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public school choice

Once again, charter schools dominate Florida’s education choice landscape

Patrick R. Gibbons January 27, 2021

Patrick R. Gibbons

The 11^th National School Choice Week celebration kicked off Monday as various organizations, schools, parents and students celebrate educational opportunities in their own unique way. RedefinED celebrates School Choice Week by releasing its 12^th annual Florida Changing Landscapes document.

This most recent document, created from Florida Department of Education data, reveals that more than 1.5 million K-12 Florida students participated in school choice during the 2019-20 school year.

This year’s Changing Landscape is a little different than past years. Last year, we saw nearly 1.7 million PK-12 students participating in some form of school choice in the Sunshine State. A detailed breakdown of Florida’s VPK program enrollment, the state’s largest voucher program with around 171,000 students, wasn’t available at the time of publication.

This year, we examined only K-12 school choice programs. Where applicable, such as with private school-private pay or the Gardiner Scholarship, pre-K students have been removed from the count. Likewise, Gardiner Scholarship students who are enrolled in home education programs have been removed from the home education count.

As was the case last year, charter schools dominate the top spot with 329,216 students enrolled. Various public school options, such as magnet schools, career and professional academies and open enrollment continue to dominate the landscape. School choice programs offered by public school districts enrolled more than 717,000 students last year, which means there are more students enrolled in public school choice programs than there are public school students in 24 other states.

Overall, growth in school choice was modest in the 2019-20 school year, adding just 25,000 students for 0.9% growth over the prior year.

The Gardiner Scholarship program, administered by Step Up for Students, the nonprofit that hosts this blog, grew by 17%. Virtual education grew by 15% and Advanced International Certificate of Education programs grew by 14%.

Home education proved to be another popular option, exceeding 101,000 students, a growth of nearly 11% over the prior year.

Career and Professional Academies and Choice and Magnet Programs saw enrollment decline by 6% and 5%, respectively. Private pay students attending private schools shrunk by 3.5%. But thanks in large measure to Florida’s scholarship programs, total K-12 enrollment in Florida’s private schools grew by 5%.

The 2019-20 school year ended amidst a global pandemic that shook public education well into the new year. Nationally, both charter school and private school enrollment grew by 3% while home education grew by 2%.

You can view last year’s Florida Changing Landscapes document here.

January 27, 2021 1 comment

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Choice-rich Miami-Dade stars in U.S. News & World Report’s top high schools list

Lisa Buie April 23, 2020

Lisa Buie

School for Advanced Studies, a collegiate high school in Miami, was named fourth-best high school in the country this week by U.S. News & World Report.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools, where nearly three-quarters of students are enrolled in choice programs, led Florida once again on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the nation’s best public high schools released earlier this week.

School for Advanced Studies, the top public high school in Florida, was the fourth-best high school in the nation, improving upon last year’s rankings of No. 2 and No. 26, respectively. The school is a combined effort of Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Miami-Dade College that allows students to complete their last two years of high school while attending the state college and earning credit toward an associate degree.

Five other Miami-Dade schools, all either selective magnets or charter schools, ranked in the top 10 in Florida and top 100 nationally: Young Women’s Preparatory Academy, No. 3 in Florida and No. 52 nationally; Design and Architecture Senior High, No. 6 in Florida and No. 72 nationally; Archimedean Upper Conservatory Charter School, No. 7 in Florida and No. 74 nationally; International Studies Charter High School, No. 8 in Florida and No. 83 nationally; and Jose Marti Mast 6-12 Academy, No. 9 in Florida and No. 94 nationally.

“M-DCPS continues to demonstrate that our district … is a leader in academic performance, and that includes providing our students with a remarkable range of educational opportunities,” superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a news release issued by the school district.

All six schools have minority populations between 74 and 96 percent. The percent of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, generally an indicator of poverty, ranges from 36 percent to 74 percent, with two schools – International Studies Charter High School and Jose Marti Mast 6-12 Academy – qualifying for Title I funds.

Carvalho, a long-time supporter of education choice, decided years ago to embrace rather than fight the opportunities that come with customization. Unlike other school districts that have resisted efforts to establish charter schools or have opposed programs that provide scholarships to private schools, Miami-Dade chose to be leaders in the movement and provide robust choice within the public school system.

“We recognized … that the choice tsunami was upon us,” Carvalho told redefinED in a podcast last year. “And I was not going to do what lot of my colleagues did. Which is, ‘Let’s hope and pray it doesn’t hit us. Or let’s just allow this to go through. Like all things, this is a fad that will go away.’”

Instead, Carvalho anticipated the policy shift taking place in Florida and throughout the country.

“And we were right,” he told redefinED. “It has, quite frankly, materialized exactly as we predicted. But rather than being a spectator, or a victim of it, we were an active participant in it.”

School of Advanced Studies principal Omar Monteagudo said the U.S. News rankings are a reflection of the work educators at the school have undertaken to elevate rigor and accountability.

“Truly, it comes down to all stakeholders committed to the school core values – working collectively and intentionally – on providing our students with a first-rate education,” Monteagudo said.

Each year, U.S. News & World Report publishes the rankings of 18,000 public high schools based on a review of 24,000 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The magazine analyzes schools relative to college readiness, math and reading proficiency and performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth, and graduation rate.

This year, all top 100 schools were either specialized, magnet or charter schools.

Other Florida schools making the top 100 were Pine View School in Sarasota, No. 24; Westshore Junior/Senior High School in Melbourne, No. 53; Stanton College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, No. 62; and Edgewood Junior/Senior High School in Merritt Island, No. 95.

