A Tampa Bay area morning TV show kicked off National School Choice Week by highlighting a family who benefits from a state K-12 scholarship. 

Arielle Frett appeared on Fox 13’s “Good Day Tampa Bay” program on Monday with her son, AnyJah, a ninth grader at The Way Christian Academy in Tampa. She said she moved to Florida from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, in 2017 to find better educational opportunities for AnyJah, who has severe autism. 

“No teachers were able to work with him on his level,” Frett told Fox 13 reporter Heather Healy. “Most of his learning in English and math are on fifth and sixth grade levels now.” 

 A U.S. military veteran and single mother of two, Frett said she would not have been able to afford a private school for her son without the scholarship.  

She said AnyJah, who receives the Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with Unique Abilities, is “loved, protected, and thriving” at his school, where class sizes of 10 to 12 students allow for more individual attention. He can also receive his therapies during school. 

The segment also featured information about Florida’s robust education choice options. Those include traditional public schools, district magnet schools, charter schools, private schools, microschools, homeschools, virtual schools, and customized education programs that allow parents to mix and match.  

“We’ve gone from education and funding through the system to now empowering families by putting the money in their hands and allowing them to make the most appropriate educational decisions for families,” said Keith Jacobs, director of provider development at Step Up For Students, which administers most of the state’s education choice scholarships.  

Jacobs has spent the past year working with school districts to provide individual courses to scholarship families whose students do not attend public or private school full time, paid for with scholarship funds. About 70% of Florida school districts are participating.  

The scholarship application season for the 2026-27 school year begins Feb. 1. Visit Step Up For Students to learn more and apply.  

Editor's note: This story is part of our series marking National School Choice Week. We also recognize Catholic Schools Week, which runs concurrently. The scholarship application season opens on Feb. 1. Visit Step Up For Students to learn more and apply.

In 1999, the former school choice scholarship student was 10 years old and living in the Deep South Navy town of Pensacola, Florida. He was being raised by a single mom who worked as a cashier; growing up in a tough neighborhood; and going downhill in a tough public school. 

Then, all of a sudden, he was a student at Little Flower Catholic School. 

Experiencing the school for the first time, he told me 20 years later, “felt like going to Disney.” 

The cathedral was towering. The statue of St. Therese, exotic. Even the classrooms smelled different. “Like Glade,” he said. 

The former student didn’t know anything about the scholarship that allowed him to attend. He didn’t know why his mom enrolled him. He just knew that one day he was in third grade at a “bottom of the bottom” school, and then he and his too-big backpack were in fourth grade across town. 

Just like that, he said, he went from playing dice and fearing he’d be called a “doofus” for studying, to collecting Pokémon cards and competing academically with the children of doctors and lawyers. For the next two years, the entire community at his new school — the teachers, the other kids, the other families — embraced him. 

Two years, it turns out, was long enough for him to affix himself to a path no one else in his family had taken. To high school graduation. To a four-year college. To a good-paying job. 

Without this little Catholic school, he said, none of it would have happened. 

I met the former student in 2019. That was the 20^th anniversary of Florida’s Opportunity Scholarship, the first, modern, statewide voucher program in America. I had set out to find some of the first “voucher kids” and see what happened to them. 

Ultimately, I wrote about one of them, but not the kid from Little Flower. His story, though, seared into my brain. 

It was uncanny how he so clearly described how this one, brief education intervention so radically changed the arc of his life. He said Little Flower showed him what school was supposed to be like, and, more importantly, what a family was supposed to be like. 

A few years later, I would think of the student when choice opponents tried to demagogue scholarship programs because some low-income students use the scholarships only for a short time. They insinuated short-term use proved the poor quality of available private schools, rather than reflect student transience tied to income. 

I continue to think about the former student today, as I continue trying to understand why some schools are so much more effective for low-income students. For half a century, we’ve known Catholic schools are among them. It’s another reason I’m grateful Catholic schools in Florida are growing again, and excited about the potential of school choice to reverse the trend lines in other states, too.  

The “Catholic school advantage” has made the American Dream a reality for millions of working-class kids, usually at far less cost than public schools. But why? 

“Catholic Schools and the Common Good” sought to answer that question. A classic in education research, it was published in 1993, just a few years before Florida launched its first scholarship program. It’s jarring how many school characteristics identified as central to Catholic school effectiveness are so basic. 

An orderly environment. High expectations for every student. A focus on academics and character. And above all, pervasive warmth and hope, grounded in a faith that extended a “genuine sense of human caring” to every kid. 

Why is it so hard to get more of that? 

… 

The kid was assigned to his neighborhood school. He and the school struggled. The man he grew up to be described the school and its outcomes this way: 

The kids who went there, many of them are either dead or in jail or not successful. It was the bottom of the bottom in a sense. Kids who’ve been generation after generation in a certain mindset. The same cycle. Generational curse. Broken homes. A lost generation of kids with no fathers. 

In first grade, he was held back. 

“I don’t know if it was because he was slow at that time, or if the teacher didn’t take the time out to teach right,” his mom told me. “I went to school a couple times and asked, ‘What’s going on?’ They said, ‘He’s a good kid. He behaves. He’s trying.’” 

But as time went on, the kid began hanging with tougher students. In hindsight, he said, he was “starting to go to a dark place.” 

Just in the nick of time, the stars lined up. 

Students were eligible for the Opportunity Scholarship if they attended a public school that earned two F grades in four years. The student in Pensacola attended one of those schools. 

