Choice without truth is a lie

Florida calls it “choice.” In reality, it’s a rigged game in which billionaires, political insiders, and private operators win, while traditional public schools and taxpayers lose.

Success Academy, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, state leaders, and wealthy donors, is now preparing to open campuses in Miami under Florida’s Schools of Hope program. Supporters celebrate it as progress, but the reality is far more troubling. To be clear, I am not a reflexive critic of charter schools. I respect that some families have found success in them. What I am critical of is when charter expansion is used as a vehicle to exploit children, cherry-pick students to rig outcomes, and redirect billions of taxpayer dollars away from the traditional public schools that serve the vast majority of Florida’s children.

For fairness, I should point out that my criticism is not isolated to charter expansion. I am also a critic of vouchers being used as coupons for families who can already afford private schools, including lawmakers who write the very laws that allow them to benefit, while leaving traditional public schools underfunded and struggling to serve the children who need them most. I am critical of selling our children’s future to the highest bidder and of sacrificing our institutions in the name of profit. Florida should be building up its traditional public schools, not hollowing them out.

And here’s the truth lawmakers won’t say out loud: Miami-Dade County Public Schools are not failing. In fact, the Florida Department of Education recently recognized M-DCPS as a 2024–2025 Academically High-Performing School District. Out of 67 districts, only 13 earned this designation. Our district is A-rated, serving some of Florida’s most economically disadvantaged families, and proving that traditional public schools succeed even when neglected.

So why aren’t we celebrating this success? Why aren’t we studying what Miami-Dade is doing right and investing to replicate it across the state? Instead, lawmakers are pouring resources into parallel systems that drain our schools rather than strengthen them.

Success Academy has asked lawmakers for nearly $50 million in subsidies and $5,000 per student. That’s money that could instead reduce class sizes in Miami-Dade, put a nurse and counselor in every school, and guarantee safe facilities for every child. Instead, lawmakers funnel it to charters already backed by billionaires.

This is what that parallel system looks like: one system for traditional public schools is required to serve every child who walks through their doors and is fully accountable to taxpayers and communities. And another system for privately managed charter chains, allowing them to operate with less oversight, limit or exclude certain students, and still collect public dollars.

That isn’t competition, it’s a rigged game stacked against traditional public schools.

There is another critical difference most people don’t discuss: traditional public schools are more than classrooms. They are the foundation of our communities. Imagine the impact if every family across Florida, not just in Miami-Dade, could count on an extra $5,000 per student invested directly in their neighborhood schools.

That is why I am not only a critic but also an advocate. I am an advocate for transparent accountability in how public dollars are spent, and for informed parental choice grounded in truth, not marketing. I am an advocate for investing in and strengthening traditional public education, an institution at the very heart of our democracy.

Traditional public schools are also our safety nets for the community they serve. They are polling places, hurricane shelters, and neighborhood anchors. They open their doors to every child, no matter their disability, language, or family background. That is what makes them the cornerstone of our communities and of our country.

The choice before Florida is simple: continue subsidizing billionaires and political insiders or invest in the traditional public schools that belong to all of us.

Finally, I am not a critic of parents who choose charter schools or other options. My mission has always been to strengthen traditional public education, the schools that welcome every child, serve every family, and anchor our communities. Because at the end of the day, parental choice must be guided by facts, not marketing and choice without truth isn’t choice at all, it’s a lie.

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Crystal Etienne serves as president of the EDUVOTER Action Network. She can be reached at eduvoter.org or [email protected].