JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The diagnosis was Entamoeba histolytica, which is an infection caused by ingesting an amoeba that produces fatigue, abdominal pain, weight loss, and a few more symptoms you don’t want to have when you are more than 9,000 miles from home.

That’s where Christopher Trinidad happened to be during a visit to his parents’ homeland in the Philippines the summer before the eighth grade.

Born and raised in Jacksonville, Christopher’s immune system was not accustomed to some of the pathogens found in the local food. He had not built up a resistance like residents have. Lying in a hospital bed in the city of Bacolod, while the antibiotics did their thing, Christopher had this thought: “This has to be my science fair project.”

And so it was.

 

After returning home, Christopher ordered microorganisms online. “Safer organisms,” he said, than the one that waylaid him a few weeks earlier. He experimented with various items found in the kitchen pantry – ginger and garlic – mixed them with water and other ingredients and developed a solution that killed the organisms.

“What if,” Christopher thought, “we use these solutions on the actual thing? This can help so many people.”

His project finished first at a regional science fair.

“Impressive, right? Wait until you hear what he did his freshman year,” said Carla Chin, director of marketing and communications at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville.

Christopher, a sophomore, attends the parochial Catholic school on a Florida education choice scholarship managed by Step Up For Students.

He sat in a chair inside Chin’s office. His father, Greg, sat in another and proudly listened as his son, with a mixture of pride and modesty, described the project that earned first place at a regional science fair and then a bronze medal at the Genius Olympiad and a $15,000 scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology at a global competition held in Rochester, New York.

Using an electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures electrical activity in the brain, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and violin music, Christopher was able to predict the moods and emotions of stroke victims who are unable to speak, thus creating a line of communication with doctors.

“By using brain waves, doctors can know what their patients are feeling, which would lead to better decision-making,” he said.

Michael Broach is the Vice Principal at Bishop Kenny and the Director of Mission Integration, as well as the AP Capstone Department chair. He was responsible for approving Christopher’s science project.

“That was one of the most sophisticated projects, I think, that I've seen in my years of being here,” Broach said. “And just the way his mind works is well above his peers. Well above what you would expect of somebody of his age.”

Christopher is 15.

He wants to be a neurosurgeon.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the brain since I was little,” Christopher said. “It controls everything in our body. It’s really interesting, and going into surgery, fixing people's brains is really complex, and that's what I love about it.”

His parents – Greg and Shiela – are both nurses, so Christopher was raised around medical science. Their house is filled with textbooks related to their careers. Christopher has read them all.

The valedictorian of his middle school, Christopher has a 4.3 weighted GPA at Bishop Kenny. He chose to attend the Catholic high school because it aligns with his faith and has a high academic standard.

“It challenges me,” he said. “I know there are other people here I can talk to, and it gives me a greater experience.”

He’s not the only student at Bishop Kenny who knows what an electroencephalogram is and how it works.

While he spends a considerable amount of time working on his science fair projects (keep reading to learn about what his plans are for this year’s project), he’s very active at school. Christopher is a member of the Science Club, Medical Career Club, St. Vincent de Paul Society, campus ministry, and the Brain Brawl. He plays the piano at the monthly mass. He’s also first violin for the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra.

 

Listening to his son talk, Greg had one feeling. “Blessed,” he said. “He has a humble heart. We try to remind him always what’s hard.”

Greg understands hard.

Raised in a small town an hour’s plane ride from Manila, Greg’s childhood was humble at best. He went through elementary school with only two pairs of shoes. He caught rides to school on trucks headed to the sugarcane fields on days when his mom couldn’t afford bus fare.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to join the Boy Scouts,” Greg said. “My mom didn’t have the money.”

Greg understood the power of an education and where it could lead him. He became a teacher until, at age 26, he immigrated to the United States in search of the American Dream.

He worked odd jobs and became a certified nursing assistant. From there, he attended nursing school in St. Augustine. He now works as a traveling nurse in the cardiac catheterization labs in hospitals around North Florida. He became a traveling nurse for the pay because he and Sheila support three family members in the Philippines.

That’s why Christopher traveled to the Philippines the summer before eighth grade, to see where his parents’ stories began.

“I wanted him to see and feel the difference of being here in this world compared to a third-world country,” Greg said.

The lesson wasn’t lost on his son.

“I just feel really lucky that I'm here in America and I have more opportunities than some kids have in the Philippines, and I’m not going to let this go to waste,” Christopher said.

Greg said he is grateful for the Florida education choice scholarship that helps pay Christopher’s tuition at Kenny.

“In the Philippines,” he said, “if you don’t have money, you don’t go to school.

“He has this opportunity of having this scholarship, and I'm telling him, you're way more blessed than what other people have in other states. We're so thankful that all these opportunities are coming for our son.”

Christopher’s next opportunity is this year’s science fair, where he will take last year’s project a step further.

“I'm planning to build a rehabilitative exoskeleton so it can help people with movement disabilities,” he said. “I can also use an EEG in that, so they can think about what they're going to do with their exoskeleton, which basically helps them move. It would correlate to their actual thoughts. So, if they wanted to walk, they would be able to think it, then the exoskeleton would help them walk.”