… 

The kid’s mom couldn’t drive him to Little Flower every day. It was a long haul. Her car was unreliable. Her elderly friends volunteered to give her son rides. 

They didn’t have much money, but sometimes they’d hand him a dollar for lunch. They told him he had an opportunity other kids didn’t have. 

Study hard, they told him. … Stay away from the street … Make your mama proud. 

The kid started at a second-grade level academically, even though he was in fourth grade. He said many of his classmates were already doing middle school work. But no one at Little Flower ever made him feel inadequate, he said. His teachers simply gave him more 1-on-1 attention so he could catch up. 

Gratitude fueled him. He didn’t want to let down his mom. Or the “old heads” who gave him rides. Or a former teacher from his prior school, who sometimes took him to church and told him, “There’s something special in you.” 

Competition fueled him, too. He knew he was behind many of his classmates but was determined not to stay there. Everything about the school, he said, told him he was just as capable. 

The former student said he loved the diversity at Little Flower. Working class, middle class, upper class. Mostly white, but with a growing number of Asian students and, thanks to the choice scholarships, more Black students. Increasingly diverse, yet united as a community. 

The kid said his new friends invited him into their lives, where he glimpsed a world he’d never seen. Comfortable homes. Nice things. Moms and dads. 

“It opened up my mind to think different,” he said, “to understand that just because you come from a certain area, you don’t have to follow that line.” 

… 

The kid returned to his zoned school for middle school. He didn’t know why. His mom couldn’t remember. 

But the lessons from Little Flower stuck with him. 

He graduated from high school, attended a four-year college, and earned a bachelor’s degree. He said he loved college, and not just for academics. He was surrounded, he said, by students with “concrete families.” 

Just like he was at Little Flower. 

“I got to see what a family was,” he said. “A functional family. A healthy family. This is what a family feels like. It gives you spirit … inspiration … warmth … “ 

Today, the former scholarship kid has a good-paying job. He’s married with kids. He told me his “biggest mission in life is to raise a healthy family.” 

Little Flower taught him that, he said, without ever having to say it. 

The time has come when we officially recognize National School Choice Week. However, we at Step Up For Students like to say that every week is National School Choice Week. 

We are proud that Florida is the national leader in empowering parents to choose the best educational fit for their children. More than half of the state's K12 students used some form of education choice in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Parents’ ability to direct their children’s education has always been important, but even more so in the past 100 years, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) gave parents the right to choose between public and private options.  

“The child is not a mere creature of the state,” Justice James C. McReynolds wrote in the unanimous decision that the government cannot compel children to attend only public schools. 

Catholic schools, which were the target of the law the high court struck down, cheered.  

Fittingly, Catholic Schools Week, which we also recognize, is running concurrently this year with National School Choice Week. With its robust statewide choice scholarships, Florida is also a national leader in Catholic school enrollment growth. 

National School Choice Week is a non-partisan celebration that encompasses all forms of choice: Traditional district schools, public magnet schools and charter schools, virtual schools, private schools, both religious and secular, microschools, home education and customized learning powered by education savings accounts that can include a mix of public and private programs.  

Events are happening across the nation, from capitol rallies to school choice fairs to students in signature yellow scarves performing the official National School Choice Week dance in their classrooms or homes. 

Throughout the week, NextSteps will share stories of students and families who have benefited from Florida’s many educational options. You will meet a young hockey player whose Personalized Education Program scholarship has allowed him to travel with his team to compete in international tournaments while keeping up with his schoolwork and educational goals. Ron Matus, Step Up’s director of research & special projects, will share his memories of a former student who was among the state’s first recipients of Florida Opportunity Scholarships pioneered by former Gov. Jeb Bush. A couple of years in a Catholic school were enough to put him on a path to a better life. 

We will also bring you a story by a Tampa Bay FOX affiliate of a single parent who was able to send her son, who struggled in other schools with his autism, to a school where he is thriving, with dreams of going to college. 

We will cap off the week at the festivities Thursday in Tallahassee, where Step Up representatives will have information about the Feb. 1 season open for 2026-27 scholarship applications. 

Even if you aren’t at the rally, you can still learn about the scholarships and apply at www.stepupforstudents.org. 

We can’t wait until next week. And the week after. And the week after that. 

Because we serve Florida, where choice is the norm for all public education. 

By Ron Matus and Julisse Levy

HUDSON, Fla. – In 2022, Joel Hernandez and his wife, Norma Torres, had to find a new school for their then-9-year-old daughter, Fabiola. In their part of Puerto Rico, they felt their options were, at best, limited.

Fabiola is on the autism spectrum. Over the years, her parents visited and/or researched every public and private school in the area that served students with special needs. It was not a pretty picture.

In some, up to 30 students with vastly different learning and support needs were crammed together in the same classrooms. In one, students with a wide range of ages and special needs were grouped in a room that doubled as storage for desks, tables, and other equipment. Yet another was so lacking in security that Hernandez walked from the entrance to the classroom without anybody asking who he was or what he was doing.

In the end, the couple settled on a school that looked good on paper. But it turned out to be a bust, too. It never delivered on promises of regular speech and occupational therapy.

Fighting for Fabiola left the couple drained. Their daughter needed every opportunity to gain skills that would allow her to live as independently as possible as an adult, and it wasn’t happening.

