Meet the Genot kids of Bradenton: Kingston, Kenzington, Aurora, and Kohlton. Each with above-average talent in their respective sports – soccer for the boys, gymnastics for Aurora. Each with demanding schedules – school, training, practice.
One Florida education choice scholarship managed by Step Up For Students makes it all happen for the family.
The Genots are home-educated, which allows for the flexibility they need to navigate their academic and athletic schedules. The education savings accounts (ESAs) that comprise the scholarships pay for curriculum, tutoring, and fees to their athletic clubs.
“It works because it’s not like one shoe fits everybody,” said their mother, Candy Genot. “Everybody has their own story. Everybody has what works for them. My boys play soccer. My daughter's a gymnast, and so it all works differently regarding what each one needs.”
Kingston is a freshman at High Point University in North Carolina, where he attends on a soccer scholarship. He used the Florida education choice scholarship during his senior year of high school.
“It helps so much with flexibility, optimizing your personal schedule,” Kingston said. “Everyone works differently, so it definitely helps suit the individual.”
Kenzington, 15, is a 10th-grader who takes live classes on Outschool. Diagnosed with learning disabilities, he uses part of his ESA to pay for specialized tutoring like the Orton-Gillingham Approach.
Kenzington is a goalkeeper for the MLS NEXT Homegrown division of the Tampa Bay United soccer club. That is the top level of youth player development in North America.
He is a member of Tampa Bay United’s Under 16 team, but he plays with the U17 team and trains with the U19 team.
“He has the mindset, ‘I’m going pro, Mom, I’m going pro,’” Candy said. “I say, ‘Buddy, everybody has a dream, but everybody needs a backup plan.’”
A typical day for Kenzington: early morning classes like speech or debate, a 90-minute workout at a gym, lunch, then classes until 2:30 p.m., a 90-minute ride to Tampa for practice and goalkeeper training with Tampa Bay United, and a 90-minute ride home. Some days end with a post-practice class.
Taking online classes also allows for doing schoolwork in the car if need be.
“Schoolwork or homework in the car, we definitely take advantage of that time,” Kingston said.
The scholarship also helps financially with Kenzington, who needs specialized tutors.
“Those aren’t cheap,” Candy said. “They can run $100, $125 an hour. Most families with four kids can’t afford that. Fortunately, we have the scholarship and we’re able to do that.”
One Florida education choice scholarship managed by Step Up For Students makes it all happen for the family.
The Genots are home-educated, which allows for the flexibility they need to navigate their academic and athletic schedules. The education savings accounts (ESAs) that comprise the scholarships pay for curriculum, tutoring, and fees to their athletic clubs.
“It works because it’s not like one shoe fits everybody,” said their mother, Candy Genot. “Everybody has their own story. Everybody has what works for them. My boys play soccer. My daughter's a gymnast, and so it all works differently regarding what each one needs.”
Kingston is a freshman at High Point University in North Carolina, where he attends on a soccer scholarship. He used the Florida education choice scholarship during his senior year of high school.
“It helps so much with flexibility, optimizing your personal schedule,” Kingston said. “Everyone works differently, so it definitely helps suit the individual.”
Kenzington, 15, is a 10th-grader who takes live classes on Outschool. Diagnosed with learning disabilities, he uses part of his ESA to pay for specialized tutoring like the Orton-Gillingham Approach.
Kenzington is a goalkeeper for the MLS NEXT Homegrown division of the Tampa Bay United soccer club. That is the top level of youth player development in North America.
He is a member of Tampa Bay United’s Under 16 team, but he plays with the U17 team and trains with the U19 team.
“He has the mindset, ‘I’m going pro, Mom, I’m going pro,’” Candy said. “I say, ‘Buddy, everybody has a dream, but everybody needs a backup plan.’”
A typical day for Kenzington: early morning classes like speech or debate, a 90-minute workout at a gym, lunch, then classes until 2:30 p.m., a 90-minute ride to Tampa for practice and goalkeeper training with Tampa Bay United, and a 90-minute ride home. Some days end with a post-practice class.
Taking online classes also allows for doing schoolwork in the car if need be.
“Schoolwork or homework in the car, we definitely take advantage of that time,” Kingston said.
The scholarship also helps financially with Kenzington, who needs specialized tutors.
“Those aren’t cheap,” Candy said. “They can run $100, $125 an hour. Most families with four kids can’t afford that. Fortunately, we have the scholarship and we’re able to do that.”
