![\"Maurits](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MIA_MAURITSACOSTAGRADUATIONAGS023.JPG\" "\\"Maurits")
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Maurits Acosta, then student council president, left, looked up during the Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School graduation ceremony in 2025 at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center at FIU in Miami, Fla. <\/p>\n
Alie Skowronski<\/p>\n
askowronski@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Last year, I graduated from Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High. I did not just attend Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS); I served as the elected student advisor to the School Board, representing over 340,000 students in America\u2019s third-largest school district.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen how decisions are made, and I understand our teachers\u2019 and students\u2019 needs. That is why it is deeply concerning that my own school is now one of nearly 90 Miami-Dade campuses targeted for co-location by \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d operators.<\/p>\n
Success Academy, one of Florida\u2019s approved Hope operators, is slated to take over two of my alma mater\u2019s buildings<\/a> in the 2027-2028 school year. When the Schools of Hope program was created in 2017, it established a special category of charter schools meant to serve students in \u201cpersistently low-performing\u201d schools.<\/p>\n But after the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 2510 in 2025<\/a>, charter schools can now share, at no cost, any underutilized public school building within five miles of an \u201cOpportunity Zone.\u201d Under the guise of maximizing public infrastructure, even high-performing or improving schools can be forced to share their building, custodial staff and cafeteria workers with privately-operated charter schools that are not accountable to the public.<\/p>\n Miami-Dade County School officials made it clear that the $700 per-student annual fee agreed upon by MDCPS and Success Academy is probably insufficient to cover the district\u2019s costs, the Herald reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not opposed to public charter schools. In fact, I have personally benefited from school choice. But I oppose public dollars being used to fund takeovers of traditional public schools by private operators without regard for the communities affected. School choice should expand opportunity, not come at the expense of the schools that serve the majority of students.<\/p>\n The Schools of Hope program is not really about choice. It is a deliberate effort by the state to shift space, resources and decision-making power away from neighborhood schools and into private hands. That is outrageous, but not surprising.<\/p>\n