April 23, 2020 3 comments

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Neighborhood schools can be choices, too

Travis Pillow January 12, 2017

Travis Pillow

Even as school choice has gone mainstream in Florida, the majority of its public-school students still attend zoned schools.

But many of their families are still choosing.

“As a parent, I looked at all the options, including my home-zoned school,” Adam Miller, the school choice chief at the Florida Department of Education, told a state House panel this week. “If I had selected that option, I wouldn’t be counted as a parent who exercised choice, but I actually did exercise choice, because I looked at all the options and decided that was the best choice for my child.”

The majority of Florida's public-school students attend zoned schools, but for some of them, it's a conscious choice. Graph by Florida Department of Education

The majority of Florida’s public-school students attend zoned schools, but for some of them, it’s a conscious decision. Graph by Florida Department of Education

January 12, 2017 0 comment

Charter Schools Education Legislation

Scott approves public school choice expansion

Travis Pillow April 14, 2016

Travis Pillow

Florida students will soon be able to cross school zones and district lines under legislation approved today by Gov. Rick Scott.

HB 7029 requires school districts to allow students to transfer to any public school that has room — including magnet and charter schools in neighboring districts — by the 2017-18 school year.

The change has drawn the interest of parents looking for options inside the public school system since it was first proposed last year. But it drew logistical concerns from some school districts, which worried about overhauling their enrollment procedures and sharing local tax revenue.

This week, the Orlando Sentinel reported some districts plan to band together to address those issues.

The 13 districts in the Central Florida School Boards Coalition will work together to create uniform ways of determining if schools have room for transfer students and then the transfer procedures, said Walt Griffin, superintendent of the Seminole County school district, during the coalition’s meeting this morning.

“I want to just be in front it,” Griffin said later. “So when parents do start asking for transfers, we’re all on the same page.”

Seminole has already had a few inquiries, he added.

Central Florida educators are worried about the rule, fearful transfers from one county’s school district to another would dilute the value of local taxes, upend school construction plans and complicate efforts to accommodate growth.

April 14, 2016 3 comments

Charter Schools Education Research

Report: Half of Florida students have access to charter schools

Travis Pillow April 6, 2016

Travis Pillow

Florida’s students have greater access to charter schools than their counterparts in all but four states.

Twenty-five years after Minnesota became the first state to authorize charters, and 20 years after Gov. Lawton Chiles signed the law allowing them in Florida, the Hamilton Project, an offshoot of the Brookings Institution, published an analysis that shows the availability of charter schools varies widely by state.

The analysis, released last month, shows almost exactly half of Florida’s students had access to charters during the 2014-15 school year. By this count, Florida trailed only the Four Corners states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Half of Florida students have geographic access to charter schools. Source: The Hamilton Project.

The report defines access as living in a ZIP code with at least one charter school. But it acknowledged that meaningful access could be affected by other factors.

April 6, 2016 0 comment

Charter Schools School Choice

Florida Senate approves big expansion of public school choice

Travis Pillow March 9, 2016

Travis Pillow

Florida students would be able to enroll in any public school in the state that has room under a sweeping education bill approved today by the Florida Senate.

The revised HB 7029 contains a wide range of provisions affecting everything from charter school facilities to state universities to associations that represent school board members.

It received backing from the full Senate on a 28-12 vote that largely followed party lines. Sens. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate and Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee joined the chamber’s 26 Republicans in support.

Portions of the omnibus legislation — including a standalone measure expanding public-school choice — have already passed the House, which will have to vote on the full bill before it can head to Gov. Rick Scott.

March 9, 2016 0 comment

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Public school choice measure returns in Florida, with an athletic twist

Travis Pillow November 2, 2015

Travis Pillow

Sen. Kelli Stargel

Key Florida lawmakers have revived an attempt to let students attend public schools across district boundaries.

The change is included in a bill filed Friday by Sens. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville and Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland.

It would require school districts to allow parents from “any school district in the state” to enroll their children in “any public school that has not reached capacity.”

Charter schools would also have to accept students across district lines.

There is a twist. SB 684, titled “Choice in Sports,” would also tackle a perennial controversy over how Florida regulates high school athletics.

Among other things, it would stipulate that students are immediately eligible to participate in sports after they change schools, and create new fines for school employees who engage in athletic recruiting.

November 2, 2015 0 comment

School Choice

Public school choice could soon become the norm

Travis Pillow October 9, 2015

Travis Pillow

Open enrollment and public school choice have become more widespread in districts covered by Brookings Institution’s Education Choice and Competition Index. Graph via Brookings.

Over the past 15 years or so, a pretty big shift has taken hold in America’s largest school districts. A growing number of students who attend what are still called “traditional” or “neighborhood” public schools are doing so by choice.

The above graph comes from a pair of posts by Russ Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution, who notes the rapid rise of open-enrollment policies and other forms of public-school choice in the country’s largest districts.

[C]hanges over time in the availability of intra-district school choice have been dramatic.^iv The graph is based on data my colleagues and I have compiled from a retrospective analysis of school choice in the 100+ largest U.S. school districts, which are the districts that are covered in our annual Education Choice and Competition Index.^vOnly 24 percent of districts in 2000-2001 afforded parents school choice (20 percent through easy transfers from default schools and four percent through a full-fledged open enrollment process). Today, that number has more than doubled to 55 percent of districts allowing choice. Put another way, in 2000-2001, 75 percent of the nation’s large school districts made it difficult or nearly impossible for a child to attend a public school other than the one assigned based on place of residence. Today that number has dropped to 45 percent.

October 9, 2015 0 comment