If you read headlines atop most media outlet reports and editorials, you’d be forgiven for assuming Florida’s Republican governor and potential presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis is limiting learning for students in the Sunshine State. But media outrage over Florida’s AP choices isn’t the whole story—at least not the life-changing stories parents care about most.
Parents consistently demand better for their kids, and the people’s representatives in Tallahassee actually do something about it. Legislators there passed a public charter school bill in 1996 and instituted no fewer than four private scholarship programs in the years following enrolling more than 150,000 kids. In fact, more than half of Florida students exercise some sort of “school choice” whether it be a scholarship program, a magnet school, dual enrollment, online, or anything else besides their government-assigned school. The results are life-changing.
SailFuture Academy in St. Petersburg is one such place where lives are changed. Students there know why the school lives up to its name right away—a boat is one of their classrooms. Most of them are in foster care, 80 percent of whom have an immediate family member that has been or is currently in the clink.
