ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — As soon as the calendar shifted to November, Florida public school districts were flooded by demands from charter school operators seeking space inside public schools – without paying rent.
The letters came after Florida law changed to expand the state’s “Schools of Hope” program. Previously open to the state’s worst-performing schools, the program now allows charter schools to operate within public-school buildings that have vacant classrooms located near traditionally disadvantaged communities.
Criticism of the expanded program has grown, even among traditional school choice advocates. The private, nonprofit companies have been accused of double-dipping by accepting Florida’s education voucher money while demanding access to cafeteria space, support staff, and maintenance on the public district’s dime.
The requests have also become a logistical nightmare for districts whose staff are under contract for specific working hours, but whose schedules may not align with those of the charter school.
“There’s a lot of issues,” Orange County School Board member Alicia Farrant, a conservative school choice advocate, said.
A bill has already been introduced in Tallahassee to eliminate the option for two schools to coexist under one roof. It will be considered in the next session.
Orange and Seminole counties provided records of all schools where they’ve received a request to co-locate a charter school program. Volusia County also supplied a request for one school that was made in October, before it was legal, by a company trying to jump the gun.
The requests totaled space for more than 18,000 students across nearly 50 schools in Orange County (as well as 800 students at Osceola County’s NeoCity Academy), and more than 3,500 students in Seminole County.
If all requests were granted and seats filled, 10% of Orange County students would attend a “School of Hope” after five years. The district would not get funding for them, though it would still be responsible for providing support staff and maintenance for those spaces.
As of last week, both Orange and Seminole counties had rejected all the applications for Schools of Hope submitted to them either because the “vacant” space was actually being used, the school requested was ineligible or the company making the request was not an allowed provider.
Before November, Orange County did approve a request from one provider – KIPP Academy – to open two schools on the west side of Orlando. Those schools will not share spaces with a public school.
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