 

TAMPA, Fla. — Amelia Ramos recalls her oldest child’s first school experience after moving to the Grant Park neighborhood in 2018.

“It was not a good fit,” she said. “She lasted about four months.”

In addition to academics, Ramos cited safety as a big concern.

“You couldn’t even ride a bicycle down the street,” she said.

Ramos found hope after learning about Grant Park Christian Academy, a private school affiliated with the Faith Action Ministry Alliance. The nonprofit organization’s stated mission is “to strengthen neighborhoods through meaningful engagement, collaboration, and strategic partnerships.”

Grant Park Christian Academy prides itself on its record of providing strong academics and spiritually based character development. Ramos learned from the school’s principal about a state education choice K-12 scholarship program administered by Step Up For Students that would help cover the tuition.

With that, Ramos was sold.

Her daughter thrived at Grant Park and now attends a district high school. Her son and twin daughters now attend the private school, which serves 70 students in grades K-8.

“We love the school and the staff,” she said, adding that she appreciates the assurance of knowing that her children are safe when she leaves them at Grant Park Christian Academy.

“If only they had a high school,” she said.

Although there are no plans to add a high school, an expansion will soon more than double the school's capacity, located inside a gated property owned by a non-denominational church.

The project is just one example of a broader statewide trend resulting from the Florida Legislature’s passage of HB 1 in 2023. The landmark legislation made all K-12 students eligible for education choice scholarships regardless of their household income and gave families more flexibility in how they spend their students’ funds.

Putting parents in the driver’s seat supercharged the demand for more learning options.

In the 2023-24 school year, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1, Florida saw the largest single-year expansion of education choice scholarships in U.S. history. That growth continued in 2024-25. Recent figures from the Florida Department of Education show that more than 500,000 Florida students were using some type of education savings account.

The expansions at Grant Park Christian Academy and other schools across the state, such as Jupiter Christian School in Palm Beach County, couldn’t come at a better time. The latest figures from Step Up For Students show that the number of approved private schools has surpassed 2,500. That figure doesn’t include  a la carte options, including those now being offered by public schools. State figures show 41,000 parents received scholarships in 2024-25 but never used them. According to a survey by Step Up For Students, a third of the 2,739 parents who responded said there were no available seats at the schools they wanted.

The Rev. Alfred Johnson, who founded the ministry alliance and Grant Park Christian Academy in 2014, said the school is just one of the ways the ministry works to support and improve the neighborhood. A look outside the window once a month will show teams of alliance volunteers in neon yellow vests cleaning up roadside trash. Johnson estimates that over the past three years, the group has cleared 70 tons of garbage, including old mattresses, furniture, and household appliances.

Johnson and his volunteers regularly knock on doors and survey residents and business owners about community needs. They also host events; the annual Fall Fest offers families a safe and fun alternative to Halloween trick-or-treating.

“I know what they do to really make a change in this community,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Donna Cameron Cepeda, a Republican who represents District 5 and the county at large. She said she had known Johnson for years before she ran for office. “You can see the lives, how they have been changed because of the environment they are able to be in now.”

She was among a group of 50 community members at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new 2,660-square-foot modular building that will open after crews add the finishing touches.

Those attending the event represented a broad swath of community leaders, from local law enforcement officers to staffers at the Temple Terrace Uptown Chamber of Commerce, who brought the ceremonial oversized scissors. A representative of the Hillsborough County Clerk’s Office also attended. So did a group of leaders and students from Cristo Rey Tampa Salesian High School, which has some Grant Park Christian Academy alums.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Gwen Myers, a Democrat whose district includes Grant Park, joined her Republican colleague in praising the alliance and the school. The two commissioners also presented Johnson with a commendation honoring his contributions to the community.

“Our children are our future leaders, and when we can give them the basic foundation of education, they are going somewhere,” Myers said. “Just remember where they got their start, right here in Grant Park. What you’re doing is being a true public servant. Thank you for your vision.”

A husband, father of six, and grandfather of 12, Johnson refers to the students at Grant Park as “our babies” and describes the school as a haven of safety and peace.

“We hardly ever have any fights here,” he said. The school day starts at 7:30 a.m. After-school care is available until 5 p.m. Grant Park also offers summer camp, tutoring, mentoring and career preparation programs for the community, where the median household income stands at $32,216, and 72% of households make less than $50,000 per year. About 20% of the population did not graduate from high school. Although the area still has crime, Johnson said it has decreased over the past five years. Educational opportunities such as Grant Park Christian Academy and adult education and training play a role in improving the area’s quality of life, he said.

Johnson said he has seen many students turn their lives around. He told guests about a boy who was put outside the room for disrupting class on his first day.

“I don’t like this school,” he snarled.

“Give us a chance,” Johnson replied. He encouraged the boy to focus on his studies and respect his teachers. “You’re going to be a great leader and a great man.”

By the second year, the boy’s attitude completely changed. Test results that year showed he had the highest reading score in the school.