“We spent nights crying,” Hernandez said. “We looked at each other every day and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ “

As things grew desperate, the couple began to consider moving to the states for better educational opportunities, and more specifically, to Florida, where they had enjoyed time on vacation. When they began researching schools in the Sunshine State that served students with autism, one immediately jumped out.

It had Hope in its name.

'I knew it was meant to be'

Hope Ranch Learning Academy is a K-12 school with 250 students an hour north of Tampa.

From the school website, the couple could see a campus awash in moss-draped oaks. To them, it looked calming. The school featured equine therapy, which Fabiola experienced in Puerto Rico and loved. It was also a Christian school, which was very important to the family.

Incredibly, Hernandez and Torres also saw a familiar face on the website, a girl who had been Fabiola’s friend years prior.

“God intervened,” Hernandez said. “I knew it was meant to be.”

The couple contacted the girl’s family, who referred them to a school administrator. The woman told them that Hope Ranch had a long waitlist — it’s now more than 80 students — and they had to be Florida residents to get on it. She asked, “Do you really want to move because of the school?”

“That was the a-ha moment,” Hernandez said. “We said, ‘In Puerto Rico, we have nothing for our daughter. We have to move.’”

Private school boom, scholarships, draw families

Families are moving to Florida because of its schools and school choice.

It’s not just the abundance of state choice scholarships, which average $8,000 or $10,000 each and are now available to every family. It’s the entire, choice-driven system. Florida’s education landscape is becoming more diverse and dynamic by the day, as the families of 500,000 students using scholarships (and growing) shape it with their preferences.

In the past 10 years alone, the number of private schools in Florida has grown by a third. That’s a net gain of more than 700 private schools, which is more than 39 states each have, period. And what’s more impressive than the number is the variety.

Schools like Hope Ranch, which was a semi-finalist for the Yass Prize in education innovation, are not anomalies. High-quality schools serving students with special needs have emerged in every corner of the state, and some are now drawing families from out of state. At the North Florida School of Special Education, for example, the families of 24 students moved from out of state, including this family from Maryland.

At Hope Ranch, a half-dozen families have even moved from other countries or Puerto Rico.

Equine therapy and transition program set Hope Ranch apart

In Puerto Rico, Hernandez taught marketing at a college and sold beauty supplies. Torres worked as a nail technician. Moving to the States obviously would mean leaving friends and family and starting over with new jobs, a new house, everything. But Fabiola’s future depended on it.

In November 2023, the family and their three dogs moved into their new home, 12 miles from Hope.

Since Fabiola couldn’t attend the private school right away, her parents enrolled her in the neighborhood public school. It turned out to be excellent. One teacher in particular paid extra attention to Fabiola and made sure she got the help she needed, including a full-time, 1-on-1 assistant.

“There’s always an angel over Fabiola,” Hernandez said.

Hope Ranch, though, remained ideal. Besides the equine therapy program, the school operates a highly regarded transition program that prepares students for independent living as adults. In December, the Yass Prize awarded Hope founders Jose and Ampy Suarez an alumni grant, so they could build a separate high school campus and expand the transition program.

Hernandez periodically checked in with Hope to see how much the waitlist was shrinking. Finally, in June 2025, the administrators invited the family to the school so they could share the good news in person.

Fabiola was in.

Family credits school choice scholarship for making Hope Ranch affordable

Classes started in August. Just a few months later, Hernandez said the change in Fabiola has been “astronomical.”

Fabiola smiles more. She’s happy when she wakes up. She’s happy on the way to school.

She’s more independent, confident, communicative. She doesn’t cover her face as much as she used to. She tries to verbalize more. She makes eye contact more often.

“She wants to play with other children now,” Torres said. “She feels included. They grab her hand and say, ‘Come with us.’ “

Last month, Fabiola and the other Hope Ranch students performed a stage version of “The Little Drummer Boy” for students at a nearby high school. Fabiola was on stage for an hour.

“I know she has to progress more,” Hernandez said, “but we feel very good.”

None of this would have been possible without Florida’s choice scholarship, he said. The family couldn’t afford Hope Ranch without it.

The school told the family about the scholarship. But Hernandez couldn’t believe how easy it was to get.

In Puerto Rico, he and Torres were accustomed to filing all kinds of education requests on Fabiola’s behalf and waiting long stretches for answers. With the scholarship, they got the award notice within 24 hours of applying. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” Hernandez joked.

“We had this in our dreams, but we didn’t know it could come true. Florida and Hope were a dream come true,” Hernandez said as he started to cry.

“I’m sorry I have to cry, but it’s very emotional,” he continued. “In Puerto Rico, all we had were problems” with Fabiola’s education. “Here we have solutions.”

Some quotes in this story were translated from Spanish to English with the assistance of Julisse Levy, director, head of business Initiatives, Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, at Step Up For Students.

TAMPA, Fla. — The words on the trophy read “Future Philanthropist,” and Mrs. Finley, who taught fifth grade that year, cried when she presented it to Andrew Weber during graduation.

Andrew smiled at the memory.

“It was one of the highlights of my elementary school career,” he said. “Mrs. Finley said I was one of her favorite students. That meant a lot to me.”

So did receiving the trophy, which still holds a place of honor on his nightstand.

“It made me realize my potential and how I can help others,” Andrew said.

Almost seven years later, Andrew, a 17-year-old senior, is nearing another graduation, this time from Jesuit High School, the Catholic school in Tampa he attends with the help of a Florida education choice scholarship.

