Florida’s top education official downplayed the sizable enrollment declines plaguing some of the largest school districts in the state on Wednesday, labeling potential campus closures as a motivation for traditional public schools to “innovate and provide programming that is attractive to parents.”
The comments from Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. come after POLITICO’s reporting about the growing popularity of the state’s school choice programs — and the financial squeeze that subsequently placed on traditional public schools. School districts in Broward, Duval and Miami-Dade counties have enrolled some 53,000 fewer students since 2019-20, a drop that is spurring local leaders to consider closing and repurposing campuses to save money.
“You’ve seen these reports of some districts having to close schools — that’s how this works,” Diaz said during a state Board of Education meeting in Miami. “Districts have to make decisions. And sometimes these districts in the past have made decisions that have kicked the can down the road and now have to make harder decisions. But what they need to do is continue to innovate and provide programming that is attractive to parents so, on that open competition, they have the best option for those parents to choose.”
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