Politico: School choice programs have been wildly successful under DeSantis. Now public schools might close.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice. They have been wildly successful, with tens of thousands more children enrolling in private or charter schools or homeschooling.
And, competition from private schools is putting the market pressure on underperforming public schools.
“If your product is better, you’ll be fine. The problem is, they are a relic of the past — a monopolized system where you have one option,” Chris Moya, a Florida lobbyist representing charter schools and the state’s top voucher administering organization, said of traditional public schools. “And when parents have options, they vote with their feet.”
According to Statistica there were 3,249,259 K-12 students in Florida in 2021-2022. According to the article 55,000 of them left for private schools. That is less than 2%. I’m not sure if I’d describe that as “fantastically successful” and I think that perhaps the school closings might be related to other factors? Even if public school officials like to blame private schools in interviews with the media? I’d suggest a look at demographics might be in order? Also would like to note that the Politico article states that most recipients of state scholarships would have attended private schools anyway. I’m not sure how that is squared with the idea that 55,000 students “left” the public school system - maybe they transitioned from public to private at a boundary like between middle school and high school (giving the benefit of the doubt…)
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