Aurora, 11, is a sixth grader who is a level 8, or advanced, gymnast. She trains and attends school at EVO Academy in Sarasota. EVO’s academic academy accommodates the unique demands of advanced athletes.
Aurora attends EVO six days a week, training from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. That is followed by classes from 1 p.m. until 4. On weekdays.
Kohlton, 10, plays for a U12 soccer team in Bradenton. He also attends EVO, though his schedule is the opposite of his sister – school in the morning and soccer training in the afternoon.
Candy said she initially enrolled her children in charter schools but made the switch to home education when Kingston began playing for an elite soccer club in Clearwater. His travel demands for daily practice did not mesh with the schedule of a brick-and-mortar school.
“And we realized, wow, our kids get more done homeschooling than they did attending school,” Candy said.
“We've been able to you know use the scholarship in different ways. Kingston was able to get ahead in school and ready for college. It's been great for us. We’re super grateful for it.”
In this episode, Kelly Garcia, co-founder and executive director of GuidEd Florida, discusses how Florida’s education choice landscape has evolved in the 25 years since the launch of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship.
Garcia explains that as options have expanded beyond traditional district, private and charter schools to include microschools, virtual school, homeschooling and customized learning plans, families need trusted guidance to make informed decisions. GuidEd was created to help families understand scholarship options, ask the right questions, and find learning environments that fit their children’s individual needs. The conversation explores the organization’s neutral, family-centered approach; the practical barriers families face, and the growing need for human guidance even as AI makes basic information easier to find.
Key points:
Families whose children benefit from Florida’s education choice scholarships and charter schools have won an early victory in the legal battle with the state’s largest teachers union.
In May, the Florida Education Association sued the Florida Department of Education, arguing that the state’s education choice programs violate the state constitution’s requirement for a “uniform” system of public education. The DOE responded with a counterclaim asking the court to declare the scholarship programs and charter school laws constitutional.
On Wednesday in Tallahassee, attorneys representing families who would be harmed if the lawsuit succeeds were granted permission to be intervenors in the case along with the DOE. In addition, Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom also approved the families’ request for full-party status. This gives them the same rights of argument and appeal as the original parties.
Though the plaintiffs agreed with the families’ request to intervene, they opposed them being granted full-party status, arguing that the issue was the constitutionality of the programs, not whether parents have the right to direct their children’s education, which they could still do at their own expense.
“It doesn’t rise to the level that requires full-party status.” said Martin Powell, attorney for the plaintiffs, calling the families’ position as being “in lockstep” with the state.
Daniel Woodring, who represents a group of eight families using education choice scholarship or attending charter schools, argued that the full-party status was needed “out of an abundance of caution” to protect the interests of about 800,000 Florida students who benefit from scholarships or attend charter schools.
“Elections happen; parties can shift; positions can change,” he said.
At the end of the 15-minute hearing, Sjostrom sided with the families, calling it an “issue of fundamental fairness.”
He said the questions raised were “monumental” and of “crucial importance” to families. “There’s enough of a direct effect on them that it’s enough for them to get full-party status,” he said.
Attorneys for both groups of families praised the decision as a win for families.
“The Department of Education could have a different commissioner; we could have a different governor. This isolates the parents and recognizes that the parents’ interest in their kids’ education is important, more important than the state’s interest in this,” Woodring said. “They are the ones truly impacted by the way this case is decided.”
Attorney Bryan Cleveland of EdChoice Legal Advocates, representing a group of four scholarship families, said the judge properly recognized families as key stakeholders.
“Parents have a direct stake in the outcome of this lawsuit, and they deserve a full voice in defending the program and their parental rights,” he said. “We look forward to representing them and defending the program in this litigation."
A written order is expected soon.
The hearing was the first since the Florida Education Association, along with its president, Andrew Spar and others, filed its most recent lawsuit against the state over K-12 education choice programs, which have spanned three decades. The state passed its first charter school law in 1996.
For the fifth consecutive year, a national group ranked Florida as the top state in education freedom.
The Heritage Foundation, a national think tank, named the Sunshine State No. 1 overall in its annual Education Freedom Report Card, which ranks states on a variety of metrics, including active education choice programs, academic transparency, teacher freedom, the return on investment of the state’s education spending, and civics education.
Finishing behind Florida were Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, and Iowa, jumping 34 spots in civics over last year.