The altruistic nature Mrs. Finley saw in Andrew when he was in elementary school blossomed during the ensuing years.

Jesuit’s mantra is “Men for Others,” and Andrew embodies that.

“He does 100%,” said Andy Wood, Jesuit’s athletic trainer and track and field coach, and the school’s former director of community service. “Andrew is one of our top students. And when you talk about a total package, including his community service work, being a student athlete, he's what we envision our seniors being at graduation.”

Andrew volunteered for eight service organizations while in high school.

He made two trips to an orphanage in Guatemala with his Jesuit classmates, feeds people at Metropolitan Ministries, and delivers Meals on Wheels with his mother, May.

He’s volunteered for the Faith Café, the Young Men’s Service League, Teens United Florida, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Ryan Nece Foundation, a non-profit founded by a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer that empowers teens to become leaders through volunteering.

Andrew traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, last June with the Ryan Nece Foundation to help families with home repairs still needed after the flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.

He is a pole vaulter on the track and field team, and in his spare time, he plays the piano at a local nursing home.

As a junior, Andrew received the Anne Frank Humanitarian Award from the Florida Holocaust Museum in Tampa for his outstanding humanitarian efforts.

Andrew’s parents, May and Tim, raised him and his older sister, Elise, to be community-minded. Elise, now a sophomore at the University of Georgia, also volunteered for the Ryan Nece Foundation while in high school.

“As his parents, we always wanted Andrew to be very involved in a lot of things and explore different passions, and luckily for him, many of those passions really stuck,” May said.

Andrew set the foundation in elementary school when he sold lemonade, handmade crafts, and rocks (crystals and gems) from a stand in the front yard of the family’s Tampa home. He said he would raise maybe $100 over several weeks and donate the money to charities such as Dogs Inc (formerly Southeastern Guide Dogs).

“I was 8,” he said. “I felt the money could benefit other people more than it could benefit me.”

“His heart was always generous,” May said.

For a teenager as service-oriented as Andrew, he certainly found a home at Jesuit, where students are required to complete a minimum of 150 hours of community service during their four years. Andrew, though, has accrued more than 500.

Yet, the decision to attend Jesuit was not easy.

“It was a very hard decision,” Andrew said.

His options were these: his district school, where Elise was a rising junior and where a lot of his friends were headed, or Jesuit, an all-male parochial school with demanding academic standards.

For help, Andrew turned to his role model: his big sister.

“She said, ‘Andrew, if you pass up this opportunity, you might regret it for the rest of your life.’ So I said, ‘I'm going to listen to you,’” Andrew said.

Thinking back on it now, Andrew added, “She was right.”

He has no regrets.

Andrew’s two trips to Orfanato Valle de Los Angeles (the Valley of the Angels orphanage) outside of Guatemala City with his classmates opened his eyes to how fortunate he is to live in America.

The orphanage did not have air conditioning, and hot water was spotty at best.

Wi-Fi? Yeah, right.

“I just put down my phone and started living in the environment, living how these kids live, and I realized that life can be fun,” Andrew said.

The Jesuit students spent nine days with at-risk children, teaching them English and about their faith.

Andrew called the experience “life-changing.”

“In Tampa, we really live in a bubble,” he said. “There are things I don’t take for granted anymore.”

Like AC, hot water, and a strong Wi-Fi signal.

And how a simple act of kindness can make a world of difference in someone’s day.

During the summers, he and his mom deliver Meals on Wheels to older adults and others unable to leave their homes without difficulty. It’s a bonding moment between the two, quality time spent together for a mom and her son.

“It's probably my favorite thing that we have done together,” May said.

“It’s the favorite thing that I do,” Andrew said.

They don’t rush through their route. Instead, they spend a few minutes at each stop, checking on the people receiving the meal, making small talk, and letting them know they matter.

When they first started delivering the meals, May told Andrew: “We’re probably the only people they're going to talk to that day, so even though this is sort of a blip on your radar, this is their day; this is their weekend; this is their week. So, make it count.”

Andrew took that lesson to heart.

A man for others.

“I feel like if I were in that situation where I needed help, I obviously want someone to do the same thing for me,” he said. “Spreading Jesuit’s values across what I do is a big part of why I do it. What I've learned here, it really propels me to do what I do in such a great way.”

Andrew wants to major in business in college. Where? He hasn’t decided. His choices are the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee, Boston College, and Florida State University.

Where will that major lead him? He’s not sure.

“I can tell you it will be with people,” May said. “Whether it's finance or accounting, marketing or entrepreneurship, his love is working with people. I think it's just what comes naturally to him. He motivates people and makes people feel better about themselves. So, that’s my prediction.”

Each school day at 2:35 p.m., Joshua Jones enters a classroom at Crescent City Junior-Senior High School and settles into an agriculture class for eighth graders.

It’s the only class Joshua attends at the school, located about six miles from his home. And it caps the academic portion of his day, which starts at 8:30 a.m. sharp when he and his younger siblings, Jacob (sixth grade) and Kylie (fourth), begin their home education with their mother, Ashley.

The Jones children receive Personalized Education Program (PEP) scholarships available through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program and managed by Step Up For Students. PEP offers parents flexibility in how they spend their scholarship funds, allowing them to tailor their children’s learning to meet their individual needs and interests.

PEP allows families access to services and classes at public, charter, or virtual schools, adding another layer to hybrid learning for those who home educate.