“That’s just one of the stories,” he said. “We have a plethora of them.”

SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. – Edelweiss Szymanski turns 10 on a Friday in December. She will celebrate the milestone by running a 5-kilometer race in Daytona Beach. The next day, she’s scheduled to compete in a triathlon.

No pizza party. No theme park.

How many 10-year-olds want to run three miles on their birthday, then swim, bike, and run some more the day after?

“This one does,” Lacey Szymanski said, pointing to her daughter with both index fingers.

Meet Edelweiss, a young triathlete on the rise who’s as tough as the flower she’s named after. Meet her brother, Spartacus, too, 14 months younger and just as tenacious.

The SkiSibs, as they are known throughout Florida’s triathlon community.

Their bedrooms are filled with trophies, medals, and plaques – the spoils of reaching the podiums (finishing in the top three) at triathlons, road and bicycle races. The garage of their Safety Harbor home is packed with bicycles.

“We are an active family,” Lacey said.

Lacey and her husband, Jacek, have participated in triathlon relays.

Some mornings, Jacek and the kids can be found riding the bike trails around Pinellas County, waking as early as 3 a.m. so Jacek can get in a long ride before heading to his job as a sergeant with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

If they time it right, and they usually do, the trio will stop along the overlook on the Courtney Campbell Causeway and snack on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while they watch the sun rise over Tampa Bay.

“We really like watching the sunrise,” Edelweiss said.

She and Spartacus receive Florida education choice scholarships for students with unique abilities managed by Step Up For Students. Edelweiss is dyslexic. Spartacus has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They are home educated by Lacey, who taught in a private school for 10 years before the family adopted this educational format.

Edelweiss benefits from one-on-one instruction with her mom, while Spartacus is not required to sit at a desk and complete his assignments, something that was an issue when he attended a brick-and-mortar school.

“The scholarship has been a game-changer. It’s awesome that Florida offers this,” Lacey said. “I have my doctorate in education, so I'm really happy that I'm able to help them in the ways that I can and create a curriculum that is specialized to their individual needs, as well.”

The scholarship covers Spartacus’s occupational therapy, as well as art class and piano lessons for Edelweiss. And learning at home allows for flexible schedules. It’s not unusual for Spartacus, an early riser, to complete his math assignments before the sun is up.

 

The family home borders a wetland, which is ideal for interactive science lessons. It also provided the sticks the kids used to carve their own forks, and the twigs Edelweiss used to create a bird’s nest.

“Her art style isn't cut and dry, like paint a picture of this penguin. It's more abstract,” Lacey said. “That’s the way her brain works. Music, art, and athletics are a lot easier for her. When dyslexia held her back from other things, she kind of poured herself into those things.”

Lacey was pregnant with her daughter, and she and Jacek had yet to settle on a name when she came across a music box she bought during a trip to Germany. It played the song “Edelweiss” from the movie “The Sound of Music.” An edelweiss is a stout flower that grows in the rugged high-altitude terrain of the Alps and the Carpathian mountain ranges in Europe and blooms in the winter.

“I thought, ‘That’s what I want to name my daughter,’” Lacey said.

She and her husband believe that people can become the personification of their names. That holds true with Edelweiss.

“She is very hearty, and it aligns with being a triathlete. She can endure a lot and has a high tolerance for the sport,” Lacey said. “And at the same time, it’s a very beautiful flower. It doesn't look like your normal flower. It's very different and unique, which is what she is.”

And Spartacus? Well, he was making a fist in his first ultrasound.

Jacek said he looked like Spartacus, the ex-slave who became a gladiator and led a rebellion against the Roman Republic in 71 BC.

“He said his name is going to be Spartacus, and I said, ‘Yeah, right. There's no way I would name my son Spartacus.’ And here we are,” Lacey said.

“We do get odd looks when we call his name at a triathlon,” Jacek said. “I’m not saying it’s like yelling ‘Fire!’ in a crowd, but almost.”

Edelweiss competed in her first triathlon when she was 5. The family belonged to a local YMCA, and Lacey saw a post about the race on the morning of the event. So, she woke Edelweiss and asked her if she wanted to give it a try. Edelweiss said yes.

“It gave me something to do,” she said.

The race consisted of one lap in the 25-meter pool, a half-mile bike ride, and a quarter-mile run. Competing on a bike that had pom-poms and a basket on the handlebars, Edelweiss won her age group.

She had one question for her mom when she finished.

“When can we do this again?”

The answer? As often as possible.

She and Spartacus have moved up to sprint triathlons – 400-yard swim, 8.1-mile bike ride, and a 5K run.

The hardest leg for Edelweiss is the run. The best part, she said, is crossing the finish line.

“Because I don’t have to run anymore,” she said.

She’s been known to finish a race in her socks. Once, when she developed blisters and tossed her shoes halfway through the race, and another time when she was having trouble getting them on during the transition from the bike to the run and didn’t want to waste more time.

Jacek was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States at 19. He was an avid cycler in his native country and passed that love on to his children.