"In the backdrop of the Trump administration working to wind down the U.S. Department of Education, states like Florida and Iowa have met the moment by reclaiming more education responsibilities, which our nation's founders always intended, and providing families with more education choice,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a news release. “More states need to provide families with K-12 education savings account programs that allow them to choose learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children."
During the 2024–25 school year, 53% of all Florida’s K–12 students — 1,889,532 children — attended a public, private, or home education option of their parents’ or guardians’ choice. Just one year after crossing the 50% threshold for the first time, Florida’s school choice participation grew by nearly 100,000 additional students.
To see the Heritage Foundation’s full report, go here.
Florida's education choice movement has transformed learning for millions of families, but the next generation of reforms will require expanding options, modernizing funding and continuing to trust parents, a panel of state education leaders said Tuesday.
The discussion, hosted by the James Madison Institute, featured former Gov. Jeb Bush, who spearheaded the education choice movement that put Florida two decades ahead of other states that have recently established choice programs. Joining him were state Sen. Danny Burgess, R - Zephyrhills, whose three children are homeschooled, and Ron Matus, research and special projects director at Step Up For Students, a nonprofit organization that manages the state’s K-12 ed choice scholarship programs.
William Mattox, senior director of the James Madison Institute’s J. Stanley Marshall Center for Education Freedom, moderated the event, also sponsored by the Foundation for Florida’s Future (founded by Bush over 30 years ago) and Step Up For Students, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program. To see the full panel discussion, click here.
Bush recalled the early days of the ed choice movement, when he visited 250 schools during his campaign for governor and later established the state’s A-F grading system and a concurrent scholarship program for children in F-rated public schools. On the day Bush signed the bill, the Florida teachers union filed a lawsuit. (The state Supreme Court eventually struck down Bush’s scholarship program as violating the state Constitution's uniformity clause.)
The state also established the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship to ensure low-income students have access to options. That program ushered in an era of expanded choice that converted all scholarships to education savings accounts with universal eligibility. The change now empowers parents to customize their children’s education through a host of options, including private schools, microschools, homeschool hybrids, individual providers, online classes, and even individual public school courses. The long history of ed choice has made Florida the topic of many research studies with powerful results that show the programs are working and inform other states considering similar programs.
He said key findings include greater civic engagement, higher college attendance rates, academic gains, and improved outcomes for traditional public schools when parents have alternatives.
“Most importantly, Florida demonstrated that a child's ZIP code should not determine his or her future,” he said.
Matus, who was the statewide education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times as the movement took hold in 2004, covered the rise of charter schools, private school choice programs, Florida Virtual School (the nation’s first internet-based high school), and new forms of public school innovation.
However, meeting Black pastors in South St. Petersburg who strongly supported school choice particularly influenced his perception and challenged stereotypes about the movement.
“They simply wanted better options for the families they served,” Matus said. “That experience taught me that people support school choice for many reasons that often have little to do with the political narratives surrounding it.”
As the chief storyteller at Step Up, Matus has traveled the state to find evidence of how the rapid growth of learning options has allowed students and providers to flourish, including in Florida’s most rural areas.
“What I've seen is remarkable,” he said. “Today, roughly half of Florida's students participate in some form of educational choice. More than 500,000 students use scholarship programs. Hundreds of former public-school teachers have gone on to create their own educational options. Who could have imagined that 20 years ago?”
As for Burgess, he was a student sitting in class at Zephyrhills High School when the FTC was established 25 years ago and had organized a local Students for Jeb chapter when Bush was running for governor.
“I remain proud of my public school background,” he said. “But the educational landscape back then was very different.”
Choice was limited mainly to religious schools for those who could afford tuition. Homeschoolers were viewed as a fringe group.
Today, that has changed dramatically, he said.
Burgess and his wife use scholarship programs to customize the education of their three children through a rigorous hybrid classical Catholic program, piano lessons, and other enrichment activities.
“Watching our children thrive in that environment has been one of the greatest blessings of our lives,” he said. “The flexibility and opportunity we've been given through school-choice programs have made a tremendous difference for our family.”
Being a state lawmaker has given Burgess a front row seat to the evolution of ed choice.
As a House member in 2014, he saw changes that were largely incremental.
That changed in 2023, when lawmakers passed House Bill 1.
“When Florida embraced universal school choice, it represented the culmination of decades of work,” he said. “None of that would have happened without the foundation laid by Gov. Bush, the Tax Credit Scholarship Program, and the reforms that followed over the years.
“Today, Florida is leading the nation on universal school choice, and many other states are looking to follow that model.”
