Charter schools known as “Schools of Hope” will not be taking over high-performing schools across Florida but will instead be limited to the “toughest areas” in the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.
DeSantis’ comments were made at a news conference in Orlando about his proposed budget. He was responding to a reporter’s question about whether the state planned to provide more resources to school districts that may now be required by state law to share space rent-free with charter schools that the state designates as schools of hope. He said schools of hope won’t have the dramatic impact that many have feared.
“They are going to the toughest areas that we have, where a lot of people have given up on some of these students, and they are going in there, and they are going to create an environment where these kids can learn,” he said. “I think it’s going to have a big impact, but geographically, it’s going to be very limited. I don’t think most Floridians are even going to know that there’s a school of hope.”
He said these schools would likely operate in a few locations in areas such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville.
That’s a dramatically different picture that school districts have seen, based on applications. Statewide, school districts have received requests to locate on about 460 traditional school campuses, the majority of which are at A- and B-rated schools, starting in 2027, according to data tracked by the group Families for Strong Public Schools, which opposes schools of hope.
Schools of hope were first created in 2017 as a way to offer incentives to high-performing charter schools to operate near failing schools.
But the state greatly expanded eligibility this year and allowed them to share space rent-free on traditional school campuses, even ones that may be A-or B-rated. State law says the schools can locate within five miles of a low-performing school or in an “opportunity zone,” a federal designation for an area that’s economically distressed.
School districts have complained that they may have to spend millions in extra maintenance, custodial, security and food service costs if these schools were to open. While schools of hope supporters have said the intent of the law is to serve students in struggling communities, requests have come in for schools in cities such as Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Boca Raton and Palm Beach Gardens, which have no schools in their area designated by the state as low-performing.
DeSantis said those applications won’t likely get approved. He cited the affluent communities of Windermere, which is near Orlando, Palm Harbor in Pinellas County, and the barrier island of Palm Beach as places where schools of hope wouldn’t open.
Palm Beach County received 70 applications, although only 14 were from a state-approved vendor, Mater. The district turned down all those requests, saying they were requesting a geographically ineligible area or it was impractical for the requested campuses to share space. Broward received 127 requests, 26 from state-approved vendors. The district has turned down all but one, William Dandy Middle in Fort Lauderdale, which is still pending.
DeSantis attributed a lot of the concerns about schools of hope to the numerous requests made by one charter school provider. He didn’t name the operator, but Miami-based Mater Academy was the first charter school provider to make requests, sending more than 100 letters of intent to open schools of hope in October, before the application window even opened.
“I think what kind of set off some of this is you had one operator submit like 60 applications or 100 applications. It was ridiculous,” DeSantis said. “And the Department (of Education) said, ‘Why are you doing this? You’re not going to get that.’”
Charter school company Academica, which owns Mater Academy, previously responded to the backlash by stating it had no plans to operate schools in most of the locations where it applied.
“We have sent hundreds of letters because hundreds of the districts’ facilities are under-enrolled,” the company said in a statement, which is posted on its website. “Our objective isn’t to provide programs in all those facilities — far from it. At most, we will open a handful of schools for the 2027-28 school year. We are committed to working with parents, schools, and districts to provide the best educational option for Florida students. We will rescind notices for locations that will not be used once we determine in which schools we will colocate.”
State Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, a schools of hope opponent, said she disagrees with DeSantis’ assertion that the schools can be limited to the most needy areas in Florida “unless they change rulemaking or amend the law.” She’s advocating for the state to make changes to blunt the potential impact to school districts.
“The applications speak for themselves — they are for stable, high-performing schools,” Bartleman said. “Why are traditional public school students subsidizing the costs of these charter schools. Florida’s public schools are already stretched thin — co-location diverts space, staff time and resources away from students enrolled in public schools while creating logistical and safety challenges. … Guardrails must be put in place.”
DeSantis also said Wednesday that school districts that plan to sell or lease space or use empty space for other purposes will not be required to change plans to accommodate requests from schools of hope.
“If they need the facilities, they get it,” he said. “But if they’re not using it, the school of hope can go in, use existing facilities, which saves taxpayers’ money.
“It’s not going to be a fiscal drain on them,” DeSantis said. “But the question would be, would it be better to say to schools of hope you need to go build a new building or two, or do a different lease somewhere else? That would cost more money. So this is all going to work out very sensibly.”
During his comments, DeSantis voiced strong support for a schools of hope provider, New York-based Success Academy. DeSantis had held a press conference with Success Academy officials in September to announce their plan to launch a presence in Florida.
DeSantis said Wednesday that the provider had shown proficiency rates of 93% in reading and 96% in math.
“Success is the one that really has the proven record,” he said. “I know these other people are going to apply. I’m not dinging any of these other charter operators, but I know the one that’s been able to do it against very difficult odds has been Success Academy.”
So far, Success’s entrance into Florida has been modest, requesting space on five campuses, all in Miami-Dade County, according to Families for Strong Public Schools.
DeSantis said in September that Miami was just the beginning for Success Academy.
“We believe that there’s going to be a lot of places around Florida where this approach can make a meaningful difference in the lives of the students and so I think Miami is Step One,” he said in September. “I absolutely would envision that you will be seeing Broward. You will be seeing West Palm. You’ll be seeing Orlando and some of these places. I think that’s very likely. I think that’s their model. I think that that’s their intention.”