Since the passage of PEP as part of House Bill 1 in 2023, 36 of the state's school districts are offering services to students with education savings accounts, with 12 more in the pipeline, according to Keith Jacobs, director of provider development at Step Up For Students. Those include some of Florida's large districts, such as Miami-Dade, Orange, and Hillsborough, as well as more rural districts such as Baker and Putnam, where the Joneses live.

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

Ashley and her husband, Daniel, use a portion of Joshua’s PEP funds to pay the Putnam County School District for Joshua to take the agriculture class and the fees for him to run cross country and play junior varsity soccer and baseball for the Raiders.

“This is a good opener for this year to figure out how this will work and if he will like it,” Ashley said.

Ashley used to teach elementary school music, art, and physical education. She is currently the girls' varsity volleyball coach at Crescent City Junior-Senior High and runs the local club volleyball program. Three years ago, she and Daniel, the pastor at South Putnam Church in Crescent City and a nurse at a hospital in Palatka, decided to home educate their children.

“The class sizes just were not feasible to me,” Ahsley said. “There were too many kids in the classroom. I love their teachers. I know them personally, but somebody’s going to get left behind. Somebody’s not going to get everything they need.

“Daniel and I decided that since I'm teaching kids anyway, I should be teaching mine. They're going to get so much more out of it, because it's just me and them.”

Joshua said he enjoys learning at home.

“We get done with school a lot quicker and have a lot more time to do things while still being able to learn,” he said.

Ashley teaches her children from 8:30 a.m. until the early afternoon. After that come chores and activities they can do outside in the fresh air and sun.

“My thing is this: I have intelligent children who I can teach, and they can be advanced and do it as fast as they want to, and that’s great. It just makes sense to me. This is the best model for us,” Ashley said. “I know it's not for everyone.”

The children are active in the community, are involved in sports and have a ton of friends, especially Joshua.

“He enjoys his social life,” Ashley said.

Crescent City is a small community. The city itself is less than three square miles with a population of fewer than 1,700. Ashley said it doesn’t lend itself to home education co-ops and chances for the Jones children to interact with other home-educated students during the day.

“That was the biggest piece that was missing for Joshua, going to school and seeing friends,” Ashley said.

So, when the opportunity was created for Joshua to return to a brick-and-mortar school, even on a limited basis, his parents pursued it. The agriculture class meets during the last period of the day, and Joshua was headed there anyway for sports.

Ashley called it a “great compromise.”

“He's going there to do something that he likes,” she said. “He loves the animals. He loves to learn about them. He’s going there for one of his electives, so that's one less thing that we do at home.

“He's already going to the school at the end of the day anyway, so now he just gets to see his friends and interact with people, and he's in a teacher setting, which I think is a good thing, too. It is hard when it's always mom. So, I think having a teacher also teaches life skills, so I don't think that's a bad thing at all.”

Joshua said he wants to continue with an agriculture class next school year. He would also like to join Future Farmers of America.

“It’s fun,” he said. “I get to go back to the school so I can still hang out with my friends and still get to take a class there.

“I do love learning about animals.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Life, it’s often said, is what happens when you’re making other plans.

Tasia Mathis planned on joining the U.S. Navy Reserve. Then her grandmother, with whom Tasia and her younger brother Jeremiah lived with, died suddenly from complications of kidney failure.

“The papers were signed, but I wasn’t able to go through with it,” Tasia said. “I had to make sure he was OK.”

Tasia, 20 at the time, became her brother’s guardian.

While Tracy Crawford’s passing in June 2023 ended Tasia’s goal of joining the Navy, it didn’t end her goal of a bright future for herself and Jeramiah.

For that, she credits Florida's private school scholarships managed by Step Up For Students.

The scholarships enabled Tasia, now 22, and Jeremiah to attend Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg for middle school and allowed Jeremiah, 15, to continue his private school education at Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, where he is a sophomore this year.

“(The scholarship) gave us the opportunity to go to a school that we probably wouldn't be able to go to,” Tasia said. “It gave us the opportunity to expand our knowledge so good things can come into our lives.”

Tasia is studying to become a phlebotomist and works as a teacher at the Academy for Love and Learning in St. Petersburg.

Jeremiah would like to attend the United States Air Force Academy and work in cybersecurity.

The two, who share an apartment in St. Petersburg, have goals and are working toward them with a determination forged by Tracy Crawford, their grandmother, and reinforced by their years at Academy Prep.

“They don’t let you give up,” Tasia said when asked what she liked about attending Academy Prep. “Even if you had issues, they never let you give up.”

Could you blame them if they did?

Tasia was 8 and Jermiah was three weeks old when their mom died. Staci Crawford was only 34 when she suffered a heart attack. That left the children in the care of their grandmother, whose failing health forced Tasia to find work as a counselor at the Police Athletic League when she was 14.

“I had to help out with the bills,” she said. “By the time I was 16, I was cooking, washing everybody's clothes, helping my grandmother out the best I could.”

So, when asked what it’s like to have his sister as his guardian, Jeremiah said, “It’s kind of all I’ve known.”

Tracy wanted Tasia to attend a school that would challenge her academically and offer a safe environment. That’s why she used the private school scholarship to send her to Academy Prep.

At first, Tasia said, it wasn’t a good match. She was not a fan of the school’s long days (7 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or the fact that she had to wear a uniform.