Universal came, but not without some important lessons that those in other states need to understand. Bush cited several:
“The tendency in government is always to solve problems by adding more rules,” he said. “You end up putting a blanket over the 99% of schools and providers that are working well because of problems caused by the other 1%.”
“Institutions that feel threatened by change will fight against it,” he said. “Policymakers pursuing these reforms need to understand that litigation is almost inevitable. If you're starting down this road in another state, you're going to get sued. I can virtually guarantee it.”
The panelists praised education savings accounts, which let parents direct funding to pre-approved uses spelled out in state purchasing guides, for empowering parents, who know what options best fit their children.
However, Burgess said some rules should be re-examined while leaving in place “reasonable safeguards.”
"Do we truly trust parents to make the right decisions for their children? I do. And I’m going to default to trusting parents every time.”
The conversation also turned toward equitable funding levels for different scholarship programs, the recommended removal of regulatory barriers that prevent innovation options such as microschools from opening and the need for school districts to see the benefits of sharing their underused school buildings with charter and private schools and allowing choice students to take individual district courses.
Bush challenged the assumption that if parents choose something other than a traditional public school, that public education suffers.
“We need a superintendent...that wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Every kid that is in my district...every child is my responsibility. I want to create an environment where parents have an abundance of choices, that kids are protected, that they dream big dreams, and when a school is successful as a microschool or homeschool option, or a hybrid option...or a traditional school or charter school or a Catholic school or a Jewish school, that I’m here to celebrate that success.’"
Two years after the first Florida school district made the groundbreaking decision to offer a la carte learning to education choice scholarship students, some Arizona school districts are following its lead.
The Apache Junction Unified School District, located in the metro area of Phoenix known as East Valley, is opening its doors this year to students using the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program.
The district is allowing parents to build a customized education for their children from preschool to high school through its new FLEX program, which the school board approved in March. Families pay for classes or activities with their scholarship funds.
“Rather than choosing between full-time enrollment or going it alone, FLEX allows students to build a learning plan that fits their goals, schedule, and learning style,” according to the district’s website.
Elementary students can attend in-person enrichment and academic classes, while junior high and high school students can enroll in individual academic courses or sports. Preschoolers can attend The Learning Center, a part-time program to support social development and school readiness.
The program offers families flexible scheduling so they can balance homeschooling, virtual classes or specialized courses with public school opportunities. Students can build classes around the school’s lunch period so they can socialize with their peers.
Semester costs range from $600 per class or sport for high schoolers to $450 per class for kindergarten through eighth- grade classes that include fine arts and STEM. Preschool pricing varies.
District Superintendent Robert Papplardo told the Arizona Republic that the program is a way to fill a niche for parents who want access to parts of the public system while remaining outside it. He also said it would enable the district to recoup some of the funding lost due to enrollment declines due to birth rates that have been falling since 2008.
According to the Republic, several other districts, including Mesa Public Schools, the state’s largest district, are offering sports and extra-curriculars to scholarship students. Mesa had 10 ESA students participate in district athletic programs last year.
But it was Florida that first began allowing school districts and charter schools the opportunity to offer services to education choice scholarship students in 2023 after the passage of House Bill 1, which created universal eligibility and converted all scholarships to education savings accounts.
Brevard County was the first countywide district to opt in by giving ESA students access to classes at its online school. Other districts and public schools soon followed, including charter school networks. Florida Virtual School, the nation’s first internet-based public high school and now its own school district, also provides courses to scholarship students statewide through its FLVS Flex program.
“Offering services or classes to ESA students has always been a path for public school districts, and it is encouraging to see some of them embrace this opportunity to provide more options for families,” said Ryan Cantrell, chief state strategy officer for the national education choice advocacy group, the American Federation for Children. “More districts should take advantage of this opportunity.”
Today, 80% of Florida’s 67 county school districts are marketing courses to scholarship students or preparing to do so.
“Arizona should be applauded for embracing à la carte learning and recognizing that public schools can be an important part of a family’s customized education,” said Keith Jacobs, vice president and head of district and charter school services for Step Up For Students, a nonprofit that helps districts start a la carte programs and also manages the majority of the state’s private education choice scholarship programs.
Jacobs said he hopes other states that have established education choice programs will see district participation as a win-win and a natural next step as the lines in public education continue to blur.
“Florida is leading the way in demonstrating how this approach can expand opportunities for families while allowing public schools to serve more students, maximize existing programs and expertise, and generate new revenue,” he said. “The next phase of public education is customization, and public schools should be at the center of it.”
