Private school preK-12 enrollment ticked upward for the seventh year in a row, reaching 370,116 students in 2017-18, according to a new report from the Florida Department of Education.
Florida’s private school enrollment peaked at 381,346 students in 2003-04 before declining for seven consecutive years. This past year, enrollment grew by 0.5 percent, just 1,795 students. That’s the slowest growth since the enrollment recovery began in 2010.
Enrollment ranged from 0 students in the rural Calhoun and Liberty counties to 75,994 students in Miami-Dade.
Statewide, there were 2,650 private schools operating in the state, down 13 schools from the previous year. The number of schools ranged from 0 in Calhoun and Liberty counties to 612 in Miami-Dade.
The slowdown was due, in part, to the slowing growth of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) program which grew by 8,159 students, down from the 20,000 student growth two years ago.
The slower growth may also be tied to increases in charter school attendance and a possible decline in middle class students who attend private schools.
McKay and FTC scholarship students now make up 42.5 percent of private school K-12 enrollment, up from 40 percent last year and 36 percent two years ago. Seventy-seven percent of the scholarship students are on a needs-based scholarship, which may further support the theories advanced that middle class students are being priced out of an education.
While more and more students are enrolling in private schools with the help of school choice scholarships, private school enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment sits at just 11.6 percent, down from a peak of 12.9 percent in 2002-03.
That decline in private school market share since 2003 represents 44,296 more students in public options.
The totals in this report are based on an annual private school survey conducted by the state Department of Education.
Step Up for Students, which co-hosts this blog, is one of two Scholarship Granting Organizations, managing the FTC program.