Edelweiss and Spartacus also compete in long-distance cycling races, where they are often the top finishers in their 7-11 age group.

 

“They goof around when they’re going for a ride with dad,” Jacek said. “But something switches when they are in the competitive world. They put on their game face.”

Before being immersed in the world of triathlons, Edelweiss was all about her ballet lessons.

“She was very into ballet, but now she doesn’t want to go back,” Lacey said. “It’s not the same adrenaline rush.”

Their weekends are loaded with triathlons across the state and cycling races as far north as Virginia. Lacey keeps track of the schedule.

“It’s our lifestyle now,” Lacey said. “We’re always in the water or on bikes, doing something like that. Edelweiss doesn’t feel like she’s actually competing. She’s doing what she loves. Spartacus is a ball of fire, too. Both of them together just constantly amazes me about what they're capable of and the grit that they have to compete.”

 

Caleb Prewitt continued to shatter the perception of what someone with Down syndrome can’t do when he conquered the 26.2-mile course at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Oct. 12.

Caleb, 18, became the youngest person with Down syndrome to earn an Abbott Star for running one of the original six World Major Marathons.

The Jacksonville native, who receives a Florida education choice scholarship for students with unique abilities managed by Step Up For Students, is also recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest person with II2 (Intellectual Impairment, including those with Down syndrome) to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles). He did that when he was 16.

Since 2020, when he began running as a means of getting exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, Caleb has completed 47 triathlons (swim, bike, run), five half-marathons, and now one full marathon.

(Read about Caleb’s story here.)

The marathon was his most daunting endeavor, requiring months of training. The race took its toll – he experienced leg cramps after 20 miles. Undeterred, he pressed on and continued to cheer those who lined the course and were cheering for him.

“That went on for miles and miles, and I couldn't stop him,” Karen said. “I wanted to save his energy, and he just wanted to do it. I said, ‘You know what? This is his race. He can do what he wants.’”

Those in the Florida running community who have come to know Caleb during the last five years, and the faculty and staff at the North Florida School of Special Education, which he has attended since he was 5 with the help of his scholarship, wouldn’t have expected anything less.

He is known around school as “Mr. Mayor” for his always sunny disposition, and he is a star on social media with more than 31,000 followers on Facebook and more than 45,000 on Instagram to his Caleb’s Crew pages.

Running the marathon for the National Down Syndrome Society, Caleb raised more than $2,000 for the charity. There were 40 teammates from the National Down Syndrome Society team cheering him on at various points along the course.

Caleb’s dad, David, greeted him at the finish line with a long hug and a kiss.

“So proud of you,” David told his son.

@calebscrew

WHAT A DAY! I’m still emotional after running alongside Caleb yesterday for his first full marathon. The Chicago crowds did not disappoint and the energy level was 💯 for most of the race. Leg cramps caught up with Caleb at mile 22, but he pushed through and crossed that finish line with enough energy for a post-race dance party 🕺🏻 So thankful for his spirit and grit and the joy he has for life in general. He loves people and this race was momentous for us all. Soaking in the victory today - so proud of you Caleb! @Chicago Marathon @National Down Syndrome Society #DownSyndromeAwareness #TeamNDSS #NoLimits♬ Whatever It Takes - Imagine Dragons

Caleb was one of 17 charity runners in the event, which meant he was featured around Chicago in ads for the marathon, and his story appeared on the race’s website.

The 17 and their families met at a reception the day before the race.

“Their stories were all great. You know, everybody's story is great,” Karen said. “It's just that I think ours is great, too.”

That prerace publicity and the fact that he and Karen wore blue shirts with “Caleb’s Crew” on the front made him stand out somewhat in the field of 54,000 competitors.

“The crowd was amazing,” Karen said. “The whole way there was support and people cheering for Caleb. Everywhere we went, they knew his name, so that was a thrill.

“It was an awesome experience. What a wonderful day.”

ARCHER, Fla. –  Archer is a crossroads community of 1,100 people 15 minutes from the college town of Gainesville, but far enough away to have its own quirky identity. It’s surrounded by live oak-studded ranch land but calling it a “farm town” doesn’t ring right. When railroads ruled the Earth, Archer was a whistle stop on the first line connecting the Atlantic to the Gulf. In the late 1800s, T. Gilbert Pearson, co-founder of the National Audubon Society, roamed the woods here as a kid, skipping school to hunt for bird eggs. A century later, rock ‘n roll icon Bo Diddley spent his golden years on the outskirts. 

So, let’s just say Archer is a neat little town. And maybe it’s fitting that for half a century, it has been home to a neat little private school that doesn’t fit into any boxes, either. 

Jordan Glen School got its start in 1974, when former public school teacher Jeff Davis moved down from Michigan. In the late 1960s, Davis became disillusioned with teaching in traditional schools. In his view, students were respected too little and labeled too much. 

“Back in the day, I would have been labeled ADHD. I hated school,” he said. “I never met a teacher that took a personal interest in me.” 

As a teacher, he saw a system that was “too constricting.” 

“There was just a general distrust of children, like they were going to do something bad,” he said. Education “doesn’t have to be rammed down your throat.” 

