Florida charter school enrollment increases by 20,000 students

Ninety-eight percent of the 361 students at AcadeMir Charter School Middle in Miami, designated a National Blue Ribbon School, are Hispanic. The school promotes self-motivation in all subject areas, especially mathematics, science, reading and technology.

Charter school enrollment in the Sunshine State increased by 20,013 students in the 2021-22 school year according to data released by the Florida Department of Education.

More than 360,000 students enrolled in one of 703 charter schools, a growth of 5.8% over the prior year.

Unlike private schools, which suffered the first enrollment declines in a decade during the COVID-19 pandemic, charter schools, which are privately run tuition-free public schools, never saw a dip during that time, growing by 3.8% in the first year of the pandemic while home education grew by 35.2%.

The Department reports that of the 51% of charter school students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, 45.1% are Hispanic, 29.6% are white, and 18.8% are Black.

Like district-run public schools, charters are subject to state A-F grades. Forty-five percent of charter schools earned an “A” grade, 32% earned a “B,” and 26% earned a “C”. Only eight schools earned an “F” grade.

Unlike district-run public schools, charters can be shut down for consecutive “F” grades.

In 2021, 80 organizations applied to start a new charter school. Only 51.3% of those applications were approved according to Department. Charter schools are approved by their competing school districts but may appeal to the State Board of Education.


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BY Patrick R. Gibbons

Patrick Gibbons is public affairs manager at Step Up for Students and a research fellow for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. A former teacher, he lived in Las Vegas, Nev., for five years, where he worked as an education writer and researcher. He can be reached at (813) 498.1991 or emailed at pgibbons@stepupforstudents.org. Follow Patrick on Twitter: at @PatrickRGibbons and @redefinEDonline.