Editor's note: This post was originally published by our partner organization, Step Up, Step Further Scholarship Fund.
Florida Chamber of Commerce aims to raise over $250 million for public schools through partnership with Step Further Scholarship Fund to promote America’s new Education Freedom Tax Credit
The Florida Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the Step Further Scholarship Fund to promote the new Education Freedom Tax Credit, a new federal initiative that will allow taxpayers to redirect a portion of their federal tax liability to fund scholarships for low-income students in Florida public schools.
More than 711,000 Florida children live in poverty, making expanded educational opportunity essential to strengthening Florida's future workforce and economic prosperity. Accessing quality education for families stuck in generational poverty is one of the Florida Prosperity Initiatives “ten root causes” of poverty that must be overcome and this new opportunity unlocks huge potential for families.
“The Florida Chamber Foundation’s Prosperity Initiative believes that in order to break cycles of generational poverty, we must expand pathways to opportunity for every child, regardless of their ZIP code,” said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “The brand-new Education Freedom Tax Credit can help connect students to learning environments and resources in Florida’s public schools that support long-term success.”
The partnership was highlighted during the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2026 Learners to Earners Workforce Solution Summit on June 23 in Tampa, which brought together business, education, nonprofit, and government leaders to discuss workforce development and talent pipeline challenges facing Florida.
Presenters included U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds from Florida’s 19th Congressional District and Republican gubernatorial candidate; Stasi Kamoutsas, Commissioner of Education for the State of Florida; and Henry Mack, assistant U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Executives from AdventHealth, Arthrex, Coca-Cola, PNC Bank, and other leading Florida employers shared their perspectives on these workforce development issues. Additionally, nonprofit leaders served as session panelists, including leaders from Collaboratory, Florida Gulf Coast University, the Florida Philanthropic Network, the Florida Virtual School, and Tampa General Hospital.
“The new federal scholarship aligns perfectly with the mission of the Chamber’s Prosperity Initiative and talent goals,” said John Kirtley, founder and chairman of Step Up For Students. “We are honored to be a sponsor of the summit and grateful for this partnership.”
“The Florida Chamber's statewide network helps connect Florida employers with opportunities to invest in students and strengthen our future workforce,” said Rachel Jones, Senior Director of Fundraising, Step Further Scholarship Fund.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit Explained
Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, individual taxpayers may receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to eligible Scholarship Granting Organizations, including the Step Further Scholarship Fund. Incredibly, rather than increasing their overall tax burden, participants can redirect a portion of their federal tax liability to support scholarships for low-income public school students in Florida.
Through this initiative, Step Further Scholarship Fund will award scholarships that help students access educational resources and services such as tutoring, technology, therapy, after-school programs, and other learning supports.
An Opportunity for Florida Employers
While there is no cost to Florida employers, they can support the initiative through payroll-giving programs that make participation simple for employees while expanding scholarship opportunities in local communities.
Step Further Scholarship Fund works directly with employers to implement payroll deduction programs, provide technical support and supply employee communications resources, minimizing administrative burden while maximizing participation.
To sign up for the Step Up, Step Further interest list, go here.
Editor's note: This guest post is from our partner organization, Step Up, Step Further Scholarship Fund.
Exciting news for Florida K-12 students and families!
We are proud to announce a strategic partnership between the American Federation For Children (AFC) Scholarship Fund and Step Up, Step Further Scholarship Fund, powered by Step Up For Students to help expand access to educational opportunities through the Education Freedom Tax Credit program.
By bringing together AFC's national leadership in education choice and Step Up For Students' proven experience serving Florida families, this partnership represents an important step toward helping more students access the educational resources and learning environments that best meet their unique needs.
Beginning in 2027, the Education Freedom Tax Credit will create new opportunities to support K–12 students through scholarships that can help fund tuition, tutoring, technology, educational services, and more. Together, we're committed to ensuring Florida families have access to opportunities that help students learn, grow, and thrive.
This is about more than scholarships; it's about empowering families, strengthening communities, and creating brighter futures for Florida's next generation.
Read the full announcement here.
