DeSantis’ homeschooling push leaves FL teachers with 'empty seats and budget crunches'

27 May 2024

When Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at the Florida Homeschool Convention on Thursday, May 23, he bragged about his administration's school choice agenda.

DeSantis told the crowd, "We need some big changes throughout the country. Florida has shown a blueprint, and we really can be an engine for that as other states work to adopt a lot of the policies that we've done."

The far-right Republican governor and former presidential hopeful has been making a concerted effort to eliminate "woke" teaching from Florida's public schools, but he has also been an outspoken proponent of religious private schools.

In an article published by Politico on May 26, journalist Andrew Atterbury reports that many public schools are now at risk of closing in the Sunshine State.

"Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice," Atterbury explains. "They have been wildly successful, with tens of thousands more children enrolling in private or charter schools or homeschooling. Now, as those programs balloon, some of Florida's largest school districts are facing staggering enrollment declines — and grappling with the possibility of campus closures — as dollars follow the increasing number of parents opting out of traditional public schools…. Education officials in some of the state's largest counties are looking to scale back costs by repurposing or outright closing campuses — including in Broward, Duval and Miami-Dade Counties."

According to Atterbury, "traditional public schools" in Florida are experiencing "empty seats and budget crunches."

"Since 2019-20, when the pandemic upended education, some 53,000 students have left traditional public schools in these counties — a sizable total that is forcing school leaders to consider closing campuses that have been entrenched in local communities for years," Atterbury reports. "In Broward County, Florida's second-largest school district, officials have floated plans to close up to 42 campuses over the next few years, moves that would have a ripple effect across Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood."

Read Politico's full article at this link.

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