“It took her a while to buy in, and then once she did, she was a high-achiever, and she set the tone for the other kids,” said Lacey Nash Miller, Academy Prep’s executive director of advancement.

For that, Tracy gets a big assist.

“She made sure my grades were straight, my attitude was straight,” Tasia said. “By seventh grade, it all came together.”

For high school, Tasia attended her assigned school because it offered a BETA (Business, Entrepreneurial, Technology Academy) program that interested her.

Jeremiah attended his assigned elementary school, but Tracy wasn’t a fan of his assigned middle school.

“It wasn’t up to her standards,” Tasia said. “She wanted to challenge him.”

So, like his sister, Jeremiah headed crosstown to Academy Prep, where he said he benefited from the school’s academic environment and the self-discipline the teachers try to instill in the students.

Jeremiah said he became more extroverted during his years at Academy Prep.

“I was naturally a quiet person. I didn’t talk much,” he said. “Now, I talk to people. I try to start conversations.”

He also credited his teachers, specifically Zack Brockett, a science teacher, for guiding him toward being a young adult.

“He pushed us to grow up, so that we can go into high school as mature students,” Jeremiah said.

His teachers at Academy Prep describe Jeremiah as a quiet student who completed his assignments on time, helped out around campus, and amazed them with his drawing ability.

“Jeremiah is very self-driven,” Britanny Dillard, Academy Prep’s assistant head of school, said. “He’s one of those people that you kind of underestimate because he's so quiet that you don't even truly realize the talents that he actually has. He’s not the first to raise his hand, but he knows the answer.”

Jeremiah was a member of the school’s track team. He threw the shot put and discus. At graduation, Jeremiah received the Priscilla E. Frederick Foundation, worth $1,500 toward the balance of his freshman year tuition at Admiral Farragut. Frederick is a former Olympic high jumper who competed for Antigua and Barbuda in the 2016 Summer Games. Her foundation awards scholarships and grants to students raised in single-parent households. Jeremiah was the first Academy Prep student to earn that scholarship.

He is a soft-spoken, unassuming young man with a growing vinyl record collection and an interest in graphic novels and comic books. He will participate in track and field this year and will take an aviation class, which he feels will benefit him when he gets to the Air Force Academy.

Jeremiah spends his high school volunteer hours at Academy Prep. He helps grade papers, organize classrooms, and move supplies around campus.

Jeremiah and Tasia are spoken highly of at Academy Prep. Both Dillard and Nash Miller said they were “heartbroken” when they learned of Tracy’s death, and both admitted they were worried for the future of the siblings.

“They only had each other, and I think it speaks highly of Tasia that she was willing to accept that role,” Dillard said.

Said Nash Miller: “The news that her grandmother passed just gutted me. She had all these plans, and she just cancelled them to be her brother’s primary caregiver. What a superhero to put her brother’s needs ahead of her own.”

The category is “Lifelong dreams.”

These are the clues.

Many find this experience fun, exciting, and a little scary.

What is being on “Jeopardy!”?

The answer is correct if you’re Michael Kavanagh, principal at Holy Family Catholic School, a K-8 parochial school in Jacksonville.

For as long as Michael can remember, he wanted to appear on “Jeopardy!,” the game show where the answers are given, and the contestants guess the questions. A dream that became a goal when Michael reached high school became a reality when he appeared on the show that aired on Nov. 24.

Michael placed second among the three contestants. He was a perfect 12-for-12 in his answers, including “Final Jeopardy!,” when he was the only one to successfully answer the question. He earned $12,600.

“To be able to say that I accomplished something that I've wanted to do since I was a kid, to be able to actually pull it off and get on the show, that was really just a dream for me,” Michael said.

All but a handful of Holy Family’s students attend the school with the help of a Florida education choice scholarship managed by Step Up For Students. Many watched their principal live out his dream, which made Michael the big man on campus when school resumed after the Thanksgiving break.

And maybe a role model.

“Step Up exists to give children opportunities, to give children a chance to go to a great school and get a great education,” Michael said.

And with that education, well, they too can someday be on “Jeopardy!,” if that’s a goal they want to chase.

“That's what I hope our students see the value in,” Michael said. “I didn't use my athletic abilities. I didn't use my strength or anything like that. I was fortunate enough to go to great schools and learn from great teachers, and I used that knowledge to pursue something that I really loved.

“I think it just shows you that when you have an opportunity, and when you have a dream, and you want to follow it, all these things are possible. So, I do hope that maybe being a role model for someone as a ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant, that's maybe a little bit of a nerdy thing to do, but I do hope it shows the kids that there's value in learning and there’s value in pursuing your dreams.

“It's good to be smart.”

To be selected for “Jeopardy!,” Michael had to pass an online test, then an interview. He had taken the test several times, but this was the first time he was interviewed. In September, he received the call. He would be on the show that was taped Oct. 21.

What is ecstatic?

Michael was told by the show’s producers that 70,000 people take the test each year, but only 450 make it to the show.

“Just being there, you’re in pretty elite territory,” he said.

Michael and his wife, Allison, flew to Los Angeles for a three-day trip. They had to keep the results to themselves until after the show aired.

While Michael didn’t win -- Harrison Whittaker from Terre Haute, Indiana, extended his winning streak to 10 games that day – he was the only one who answered every question correctly.

