{"id":78821,"date":"2025-12-10T19:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/78821\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:49:09","slug":"ron-desantis-says-most-floridians-wont-notice-schools-of-hope-as-they-will-be-in-places-most-people-dont-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/78821\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis says most Floridians won’t notice ‘schools of hope,’ as they will be in places most people don’t go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>\u00a0is strongly advocating for the \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d model, which would co-locate charter schools in underused public school facilities.<\/p>\n

And as DeSantis said in Orlando, the facilities primarily will cater to children whose parents aren\u2019t doing as much as some others, in places most people wouldn\u2019t even go, with tonier communities insulated from the concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re really relieving burdens on the district, right? Because, you know, you\u2019re creating a program where it is going to be targeted at \u2026 the least-advantaged students. And in areas where a lot of people say it\u2019s not even worth trying,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear which people are allegedly saying it\u2019s not worth \u201ctrying\u201d to educate some students but not others.<\/p>\n

But worries that they will be in places like Windermere or Palm Beach are misplaced, DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not going to be something where a school of hope is going to be coming in and descending on Palm Harbor or Destin or some of these places,\u201d he said, singling out two wealthy communities where more than 80% of residents are White.<\/p>\n

He reassured parents that these schools of hope won\u2019t come in where \u201cmy Sally or my Johnny goes,\u201d but instead would be in \u201csome hard areas in Miami. Probably Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, probably Orlando, maybe Tampa, maybe Jacksonville.\u201d<\/p>\n

In these areas, DeSantis predicts the Schools of Hope will largely go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think most Floridians are even going to know that there\u2019s a school of hope. Because quite frankly, probably where they\u2019re setting up, already a lot of Floridians aren\u2019t spending a lot of time in some of these areas, but they\u2019re going to go in,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether residents are aware of the schools, DeSantis made it clear his preferred vendor would be the Success Academies<\/a> championed by arguably his leading political patron over the years, billionaire\u00a0Ken Griffin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Griffin has already pledged to devote $50 million to expanding the concept in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult mission, but at least with Success Academy, you have an operator who\u2019s been able to do some really, really great things,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

He credits Success Academies with having \u201cgone into the worst areas in terms of opportunity \u2026 the most at-risk \u2026 areas where no one else wants to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lots of vendors want into the taxpayer-subsidized space.<\/p>\n

As of last month, 22 School Districts across the state have received at least 690 letters of intent from charter school operators, according to data gathered by the Florida Policy Institute, a member of the Florida Coalition for Thriving Public Schools.<\/p>\n

School Districts reporting letters as of mid-November include Brevard, Broward, Collier, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sarasota, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties.<\/p>\n

The letters, sent by privately operated charter school organizations, seek to occupy portions of public schools the state considers underutilized. Under provisions added to the 2025\u201326 state budget, \u201cHope operators\u201d may move into those spaces at no cost, leaving districts to absorb maintenance, custodial and other operational expenses.<\/p>\n

South Florida had received the most letters at last check, with at least 224 between Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Miami-Dade officials said the district received at least 180 letters, though only 90 were considered valid because many came from Bridge Prep Academy, which is not yet an approved Schools of Hope operator.<\/p>\n

The impact also was obvious across the Tampa Bay region, where Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Manatee counties collectively show some of the highest concentrations of claims in the state. Together, the four districts account for more than 80 campuses and more than 46,000 requested seats, according to data compiled by the coalition.<\/p>\n

Even as those letters go out, state lawmakers are already working to pull the plug on the program\u2019s most controversial rule that allows charter school operators to move into \u201cunderused\u201d public school buildings rent-free.\u00a0SB 424<\/a>, filed by Democratic Sen.\u00a0Darryl Rouson\u00a0of St. Petersburg, would\u00a0repeal that provision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy eliminating language requiring co-location in public schools, we are ensuring schools do not face the unintentional consequence of an unfunded mandate, and that students can continue thriving in their schools without losing access to spaces they need for academic success,\u201d Rouson said in an earlier statement about the bill.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

A.G. Gancarski and Jesse Mendoza of Florida Politics contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis\u00a0is strongly advocating for the \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d model, which would co-locate charter schools in underused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,412,7539,44147,44148],"class_list":["post-78821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-ron-desantis","tag-schools-of-hope","tag-schools-of-hope-program","tag-success-academy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}