Davis migrated to what was, more or less, a “free school,” with 50 students on a farm near Detroit. Today we’d call it a microschool. 

In the 1960s, hundreds of these DIY schools emerged across America, propelled by an upbeat vision of education freedom inspired by the counterculture. Davis said the Upland Hills Farm School was a free school, more or less, because while its teachers were “long-haired” and “hippie-ish,” the school had more structure and rigor than free school stereotypes would suggest. 

Davis thought the Gainesville area would be a good place to start a similar school. It had a critical mass of like-minded folks. So, in 1973, he and his family bought 20 acres of woods off a dirt road in Archer. Not long afterward, they invited a little school called Lotus Land School, then operating out of a community center in Gainesville, to move to their patch in the country. Today we’d call Lotus Land a microschool, too. 

It was also, more or less, a free school. Davis described the teachers and families as “love children” and “free spirits,” but in many ways, their approach to teaching and learning was mainstream. A decade later, he changed the name. “I thought people would think it was a hippie dippy school, and I knew it was more than that,” he said. 

Lotus Land became Jordan Glen. The school was named after the River Jordan, after some parents and teachers suggested it, and after basketball legend Michael Jordan, because Davis was a fan. 

Fast forward a few more decades, and Jordan Glen School is thriving more than ever. 

It now serves more than 100 students in grades PreK-8, some of whom are the second generation to attend. Nearly all use Florida’s education choice scholarships. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is among Jordan Glen’s alums. So is CNN reporter and anchor Sara Sidner. 

Jordan Glen is yet more proof that education freedom offers something for everyone and that its roots are deep and diverse. Ultimately, the expansion of learning options gives more people from all walks of life more opportunity to educate their children in line with their visions and values. 

“There is something about joy and happiness that makes people uneasy and a bit insecure,” Davis wrote in a 2005 column for the local newspaper, entitled “Joyful Learning is the Most Valuable Kind.” “If children are enjoying school so much, they must not be doing enough ‘work’ there.” 

“Children at our school,” he wrote, “love life.” 

The Jordan Glen campus includes a handful of modest buildings. It’s still graced by a dirt road and towering trees. It’s also home to two dozen, free-roaming peacocks. They’re the descendants of a pair Davis bought in 1975 because they were beautiful and would eat a lot of bugs. 

Given that backdrop, it’s not surprising that many families describe Jordan Glen as “magical.” 

Alexis Hamlin-Vogler prefers “whimsical.” She and her husband decided to enroll their children, Atticus, 14, and Ellie, 8, in the wake of the pandemic. 

“They’re definitely outside a lot,” she said of the students. “They’re climbing trees. They’re picking oranges.” When it rained the other day, her daughter and some of the other students, already outside for a sports class, got a green light to play in it and get muddy. 

Another parent, Ilia Morrows, called Jordan Glen a “little unicorn of a school.” 

Like Hamlin-Vogler, Morrows enrolled her kids, 11-year-old twins Breck and Lucas, following the Covid-connected school closures. She thought they’d stay a year, then return to public school. But after a year, they didn’t want to go back. “They had a taste of freedom,” she said. 

For many parents, Jordan Glen hits a sweet spot between traditional and alternative. 

On the traditional side, Jordan Glen students are immersed in core academics. They take tests, including standardized tests. They get grades and report cards. They play sports like soccer and tennis, and they’re good enough at the latter to win the county’s middle school championship. Many of them move on to the area’s top academic high schools.  

But Jordan Glen also does a lot differently. 

The students are grouped into multi-age and multi-grade classrooms. They choose from an ever-changing menu of electives. Many of those classes are taught by teachers, but some are taught by parents (like archery, gardening, and fishing), and some by the students themselves (like soccer, dance, and book club). The youngest students also do a “forest school” class once a week. 

The school also emphasizes character education. 

The older students serve as mentors for the younger students. They’re taught peer mediation so they can settle disputes. Every afternoon, they clean the school, working as crew leaders with teams of younger students. Their “Senior Class Guide” stresses nothing is more important than “caring about others.”  

“The way the older kids take care of the younger kids, it’s very noticeable. They are genuinely caring,” Morrows said. At Jordan Glen, “they teach community. They teach being a good human.” 

“My favorite thing is that most kids really get a good sense of self and self-confidence at this school,” Hamlin-Vogler said. “Some people say, ‘Oh, that’s the hippie school.’ But the students have a lot of expectations and personal accountability put on them.” 

Hamlin-Vogler said without the education choice scholarships, she and her husband wouldn’t be able to afford the school. Hamlin-Vogler is a hairdresser. Her husband is a music producer. Before Florida made every student eligible for scholarships in 2023, they missed the income eligibility threshold by $1,000. Her parents were able to assist with tuition in the short term, but that would not have been sustainable. 

Her family harbors no animus toward public schools. Atticus attended them prior to Jordan Glen, and he’s likely to be at a public high school next fall. Ellie, meanwhile, thinks she might want to try the neighborhood school even though she loves Jordan Glen in every way, and Hamlin-Vogler said that would be fine. 

