Gov. DeSantis touts school choice as Florida welcomes Success Academy to state

Governor DeSantis school choice press conference

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announces a new charter school network coming to the state.

MIAMI, Fla. - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Success Academy, a charter school network, is coming to Florida.

He made that announcement during a press conference on Thursday morning at Florida International University in Miami.

By the numbers:

With 1.4 million students utilizing some type of school choice option, DeSantis said Florida is the leading state for school choice in the United States.

The governor said hundreds of thousands of children are homeschooled, more than 400,00 are in charter schools and 500,00 students are on family empowerment scholarship and tax-credit scholarship programs that allow them to use the money to go to private schools.

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As a result of expanding school choice, DeSantis said last year 71% of Florida schools earned an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ grade, which is up from 64% the year before. 44% of schools earned an ‘A’. The number of schools earning an ‘A’ and the number of schools earning an ‘F’ declined year over year.

What they're saying:

DeSantis said there was a change in how schools were evaluated, which led to the increase in school grades. 

"We had focused on one kind of high-stakes end-of-year test that was frustrating for parents and some teachers and a lot of students. Also, it was happening at the end of the year and if you needed remediation while the kids were on summer vacation, how would you be able to remediate? We replaced that with progress monitoring that is periodic throughout the year. It gives the anility for teachers and parents and the school to be able to rectify poor performance and it gives a huge, huge increase in performance as the school year goes on as a result of progress monitoring."

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Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said bringing Success Academy, which is based in New York, expands school choice in Florida.

"Today’s announcement expands educational opportunities for Florida students, especially those in need by adding another high-performing option to our state’s public education option. We are proud to welcome Success Academy under the leadership of Eva Moskowitz," Kamoutsas explained.

He added," Success Academy brings a nationally recognized record of academic achievement in school improvement. We’re confident that, through an unwavering commitment to student success, we will benefit students throughout our state starting in Miami. As Florida’s newest approved school of hope operator, Success Academy will play a key role in transforming persistently low-performing schools into high-achieving learning environments.

Kamoutsas said that Schools of Hope operators consistently outperform district and state averages in states where they currently serve.

What's next:

Success Academy will start in Miami and DeSantis said he believes it will expand throughout the state in the future.