Editor’s note: Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance devoted its annual spring research conference to helping policymakers assess education choice: What is and is not working, the trade-offs involved in different programs, and the long-term effects. John F. Kirtley, the founder and chairman of Step Up For Students, the nation’s largest nonprofit scholarship funding organization, told attendees in a keynote address about his home state of Florida, where 30 years of robust education choice across the district, charter, and private sectors are not only working but have set a national standard for the other states taking their first steps on the journey. His remarks are summarized below. You can read the entire speech here. To learn more about Harvard’s Emerging School Models conference, scheduled for Sept. 17 and 18, go here.
Redefinition of public education
Growth of choice programs
Supply-side developments
Impact on rural and district schools
Educational outcomes and research
ORLANDO, Fla. — As public education has evolved from a one-size-fits-all system to one where families are empowered to choose the environment that best fits their child, everyone has been a winner: Students, parents, educators, entrepreneurs, and even public school districts.
That was the message of John F. Kirtley, founder and chairman of Step Up For Students, to the roughly 1,000 people who attended the non-profit’s Navigating New Horizons conference this week.
In a closing speech that at the end brought the audience to its feet, Kirtley began by describing the state of education before the 1990s. Everyone paid taxes, and students were assigned to schools by their ZIP codes.
“It was, it could be said, a definition that emphasized ‘uniformity,’” he said, referencing but not naming the state teachers union’s recent lawsuit to eliminate Florida’s robust education choice programs, including all scholarship programs and charter schools.
Kirtley said he didn’t realize it at the time, but since overall graduation rates in Florida were, until the mid-1990’s, around 60% overall and less than 40% for black males, it’s likely that many of his friends on the football team who crossed the stage did not get real diplomas. They likely received certificates of completion. The second group probably included a classmate who regularly got in trouble for dozing during early morning courses and was uninspired by classic literature. Yet he could take apart an entire car and rebuild it by himself, when Kirtley couldn’t change his car’s oil.
“But there was no specialized program for him…No, uniformity didn’t serve him well.”
Today, Kirtley said, his classmate could sleep in, take core classes online in his pajamas, then head over to the district automotive technology program in the afternoon, where he would be the star student.
“When he graduated, he’d be hired by the local Mercedes dealer and make over $100,000 two years out of school,” Kirtley said. “So, yeah, he’d be better off.”
Not only are students better off, but so are educators who can start their own schools, including microschools, and even school districts, including many that now offer specialized magnet schools and individual courses to education choice scholarship students who attend school part time.
“I close by saying don’t fear the New Definition. Embrace it. Thrive in it. You can thrive in it whether you are a microschool, an à la carte provider, or one of nation’s largest school districts,” he said. “And when you thrive in the New Definition, all students will thrive along with you. And shouldn’t that really be the ultimate goal?”
His remarks echoed the message given the day before by Gretchen Schoenhaar, Step Up’s chief executive officer, who gave the conference’s opening speech.
“Families today seek learning environments that reflect their children's unique strengths, needs and goals,” Schoenhaar said. “What's really inspiring is how this demand has sparked innovation across the education landscape.”
Schoenhaar said she hoped the two-day event would offer attendees a chance to be “inspired by the conversations you have, encouraged by the stories you hear, and energized by the collective passion in this room.”
Schoenhaar said Florida is home to the nation's largest parent-directed education marketplace today, with more than half of all K-12 students participating in some form of education choice, including many district schools, private schools, charter schools, homeschools, online schooling, or some combination of those.
“The spirit of innovation and possibility is exactly what this conference is all about,” she said.
The event, whose theme is Facing the Future Together, featured nearly 100 session speakers and 100 exhibitors displaying everything from a la carte learning to transportation options, tutoring, and curriculum.
Organizers said this year’s goal was to provide educators with information and resources based on best practices that also reflect the bigger picture. That included information about the rise of microschools and how to use AI efficiently and responsibly.
“Over the next two days, we hope you'll be inspired by new ideas, meaningful connections and innovative strategies that will help shape the future of education,” Paula Nelson, Step Up’s vice president of school and provider services, told the audience during her welcome.
Breakout session topics included school safety, a la carte education, navigating AI, the future of public education, the benefits of applying for the Yass Prize, how public schools are offering individual courses to scholarship students and how to create and sustain microschools. Four sessions on the upcoming federal Education Freedom Tax Credit program drew standing-room-only crowds.
The federal program, which launches in January 2027, allows individual donors to divert up to $1,700 of federal tax liability to support scholarships for students in public and private schools. The federal government is expected to announce rules that cover program specifics soon. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is among the governors who have opted their states into the program.
At the end of the conference, Schoenhaar broke some news: The conference will return June 14 and 15 of 2027.