After Ellie described how much fun she had playing in the rain, though, Hamlin-Vogler had to remind her, “You might not get to do that at another school.” 

The future of education is happening now. In Florida. And public school districts are pushing into new frontiers by making it possible for all students, including those on education choice scholarships, to access the best they have to offer on a part-time basis. 

That was the message Keith Jacobs, director of provider development at Step Up For Students, delivered on Excel in Education’s “Policy Changes Lives” podcast A former public school teacher and administrator, Jacobs has spent the past year helping school districts expand learning options for students who receive funding through education savings accounts. These accounts allow parents to use funds for tuition, curriculum, therapies, and other pre-approved educational expenses. That includes services by approved district and charter schools.  

 

“So, what makes Florida so unique is that we have done something that five, 10, even, you know, further down the line, 20 years ago, you would have never thought would have happened,” Jacobs said during a discussion with podcast host Ben DeGrow. 

Jacobs explained how the process works:  

“I’m a home education student and I want to be an engineer, and the high school up the street has a remarkable engineering professor. I can contract with the school district and pay out of my education savings account for that engineering course at that school.  

“It’s something that was in theory for so long, but now it’s in practice here in Florida.” 

It is also becoming more widespread in an environment supercharged by the passage of House Bill 1 in 2023, which made all K-12 students in Florida eligibile for education choice scholarships regardless of family income. According to Jacobs,  more than 50% of the state’s 67 school districts, including Miami-Dade, Orange, Hillsborough and Duval, are either already approved or have applied to be contracted providers. 

That’s a welcome addition in Florida, where more than 500,000 students are using state K-12 scholarship programs and 51% of all students are using some form of choice.  

Jacobs said district leaders’ questions have centered on the logistics of participating, such as how the funding process works, how to document attendance and handle grades.  

Once the basics are established, Jacobs wants to help districts find ways to remove barriers to part-time students’ participation. Those could include offering courses outside of the traditional school day or setting up classes that serve only those students. 

Jacobs said he expects demand for public school services to grow as Florida families look for more ways to customize their children’s education. That will lead to more opportunities for public schools to benefit and change the narrative that education is an adversarial, zero-sum game to one where everyone wins. 

“So, basically, the money is following the child and not funding a specific system. So, when you shift that narrative from ‘you're losing public school kids’ to ‘families are empowered to use their money for public school services,’ it really shifts that narrative on what's happening here, specifically in Florida.” 

Jacobs expects other states to emulate Florida as their own programs and the newly passed federal tax credit program give families more money to spend on customized learning. He foresees greater freedom for teachers to become entrepreneurs and districts to become even more innovative. 

“There is a nationwide appetite for education choice and families right now…We have over 18 states who have adopted some form of education savings accounts in their state. So, the message to states outside of Florida is to listen to what the demands of families are.” 

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. 

It’s been a month since classes started, and Matthew Ottenwess is settled into his freshman year at Tampa Catholic High School.

He’s made friends and likes his teachers.

His high score on the school’s entrance exam gained him admission to three honors classes and one AP course. He plays linebacker on the junior varsity football team.

This was the educational landing his mother, Maggie, was looking for when she learned the family would move from New Mexico to Florida after her husband Chris, a Chief Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force, received a transfer to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

The Ottenwesses have a Florida education choice scholarship to thank for that.

“It’s a game-changer,” Maggie said.

 

While the family was still stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Alburquerque, Maggie was able to apply for a Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO), managed by Step Up For Students.

“The scholarship made the (moving) process easier, gave us more choice, allowed us to take a breath and not have to worry about additional stresses, both monetary and interpersonal,” Maggie said. “It eased the PCS (Permanent Change of Station) experience. There are countless other things that change – doctors, dentists, specialists, church, youth group, scouts. This took one of the larger chunks off the list.

“Box checked.”

Matthew had been homeschooled during the past five years. Chris and Maggie decided he would return to a brick-and-mortar school setting for high school. They also wanted that setting to be at a faith-based school, preferably a Catholic school.

They understood that would burden the family’s finances, but it was a sacrifice they would accept.

Chris received his Permanent Change of Station order on Dec. 23, 2024. Soon, Maggie was told of Florida’s private school scholarship program from other moms within the military community.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Maggie said. “It was too good to be true.”

Maggie set her alarm for 7 a.m. local time on the first Saturday in February. Families could apply for FES-EO scholarships that day at 9 a.m. EST. Since Albuquerque is two hours behind, Maggie wanted to apply as soon as the session opened.

“In the military, on-time is late,” she joked.

Maggie found the “Scholarships for Military Families” page on the Step Up website and entered her family’s information. The process went smoothly until Maggie came to the screen that required her to enter her Florida address. Since the move wouldn’t happen until June, and since the family would live on the Air Force Base, they had yet to be assigned housing, so no Florida address.

“I was in panic mode,” she said.

Her fear was quickly defused during a live chat with customer service.

“You’re not the first,” Maggie was told. “We get this a lot.”

