Politics
Why Orange County school leaders should look to Wichita
It may be a memorable line in the White Stripes’ iconic anthem, “Seven Nation Army.” But the phrase “I’m goin’ to Wichita” hardly has the same luster or appeal as the oft-heard exclamation, “We’re going to Disney World!”
Still, if members of the Orange County School Board want to do right by their K-12 students growing up in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom, they should pack their bags and pay a visit to homely Wichita. Soon.
Wichita, you see, is home to one of the most interesting innovations in K-12 education to come along in years. And it’s exactly the kind of innovation the Orange County School Board ought to consider before proceeding with plans to close seven public schools this Fall.
Several years ago, some forward-looking Wichita leaders had an interesting thought: “What if we converted our old historic train station into a co-learning space that could serve all sorts of K-12 students in our city?”
The idea took hold. Soon, Wichita’s Union Station was bustling with schoolchildren eager to learn from a variety of educators.
Wichita’s Learning Lab has four anchor programs, each providing a distinctive educational experience in a dedicated learning space. Two of these anchors are run by public school educators; one is a private school startup, and the fourth is a homeschooling co-op.
Complementing these Learning Lab fixtures are a variety of “a la carte” offerings that occupy flexible workshop spaces staffed by community partners. Among the specialty programs offered: printmaking, forensic science, ballet, Spanish, American Sign Language, sports journalism, college prep, and musical theatre.
If all this sounds magical — like something out of “The Wizard of Oz” — the truth is co-locational learning arrangements may have even greater potential in Florida than in Kansas. Florida’s robust school choice scholarship programs already blur the lines between public, private, and home schooling. For example, two-thirds of Florida’s 67 public School Districts now offer “a la carte” courses for scholarship students primarily educated elsewhere.
Co-locational learning arrangements like Wichita’s Learning Lab could also help solve a thorny problem facing School Districts statewide: what to do with excess classrooms when there aren’t enough public school students to fill them.
The Orange County School Board’s current impulse is simple: “Shut down some schools.” That’s why seven are now on the chopping block. But closing neighborhood schools is rarely popular, especially with families who don’t want their children bused far from home.
With the growing popularity of microschools, hybrid programs, specialty courses, and other innovations, School Boards increasingly need to borrow a page from Wichita. They need to ask, “Why don’t we invite community partners to rent space in our schools and offer programs that serve students beyond our own public schoolers?”
Renting space to K-12 partners would help districts’ bottom lines. Co-locational education makes far more sense than closing schools needlessly or converting them into something else entirely. After all, school buildings were designed for K-12 students — right down to the child-sized toilets.
So, as hordes of visitors stream into Orlando to fulfill dreams of going to Disney World, members of the Orange County School Board should be planning a trip in the opposite direction. They should be getting out of Dodge to check out the Learning Lab just down the road from Dodge City — in the luster-lacking city the White Stripes sang about: Wichita.
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William Mattox is the senior director of the Marshall Center for Education Freedom at The James Madison Institute.
Rep. JJ Grow has a plan for Session:
Concentrate on the job at hand.
“My approach is to keep my head down and work hard on my bills,” Grow, an Inverness Republican, said.
Grow is starting his second Regular Session after being elected to the open House District 23 seat in 2024.
In his freshman year, Grow helped pass a Citrus County local bill to clarify the sheriff’s oversight of agency employees.
Another bill that would have allowed transportation concurrency for counties with populations under 200,000 passed the House unanimously but never reached the Senate floor for a vote.
That bill is back, and Grow is confident of its success.
“Get it so these developments will share in the cost of transportation,” he said.
Concurrency is designed to ensure roads have sufficient capacity to accommodate the additional traffic from new development.
HB 97 allows small counties to set road levels of service in capital improvement plans, providing a baseline for new developments.
Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain, who sponsored the Senate companion last year, is doing the same this year in S 324.
Grow has also joined the chorus calling for property tax reform. He sponsored HJR 903, which would place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to limit the annual increase in taxable value of non-homestead property to 3%. It’s currently set at 10%.
Grow said he believes some changes are needed.
“I totally understand why people are anxious right now. Affordable has become almost unaffordable,” he said. “Between property tax, home insurance, car insurance, and inflation, it’s gotten to a point where it’s hard to cover your expenses and have a little money to live on.”
Grow’s other bills include HB 95, which allows a pathway for trained volunteers to provide armed security at houses of worship.
“Faith communities across Florida have repeatedly expressed concerns about safety during worship,” he said. “Many congregations — especially small and rural ones — lack the resources to hire licensed security professionals but still face credible risks.”
Florida Peninsula Insurance, one of the largest property insurers in Florida, is decreasing rates by 8%, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
Speaking at a Davie press conference, DeSantis said 83 other companies filed for rate decreases and 100 others are keeping their rates flat.
“As of January, the 30-day average request by companies for home rates are down 2.3%,” DeSantis said. “We’re one of the probably the only states in the country where you’re seeing a decrease.”
DeSantis and state administrators held a presser to highlight progress that Florida has made lowering property insurance. DeSantis’ remarks come just before the start of the 2026 Legislative Session, where DeSantis is pushing lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to repeal property taxes — which he says hurts Floridians worse in the pocketbook than property insurance.
A study by the Florida League of Cities warned that eliminating property taxes would hurt local governments’ essential services.
Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky and DeSantis both credited recent state reforms in helping stabilize Florida’s property insurance costs. Some of the changes put in place make it more difficult for homeowners to sue property insurance carriers to get coverage.
“We had 8% of homeowners’ claims nationwide, but that accounted for almost 80% of litigation expenses nationwide right here in Florida,” DeSantis said.
Yaworsky said he is hopeful lawmakers won’t repeal some of the tort reforms in the 2026 Legislative Session.
DeSantis said as carriers save money from fewer lawsuits to fight, they are passing the savings back to consumers.
In addition to Peninsula, Security First Insurance, which covers 62,000 homes, also posted an 8% average decrease, the Governor said.
Meanwhile, the top five auto insurers averaged 6.5% premium decreases, DeSantis said.
Over 12 months, 42 auto insurance companies signaled rate decreases, with 32 of those companies filing the decrease notice within the past six months, DeSantis said.
Progressive Insurance previously agreed to give $1 billion in rebates to customers that are expected to go through by Thursday, DeSantis added.
“You talk to every single one of these companies, the only reason this is happening is because of the market reforms,” DeSantis. “And honestly. they’re kind of forced to do this, right? Because it’s a competitive market.”
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