Success Academy is coming to Florida — good news for families

After much anticipation, it’s official — Success Academy is coming to Florida. The New York-based charter school network’s arrival marks a significant step forward for the state’s Schools of Hope program by providing a valuable new educational option for parents.

Last month, Success Academy’s founder and CEO, Eva Moskowitz, alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s Education Commissioner, announced that her charter organization would open a Miami campus in 2027, with significant philanthropic backing. The network was approved as a School of Hope operator in Florida last year, part of a program to encourage the growth of high-performing charter schools in the state.

For nearly two decades, Success Academy, despite the intense scrutiny it has received in its once—but no longer—charter-friendly home city, has indeed been an undeniable success. Its students far outpace their peers in other New York City public schools, including charters, on state standardized tests, AP exams, and SAT scores — Success Academy even boasts an 8-year consecutive 100% college acceptance rate.

Since the close of this year’s Legislative Session, there’s been plenty of hyperbole around Florida’s Schools of Hope program, with one frequent critic calling it a “failed experiment.” Some context is needed here. Of the 14 currently designated Schools of Hope, 11 have only been open for three school years or less. Of those that received a state report card for the 2024-25 school year, none received a grade lower than a “C,” with three schools improving their grade from the previous year.

In fact, charter schools in Florida generally outpace district schools on state standardized tests and on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress. Nationwide, there is substantial evidence that charter schools improve outcomes for students in disadvantaged urban communities. A report released last year by the Progressive Policy Institute, for example, concluded that, in cities that have “aggressively expanded high-quality public school choices,” particularly charter schools, low-income students in both charters and district schools “have started to catch up to statewide student performance levels.”

Success Academy opened its first school in 2006 and has since emerged as a shining example of educational excellence. More impressively, it has done so in a political environment generally hostile to all forms of school choice. Success Academy functions like a private school for low-income families — academically demanding and exacting in its culture. And don’t low-income families, who can’t afford private school, deserve an option like that too?

The criticism aimed at Schools of Hope and Success Academy largely misses the forest for the trees. Charter schools, which are legally public schools and accountable to nearly all the same laws that apply to all other public schools in Florida, do not exist to subsume traditional school districts, but to provide choices for families. Create a healthy charter environment, and low-income parents now have the same ability as their wealthy counterparts to choose between educational approaches that fit their needs and priorities. Charter schools help create an education ecosystem in which a student’s school is no longer determined by their zip code, but by their parents.

Public opinion in Florida is largely in favor of the charter. A recent survey by the James Madison Institute suggests that most Floridians would prefer to send their children to a “school choice option” like charter schools. Meanwhile, the most recent public opinion poll by the advocacy organization EdChoice shows that most parents in Florida support school choice policies, including charter schools.

Success Academy’s arrival is a win for Miami’s families and will only enhance access to high-quality educational choices in Florida.

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Thibaut Delloue is a Policy Fellow at the Florida Charter Institute, the state’s premier hub for charter innovation. Partnered with Miami Dade College, FCI provides resources, education, and research and serves as an authorizer for charter schools in Florida. Learn more at flcharterinstitute.org.