She just needed to upload Chris’s Permanent Change of Station order in the proof of residency screen on the application.

Once Maggie learned that Matthew was awarded a scholarship, she started researching private faith-based schools in the Tampa area and settled on Tampa Catholic because of its challenging history and science curriculums. He was accepted Feb. 28.

“Our Christian faith is important to our family,” Maggie said. “It is the foundation that makes all the complications, moves, hardships, financial struggles, stress, and the like possible. We incorporated religion into Matt's homeschool curriculum and wanted to keep that moving forward. We were open to both Christian and specifically Catholic options. We believed a faith-centered school would continue to support his character and moral compass.”

The FES-EO scholarship covers more than half of the yearly tuition at Tampa Catholic. Maggie said they can afford to cover the rest without her getting a job, something that is not easy for military spouses. Local businesses are not quick to hire someone who could be moving in two or three years.

This allows Maggie to continue her work as an advocate for younger enlisted Airmen, military families and dependents. She works on various committees, task forces, and councils that deal with medical, special needs, and religious issues.

“So, the scholarship is not only helping my son get a quality education, it's helping the mission of the military by me having the breadth and space and time to do those things,” Maggie said. “The scholarship is allowing a difference to happen.”

Chris, who is the Command Chief of the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill, has been in the Air Force for 28 years. He and Maggie have been married for 18 years. They’ve lived on five bases in four different states.

Matthew, who was born when his parents were stationed in New Jersey, his mom’s home state, has lived in Mississippi, Illinois, New Mexico and now Florida.

When asked about the latest move, he said, “I was super excited, a little nervous for all the changes, but definitely excited to get a whole different experience of school.”

The experience was somewhat of a jolt at first. He said it took him a few weeks to become comfortable with the return to the classroom setting. He had attended Catholic school before being homeschooled.

He said he likes living in Tampa, and being on the football team allowed him to make friends quickly, since fall practice began before the first day of classes.

“It's really good,” he said. “(Tampa Catholic) has a really good curriculum. I like the teachers, and it's fun to hang out with my friends all day.”

 

As education choice options expand for families across the nation, opponents are stepping up their fight to preserve the status quo.

Observers say these conflicts are examples of growing pains that come when a society undergoes transformational change.

“It’s just part of the cost of doing business,” said Michael Q. McShane, director of national research at EdChoice, a national nonprofit think tank. “Educators are not alone in challenging policies they don’t like. New laws get passed; people who can’t do things democratically try to do things through the courts.”

Michael B. Horn used a famous quote (often misattributed to Mohandas Gandhi) to describe the spate of lawsuits: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

“I think we’ve entered the fight stage,” said Horn, the co-founder, distinguished fellow, and chairman of the Clayton Christensen Institute and an author of several books on disruptive innovation. “Education choice has gotten big enough that the entrenched interests dedicated to preserving the status quo are starting to see it as a threat.”

Legal fights over education choice began in the 1800s when Catholic families opposed the Protestantism taught in public schools. In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Pierce v. Society of Sisters that parents had the right to put their children in private schools. In 2002, the high court issued another landmark decision, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, which upheld an Ohio scholarship that allowed parents to spend the money on religious schools. The high court found that when the parent controls the expenditure, the state has no role in determining whether the parent will choose to use funding at a religious or secular school.

With the Zelman ruling settling that question, choice opponents began trying to insert race-based arguments using the language of state constitutions. Michael Bindas, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice who argued the landmark case Carson v. Makin before the U.S. Supreme Court, outlined that shift in a paper published in the Syracuse Law Review. According to Bindas, common arguments center on education clauses requiring states to maintain uniform or common public school systems. Education choice opponents, he said, take that a step further and claim that private scholarship programs could upset racial balances that state constitutions require state governments to maintain. They also argue that the requirements that states maintain public school systems bar them from establishing concurrent private education choice programs. Lower court judges in Ohio and Utah recently cited this argument in striking down choice programs. Ohio plaintiffs also raised the issue of racial balance argument, which the judge rejected.

McShane and Horn say the spate of lawsuits won’t stop education choice programs from becoming the norm in public education. However, they will delay the transition.

“Yes, these cases are a headache and can delay implementation, but school choice has a good track record,” McShane said. “It will take numbers and time, and it’s going to tip over into a different mindset.”

Where things stand

Montana: Families are waiting on a judge to rule on a lawsuit brought by opponents of a 2024 education savings account program for students with special needs. Plaintiffs argue that the law allowing reimbursements for $6,800 per child violates several provisions of the state constitution and redirects tax dollars to private institutions at the expense of students with special needs who remain in public schools. The judge denied the plaintiff’s motion for a temporary halt to the program, allowing families to continue using their ESAs while the case is pending.

Ohio: The state has appealed a lower court’s ruling that declared the state’s $700 million Educational Choice Scholarship Program (EdChoice)  unconstitutional. In siding with the coalition of school districts and other choice opponents, the judge said that the program was not a subsidy program, as the state argued, but a separate system of schools in violation of the state constitution. However, the judge rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the program violated the state constitution’s education clause by creating racial imbalances in the district schools. The 10^th District Court of Appeal is expected to hear the case in 2026.

