For over two decades our organization has seen Miami dramatically transform from modest city to a tech and international hub for finance. Our skylines reshape almost weekly. From Little Haiti to Wynwood to Overtown, from South Miami to Goulds, entire neighborhoods and their histories are often erased, preparing for new and wealthier residents. With every new tower that goes up, so does the cost to continue to make Miami home.
Miami now has one of the highest concentrations of billionaires per capita in the United States, while more than a half-million county households are struggling to make ends meet, according to United Way. We are seeing, in real time, how this county is being reshaped in the interests of the ultra-wealthy, making it unlivable for everyone else. And we are seeing how elected officials are being pressured and coerced to serve those interests first, and everyday people last.
The most egregious recent example of this: The Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board’s recent decision to allow Success Academy to launch five elementary charter schools inside public high school facilities starting next year.
Let’s be clear about what’s happening here. Many of our public schools have become hollowed out. This isn’t because families don’t want them, but because of decades of divestment in education, voucher expansion and rising housing costs. Elected officials decided to displace the very communities they were built to serve and have stunted our schools’ ability to serve students well. Families are being priced out of Miami entirely. Immigration raids have had a chilling effect on communities across Miami, resulting in fewer newer families enrolling in school. Conveniently, we are told those facilities are “underutilized.”
This sets the stage for a billionaire hedge fund manager to set up shop in Florida.
Ken Griffin didn’t stumble into Miami’s education system by accident. After failing to remake Chicago in his image, he picked a new target. Griffin lobbied heavily to change Florida law to specifically benefit Success Academy and his own interests. And he didn’t stop there. Griffin has made more than a quarter of a billion dollars in political donations nationwide — and is buying influence in Florida. His recent pledge of $50 million to launch Success Academy here is not simply philanthropy. It is a down payment on access to the most valuable resource that our school districts hold: land. Success Academy’s schools will co-locate rent-free in existing public school buildings while using district services like maintenance, security and transportation. All of this is at the expense of the school district and taxpayers.
We need real, community-led solutions to serve our students. For example, advocates like the Black Homeschoolers Network of South Florida have argued for building Community Learning Hubs where tutoring organizations, educational nonprofits, workforce development programs, youth mentoring initiatives, mental health providers, after-school programs and parent academies work together under one roof.
Bringing in an out-of-town network that has paid over $2.4 million to settle disability discrimination lawsuits isn’t about what’s best for Miami’s children. It’s about what’s strategic for a select ultra-rich few like Griffin.
Miami-Dade County is the third largest school district in the country. With nearly 400 schools, it is also one of the largest landowners in the county. When we allow a billionaire to effectively bypass local control and plant his flag in our public school and local political system, we are sending a message. It says that Miami is open for business at the expense of people who already live here.
School board members and other elected officials will shrug and say this is simply “unfortunate” and their hands are tied. That they can’t do anything about it. When they do, ask them this: Are you okay with the 36th wealthiest man in the world and his friends getting preference over prime real estate and taking public resources while working families can’t afford to live here?
Because that is exactly what is happening. And if we don’t start asking the question, we’ll silently accept the cost.
James Lopez is the executive director at Power U Center for Social Change.
(Courtesy of James Lopez)