School Choice and Charter Schools: Are Florida Children Prepared for their Futures?

Florida students will now have more control over where they want to attend school. The recent March 2023 signing of House Bill 1 (HB-1) into law means more families have access to vouchers and fewer families are constrained within traditional school district boundaries. HB-1 eliminates the income requirements for school vouchers, making it so any student can receive a voucher for the amount of money a public school receives in funding per student, roughly $8,500 per year. This voucher can be used for a variety of education options, such as private school tuition, homeschooling, part-time charter school enrollment, or other education expenses. HB-1 has brought the topic of school choice to dining room tables across Florida. One of the most popular and fastest-growing options for students and parents participating in school choice is charter schools.

Charter schools are public schools that operate under a performance contract, or a “charter,” which frees them from many regulations created for public schools while still holding them accountable for academic and financial results. In other words, charter schools are publicly funded and privately operated. These schools have been shown to be equal to or better than public schools in a variety of performance metrics measured by Florida’s Department of Education, one of which is college and career acceleration. This metric measures the percentage of graduates who were eligible to earn college credit or industry certification.

Figure 1. Average College and Career Acceleration scores by Charter Schools and Public Schools, 2015-2022

Charter schools see more of their graduates prepared for college and careers every year. According to Figure 1, in 2015, public schools scored 53.36 in college and career acceleration, indicating that 53.36% of their graduates are eligible to earn college credit or industry certification. On the other hand, charter schools scored 50.31 in college and career acceleration, meaning only 50.31% of their graduates met this criterion. 2017 marked the first year charter schools surpassed public schools in college and career acceleration, and they have improved every year since then. Despite COVID-19 causing almost every education performance metric to experience noticeable declines, charter schools kept climbing.

568 out of 1,034 Florida high schools reported this statistic in the 2021-22 school year, consisting of 91 charter schools and 477 public schools. Of the schools that reported, charter schools scored 65.88 (or 65.88%) in college and career acceleration, an increase of over 15% in just eight years, whereas public schools scored 65.04 (or 65.04%). Despite a seemingly inconsequential 1% difference, applying a 1% improvement to a graduating class of just over 180,000 students statewide would equate to an additional 1,800 Floridian children that are now prepared for college or a career after high school.

A common argument against traditional school choice programs is that more privileged students enjoy the benefits of school choice because they have more travel options while their lower-income and minority peers get left behind. Even though public schools have, on average, 5-10 percent more economically disadvantaged students than charter schools, charter schools are typically 5-10 percent more racially and ethnically diverse. While this suggests that the issue of low-income and minority students being “left behind” by school choice policies isn’t as severe as some would argue, the expansion of travel options to lower-income students is a valid concern.

HB-1 attempts to combat this academic inequality in many ways. For one, HB-1 offers a tiered “priority” system for low-income students to receive vouchers. Students whose household incomes are less than 185% of the federal poverty level, or roughly $51,000 annually for a family of four, get first priority for vouchers. HB-1 also offers a $750 transportation scholarship to all students eligible for income-based FTC or FES-EO scholarships, which give first priority to those same students within 185% of the federal poverty level.

Although there is still work that needs to be done to ensure every Floridian child has an equal opportunity at a good education, regardless of their family’s income, with this priority system outlined, economically disadvantaged students should expect new benefits that come with school choice in the coming years.