Other than reviewing the names of Shakespeare characters, U.S. vice presidents, and capitals of foreign countries, Michael said he didn’t study for his big moment. It’s nearly impossible when the show’s producers can pick from a nearly endless list of categories, or, as they did that day, create one where the contestants were given two words and had to change the last letters to form another word.

Michael entered with the random facts accrued over a lifetime of being curious.

“It was just stuff that I've picked up over 40 years of listening, and reading, and studying,” he said. “I'm very blessed with a mind that is always curious and remembers facts that I find interesting. For me, I think everything is interesting.”

It was a combination of facts that led him to the correct answer to “Final Jeopardy!,” the last question of the show and the one that often determines the winner.

The clues:

He wasn't yet a U.S. citizen when he was named an All-American and won two Olympic gold medals for the country.

Michael had 30 seconds to answer.

“I didn’t actually know the answer,” Michael said.

But he knew Jim Thorpe was a Native American, and he knew Thorpe was an Olympic champion, and knowing what he does about American history, he figured Native Americans were probably not considered American citizens at that time.

Who is Jim Thorpe?

“I was able to piece together all of those little bits of information to come up with a really confident guess as to what the answer was,” Michael said. “So, it was a lot of problem-solving, too. A lot of ‘Jeopardy!’ is not, ‘Do you know facts?’ It's, ‘Do you know this fact, and can you use it to lead you to something else?’ ”

“Jeopardy!” tapes a week's worth of shows on Mondays. Michael’s show was the first one that was taped. Afterward, he sat in the audience with Allison and watched two more shows.

Each show is 30 minutes, but because of commercials, contestants are on air for only 22 minutes. Add a few practice questions before taping began, the excitement of being on the iconic “Jeopardy!” set, and the mental energy needed to come up with answers in a split second, and Michael was a little worn out when it was over.

“It’s a competition,” he said. “It's not athletic, but you definitely feel like your body has gone through something. Your brain was spinning, and your heart was racing, and then it's over, and you take a deep breath, and you realize that's it. I'm done. And that was incredible.

“Honestly, it's more like riding a roller coaster, and you get off, and you think, ‘Well, that was fun and exciting and a little scary.’”

HAVANA, Fla. – It was a typical July afternoon in Florida’s Panhandle. The air was hot and sticky, and the sun hid behind the dark gray thunder clouds building to the north of Robert F. Munroe Day School in Havana.

A warm breeze kicked up, signaling the approaching late-day storm.

The students who darted about earlier during summer camp, and the staff and teachers who spent their day on campus preparing for the upcoming school year, were mostly gone.

Andy Gay, head of school, remained. So did Shanna Halsell, director of advancement and marketing. They spent the better part of the day with a visitor, explaining the efforts necessary to keep Robert F. Munroe Day School (RFM) open, despite financial shortcomings, an exodus of teachers, and declining enrollment that not too long ago threatened to close the private pre-K-12 school.

But that gloomy forecast never happened.

In Gay’s first three years on the job, enrollment has increased, and test scores are on the rise.

Several factors came into play for the turnaround, including the expansion of Florida’s education choice scholarship programs managed by Step Up For Students.

“The Step Up scholarship saved this school,” Gay said. “This school has always been on the verge of shutting down, and we’d have closed without it.”

But RFM’s story is more than just the creation in 2022 of the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, which increased the income requirements for eligible families, making a private school education more affordable to families.

Parents need more than money to send their children to a private school. They need a reason to send them there.

And that’s where Gay comes in. He is a graduate of RFM. So is his wife, and so are his two sons and his daughter.

“We’re a Munroe family,” Gay said. “I love this place. It has a soft spot in my heart.”

That’s the reason RFM’s board of trustees sent an SOS to Gay before the start of the 2022-23 school year.

“We needed him,” Libby Henderson, the immediate past president of the school’s board of trustees, said.

A native of Gadsden County, Gay has deep roots in the community. And, as a former teacher, coach, and administrator in the county school district, Gay is well-versed in how to run a school.

Also, he was available.

Sort of.

Gay had just retired after 32 years in education. He was ready to spend his days fishing and playing with his grandchildren.

That lasted two weeks.

“He indicated he was interested and could be talked out of retirement,” Henderson said.

Gay, who always wanted to run a school, accepted the offer, telling the trustees that he would work for two years. This year is his fourth as head of school.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I fell in love with the job.”

Eventually.

Gay admitted that what he found when he took over was not what he expected. The test scores for reading and math were below grade level.

“I saw a lot of disturbing data, and I knew that there had to be some drastic reform,” he said.

Where to start? The faculty.

Gay filled the vacancies with a mix of seasoned teachers and college graduates.

“It's always been my philosophy that there's no one more important than the teacher in the classroom,” Gay said. “So, I got busy trying to hire people that I knew would get the job done, that I could trust, that I knew.

“With the young teachers, I felt that we could give them the support they needed and turn them into good teachers.”

Gay has coached football and track. He won back-to-back state track titles and came within three points of winning a third straight. He knows how to build a staff of assistant coaches. You hire coaches for their expertise and let them coach.

It’s the same with the teachers.

“The cool thing about Andy that I love is he’ll help you if you need help,” said Anthony Piragnoli, who is in his sixth year at RFM and teaches high school English and coaches the middle school football team. “Now, if you're a new teacher and you kind of need some help, he'll definitely help you out and give you all the resources and all the tools you need. But if you're more experienced, he kind of lets you, I don't want to say do your own thing, but he gives you the freedom to teach the way you want to teach.”