Utah: Families are continuing to receive funds from the Utah Fits All scholarship program while a district court ruling in favor of a teachers union-backed lawsuit is under appeal to the state Supreme Court. A district judge ruled that the state constitution prevents lawmakers from using tax revenue to fund education programs other than public education, higher education, and services for people with disabilities. The judge rejected the state’s argument that it had met its funding obligations to public education and that nothing in the law prohibited it from funding a separate program to support families choosing private or home education.

Wyoming: Families seeking to use Steamboat Legacy Scholarship ESAs had to find other options for the 2025-26 school year after a trial judge blocked the state from distributing funds in July at the request of the Wyoming Education Association and other plaintiffs until the judge rules on their lawsuit against the program. The judge recently denied a motion by state officials and attorneys for two families to dismiss the lawsuit based on their argument that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing.

Missouri: Education choice advocates scored a win last month when a judge denied the teachers union’s request to freeze payments to the MOScholars K-12 scholarship program as their lawsuit continues. MOScholars began in 2021 as a tax credit program supported by private donors. Earlier this year, the state allocated $51 million to the program, prompting the Missouri Education Association to file the complaint, which contends that the allocation unconstitutionally diverts taxpayer funds to private schools.

Arkansas: The state’s Education Freedom Account program is being fought on two fronts. In June 2024, opponents sued in state court, arguing that the program illegally diverted tax dollars from the public school system to benefit private schools. The judge denied the state’s motion to dismiss the complaint, so state attorneys are appealing to the state Supreme Court.

The same plaintiffs filed another lawsuit a year later  in U.S. District Court.  It argues that the program violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because “it aids in the establishment of religion” by providing state funding to private schools operated by religious organizations.  The state refutes that by arguing that the money can go to schools representing a wide variety of faiths, as well as secular schools.

They also argue that the program violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14^th Amendment because it discriminates against low-income families, families in rural areas where there are fewer private schools and students with disabilities, because private schools are exempt from the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The program is also discriminatory, according to the complaint, because private schools are not held to the same standards as public schools. The state attorney general has filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the plaintiffs lack standing.

Kentucky: The Kentucky Supreme Court heard arguments on Sept. 11 about whether the state’s charter school funding law violates the state’s constitution. Charter schools have been legal in the Bluegrass State since 2017, but there was no state funding mechanism. Lawmakers passed House Bill 9, which allocated money to charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently managed. A trial court judge ruled in 2023 that the law violated the state constitutional ban on the use of tax dollars to support non-public education and the constitutional requirement for “an efficient system of common schools.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

If education freedom were a hockey game, Florida just scored a Texas hat trick.

For the fourth consecutive year, Florida was ranked the No. 1 state for education freedom for K-12 students and families in The Heritage Foundation’s annual Education Freedom Report Card. The 2025 Heritage rankings come after a landmark year of state legislative sessions that delivered wins for students and families.

Florida leaders credited the state’s ranking to policies that give parents control over their children’s education dollars, offering a plethora of choices, including a la carte courses provided by school districts and charter schools.

“In Florida, we are committed to ensuring parents have the power to make the education decisions that are best for their child,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis, who in 2023 signed legislation that offered universal eligibility for K-12 state education choice scholarship programs that allow families to direct their dollars toward the best options for their children.  “Florida offers a robust array of educational choices, which has solidified our state as a national leader in education freedom, parental power, and overall K-12 education.”

Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas said earning the top ranking for four years affirms the state’s long-term commitment to families.

“Under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida will continue honoring parents’ right to choose the best educational option for their child’s individualized needs. I am proud that Florida offers so many educational options that parents can have confidence in.”

Since the Education Freedom Report Card began in 2022, Florida has earned the top ranking every year. The report card uses five categories: school choice, transparency, regulatory freedom, civic education, and spending to rank states.

In addition to Florida receiving the overall top spot for Education Freedom, it also earned high rankings in the following categories:

• No. 1 for Education Choice due to empowering parents across Florida to choose the best learning environment for their children.
• No.1 for Civics Education due to Florida’s requirement for students to take a course in civics and the use of the Classical Learning Test for admissions at state universities.
• No. 1 for Academic Transparency due to Florida’s expansive legislation allowing parents to access classroom materials and Florida’s Parental Bill of Rights.
• No. 1 for Teacher Freedom due to Florida’s alternative pathways to entering the teaching profession.

Earlier this year, the Sunshine State also earned national recognition for putting dollars behind its policies. In January, the national advocacy group EdChoice put Florida first on its list of each state’s spending on education choice programs proportional to total education spending.

According to the EdChoice report, Florida became the first state to spend more than 10% of its combined private choice and public-school expenditures on its choice programs, rising from an 8% spending share in 2024.

Florida also reached a historic milestone when, for the first time, more than half of all K-12 students were enrolled in an educational choice option. During the 2023–24 school year, 1,794,697 students, out of the state’s approximately 3.5 million K-12 population, used a learning option other than their assigned district school.