, the report suggests, but the result of challenges schools face in navigating restrictive local zoning laws to find adequate and affordable facilities.

“With Florida’s existing Jewish schools at or near full capacity, more effort is needed to source suitably sized school buildings,” said Danny Aqua, director of special projects at Teach Coalition. “Without legislative and regulatory action to reduce the hurdles to opening new schools, the lack of school building space may throttle growth in Florida’s Jewish day schools.”

Full report here.

With less than two months before the start of the 2023 Florida legislative session, more than 750 Jewish leaders, parents and other supporters of education choice gathered at a breakfast in Davie, Florida, to encourage lawmakers to custom it for more families.

“Our theme of this year’s theme this year is changing lives, one scholarship at a time, because every child matters,” said Daniel Aqua, executive director at Teach Florida, a project of the Orthodox Union and host of the annual breakfast.

“We are so grateful to our elected officials for creating and expanding these incredible scholarships that are helping thousands of children in our community.”

The focus of the event, which began in 2017, is to celebrate the organization’s legislative victories in securing government funding for families sending their children to Jewish day schools.

You can watch a video recap of the event here.

In addition to Aqua, others who spoke at the event were Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Paul Renner, R — Palm Coast; Rep. Randy Fine, R — Palm Bay; Teach Florida Chairman Allan Jacob, a South Florida physician and chairman of Teach Florida; Teach Florida Funding Specialist Malka Rhodes; and Teach Florida Engagement Director Melissa Glaser.

Renner said the goal is to do more than let families choose only from among traditional forms of education.

“We want to get to a place in Florida where every child’s education is customized,” he said. “Even brothers and sisters learn differently, and we can only do that through school choice and education savings accounts, which allows you to more than just pay your tuition, but to get an at home tutor, to do things online, to do things that further enrich your education experience.”

Two states recently adopted programs that allow more customization.

West Virginia lawmakers In 2021 approved the Hope Scholarship, which allocates eligible families about $4,300 per child per year to individualize their child’s education, paying for tuition, therapies, curriculums and more. It marked the nation’s broadest education reform of its kind.

In 2022, Arizona followed suit by opening education savings accounts to every K-12 student in Arizona. During a celebration of the new law, then-Gov. Doug Ducey called Arizona “the gold standard for educational freedom in America.”

Though other states, including Florida, have such programs, eligibility has been limited mainly to students with unique abilities or certain special needs.

Fine, who sponsored the nation’s largest expansion of traditional education scholarship programs in 2021 and who received Teach Florida’s Legislator of the Year Award last year, echoed Renner’s support for expanded choice opportunities.

“What I’m hopeful we are going to do over the next two years is to see that every student gets every dollar for every method of education that they so choose,” he said. “When we do that, that is when the mission of expanding school choice will be done.”

The support for greater flexibility also comes as Florida’s Jewish day schools are bursting at the seams, thanks to a population boom bringing people from other states who were drawn to Florida by the sunshine, the lack of pandemic shutdowns, low taxes and the state’s expansive K-12 education choice scholarship program.

Florida leads the nation with more than 242,000 children receiving a state scholarship - including a record 7,200 in Jewish day schools. More than 50 percent of Florida Jewish day school students receive a state scholarship. Since 2011, Teach Florida has secured more than $253 million in state funding for Jewish day school families.

The growth has fueled the opening of new schools, including Tampa Torah Academy, which opened this year to students in preschool through eighth grade.

Most recently, Rabbi Isaac Melnick, a fellow in the Drexel Fund’s Founders program, announced plans to open Shorashim Academy, a private school to serve students from more casually observant Jewish families. The mission: to help connect students to their Jewish roots.

As school leaders nationwide began the 2020-21 academic year still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic that abruptly shuttered their campuses last spring, enrollment declined in many district schools, especially those in states where brick-and-mortar schools remained closed.

Though Florida opened all district schools to full-time, in-person instruction, they too saw enrollment declines, as did some private schools as parents turned to homeschooling and learning pods. Florida Catholic schools, which in previous years had held their own thanks to the availability of state school choice scholarships, experienced declines during 2020-21 as well.

The Sunshine State’s Jewish schools stood out as an exception to the rule.

Except for some that continued to limit instruction to remote learning, Jewish schools reported sharp increases this academic year, and the trendline shows no signs of a downturn as school leaders prepare for the fall.

Figures from the Florida Department of Education show steady growth at Jewish schools over the past three years, with enrollment at 10,623 in 2018-19, 11,549 in 2019-20 and 12,482 in 2020-21. The number of schools also rose from 50 to 64 during that same time.

“Enrollment is certainly up, and many schools have waitlists,” said Daniel Aqua, executive director for Teach Florida, an advocacy group for Jewish schools. He attributed the growth to an influx of Jewish families moving from other states as well as the fact that many Florida couples are having more children.

While some individual schools reported dips, “it’s a booming year next year” across the board, Aqua said, citing two possible explanations: Florida companies that have said they’ll allow their employees to continue to work remotely post-pandemic and the fact that many Jewish families in the northeast are looking for relief from harsh winters, expensive housing costs, high taxes and rising school tuition.

But quality of life isn’t the only enticement. Florida’s robust education choice scholarship program also beckons more folks to the Sunshine State. According to Teach Florida, 40% of students receive state scholarships, including the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.

The organization recently gathered more than 2,000 signatures on a petition supporting HB 7045, legislation that would provide school choice scholarships for more families.

Eli Hagler, executive director at Brauser Maimonides Academy, a Fort Lauderdale Modern Orthodox school that serves students from nursery school to eighth grade, said interest from people across the country in moving to South Florida has gotten out of control in the past couple of months. He said the school, which has about 28% of its 526 students on state scholarships, already has received 200 applications, double what it normally receives at this point in the year. More than 50 of those applications are for kindergarten seats.

“We’re dealing with five to 10 years of growth happening in 12 months,” he said. “While it’s a good problem to have, it’s a real problem that needs to be addressed. We can’t admit every kid.”

He said the school’s leaders are doing all they can to maximize their space.

“We’re putting up walls; we’re taking down walls,” Hagler said.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for a family who otherwise may struggle to put their kids in a qualified day school,” he said.

So why not send the kids to a charter school or a district school?

“To a Jewish family, a Jewish education is necessity, not an elective,” Hagler said.

In addition to the core academic classes, Jewish schools teach students Hebrew, Jewish religious law, and culture. A recent Facebook video shows the recent schoolwide observance of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s national remembrance day for all Israeli military personnel who died in the struggle that led to the establishment of the state of Israel and for those later killed while on active duty in Israel’s armed forces.

The Jewish Academy, serving students in preschool through eighth grade in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Hollywood, also is experiencing growth. It has expanded so much that leaders are planning to open a high school. In February, the academy was 95% full of returning students, prompting school officials to hold a lottery to fill the remaining seats.

Head of school Rabbi Chaim Albert said Florida’s income-based scholarship, which cuts the tuition by nearly half, has played a significant role in allowing families, many of whom are first-generation Americans, to provide a Jewish education for their children.

“They are the tree of life that creates hope where otherwise there was darkness,” Albert said. “They create opportunity for those that are in the greatest need and they breathe life into our community and into our children. The scholarships are the single most impactful ray of light that has reached our community in the 25 years I have been in education. We simply could not run our school without the help these scholarships have provided.”