 Of course, nothing is more important to a school than the students themselves. To raise the academic bar, Gay and his staff created a welcoming, yet demanding culture.

“It’s all about the expectations you put on the kids,” he said.

And the expectation was that they would become better readers.

Gay instituted DEAR Time, which stands for “Drop Everything And Read.”

A first-grade teacher came up with the idea for the Bobcat Buddy Program, which pairs upper school students with lower school students for mentorships and companionship.

That led to Bobcat Buddy Book Day, where upper school students bring a book or check one out from the library to read to their lower school buddy.

“You go out on campus, and you see kids lining the sidewalk or on the playground, and the big buddy is reading to the little buddy, and I think that is wonderful,” said Dawn Burch, director of education.

The programs work. Two years ago, only 48% of RFM students were reading at grade level. That has increased to 73%.

Halsell’s data shows the school experienced 93.8% growth across the board in reading, math, and science since Gay took over. Last year, 13 of 30 seniors graduated with associate's degrees through the school’s newly implemented dual enrollment program.

But it takes more than just the teachers to get students to work harder. The parents have to buy in, too.

“I want partnerships between parents and teachers,” Gay said. “It can’t be adversarial. I found it makes a huge difference in the overall academic growth of the child when there is a partnership.”

Toward that end, parents are always welcome on campus. Teachers are encouraged to call parents when their child does something positive in class.

“We can call about good stuff, too,” he said.

There is an excitement around RFM that hadn’t been there in years, Henderson said. Last year’s alumni golf tournament raised $25,000, which went toward the school’s curriculum. Halsell works tirelessly to reconnect with alumni and build a network of donors. She recently announced that the school secured a $500,000 grant for its STEM program.

The school sits on 44 acres with plenty of room to expand. A new gymnasium would be nice.

Those rain clouds that appeared over the school on that July afternoon did little more than threaten. Much like the metaphorical storm clouds that were forming when Gay took the job.

“He’s done a phenomenal job,” Henderson said.

Two years turned into four for Gay, and four can turn into who knows how long.

“I feel like I will stay here as long as I continue to see progress and I continue to feel good about this place,” Gay said. “Right now, I feel like we're on the verge of some greatness.”

If anyone needs more proof that the future of education is in Florida, take a look at the winners of Thursday night’s Yass Prize Awards. Seven Florida-based providers, including two finalists who took home $250,000 each, were among the 23 honored for their innovative and scalable programs.  

One of the finalists, Pepin Academies, is a charter school network with three campuses in the Tampa Bay area. It offers students with learning disabilities in grades three through 12 an inclusive environment where academics and essential therapies happen together in real time.  

“I have always rejected the principle that we have to think outside the box for students with disabilities,” said Jeff Skowronek, executive director of the 25-year-old network. “A truly inclusive society is one that understands how to make the box bigger.”  

Pepin stands out for its small class sizes, ESE-certified teachers, and onsite specialists, including mental health counselors, social workers, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, ESE specialists, and registered nurses, according to Yass Prize offices. This ensures their children receive individualized attention throughout the entire school day. In addition to its schools, Pepin operates a transition program for young adults ages 18-22.  

According to Yass Prize officials, the award empowers Pepin Academies to serve students earlier, expand their transition program, and bring their therapeutic model to more families seeking a school that understands and supports exceptional learners at every stage. 

The other finalist, WonderHere, is a network of child-centered microschools that focus on play-driven, project-based learning and personalized education to let children learn at their own pace. 

“We are so excited and grateful to the Yass family and the Center for Education Reform for selecting WonderHere as a finalist,” said Tiffany Thenor, who opened the first campus in Lakeland after spending seven years in the public education system. She opened WonderHere to challenge the norms of schooling and prove that learning can be more joyful, flexible, and deeply human. A second location opened later in Anderson, South Carolina, and a third is planned for Davenport, Florida, near the original location. 

Thenor said the prize money will help her find a permanent location for the Davenport campus and create more space for families to experience the “project-based, family-centered, wonder-filled learning environment” that WonderHere offers. 

The following Florida providers were named semi-finalists and received $100,000 each: Archimedean Schools of Miami; Space Florida, Merritt Island; Ecclesial Schools, Oviedo; American High School, a national online program headquartered in Plantation that serves youth in the justice system, and GuidEd, a Tampa-based bilingual program that provides free, unbiased information about educational choices to help families determine the best fit for their children.   

 “GuidEd looks forward to using our Yass award money to enhance our call center capabilities to provide more sophisticated and personalized 1:1 support for families and to reach new families who may be entering the education freedom marketplace for the first time," said Kelly Garcia, who founded GuidEd with her brother-in-law, Garrett Garcia.  

The Yass Prize, often called the “Pulitzer of Education Innovation,” began in 2021 to recognize innovative educators who delivered top-tier learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Philanthropists and education choice champions Jeff and Janine Yass established the award and continue to fund the program.

The top winner takes home a $1 million prize. This year, it went to Chesterton Schools Network, a national network of classical high schools rooted in Catholic values. Though headquartered in Minnesota, Chesterton has Florida schools in Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota, and Vero Beach, with a fifth set to open in 2027 in Melbourne. Primer Microschools, which began in Florida and has expanded to other states, won the grand prize in 2024. That year, it announced the establishment of Primer Fellowship, which provides paid training for edupreneurs seeking to open Primer Microschools in their communities.