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School choice controversy ebbs as more families use it

 
Middleton High School senior George Seits, pictured on Friday, attends the Tampa school partly for its engineering program.
Middleton High School senior George Seits, pictured on Friday, attends the Tampa school partly for its engineering program.
Published Jan. 24, 2015

When Maddie Miniati turned 5, her parents wanted her to start kindergarten at Carrollwood Elementary School.

Her dad, Mike, attended Carrollwood once upon a time. Family friends were sending their kids there. Her grandparents lived in walking distance.

Thing was, the Miniatis didn't live in the Carrollwood attendance zone: Their address landed Maddie at nearby Lake Magdalene Elementary School.

Twenty years earlier, kids naturally went to their neighborhood schools. Now, they have choices.

The family applied to Hillsborough County's open enrollment program and crossed their fingers. Maddie won a spot at Carrollwood, where she's now in fourth grade. Her sister, Francesca, is in second grade there.

"They're having a great experience," said the girls' mom, Pam Miniati. "We were lucky choice was an option."

In Florida education circles, "school choice" has become a kind of watchword. Leaders, from the governor on down, send a clear message that parents know their children's needs best and they should have publicly supported options.

The idea has become so celebrated that advocates now recognize it annually with National School Choice Week, which begins Sunday and is in its fifth year. Organizers held a kickoff event Friday in Jacksonville, and 1,400 other events are planned around the state.

School choice "is really popular because people realize, in our country, we choose everything," organizer Andrew Campanella said. "Why shouldn't we be able to choose the K-12 schools that children attend?"

The state House of Representatives supports that view with its Choice and Innovation Subcommittee, which routinely explores such topics as charter schools, vouchers and online classes. Such opportunities have gained traction as they've grown:

• Since lawmakers authorized open enrollment in 1997, 52 of Florida's 67 school districts have decided to offer the option to families.

• Nearly 230,000 students attended 615 charter schools last year, up 96 percent from five years prior. Charter schools didn't exist in Florida before 1996.

• Nearly 60,000 students used state vouchers to attend private schools in 2013-14, an increase of 140 percent in the past five years. The Legislature created the program in 2001.

"Choice is about having customized education options for parents, no matter where they might be," said state Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, who chairs the House choice panel.

That includes public schools.

Often, the choice debate focuses on disagreements — frequently about money — between the public and private sectors.

Voucher opponents argue against redirecting taxes to private schools. Charter school proponents say that school districts undermine the movement so they can keep students and funding for themselves. The issues often wind up in court.

But another dynamic also remains in play. Public school systems increasingly are expanding their offerings to families as well, as a way to keep kids from leaving and draw others back.

"For far too long, folks on both sides of the education policy debate have tried to pit traditional public schools against charter schools or private schools or online academies," Campanella said. "The message on both sides has been changing. Parents look at whether the school is a good fit for their child."

Pasco County will open its first magnet school in August. Based in an area where charter schools are rising and public schools are crowded, the school received 1,689 applications for fewer than 800 spots.

The district is writing a five-year choice plan for future ideas. It has been losing families for too long, superintendent Kurt Browning said.

"I believe that we do need to be competitive," Browning said. "Charters were established to also provide an additional option for parents. But it causes school districts to up their game."

Part of the reason policymakers created choice was a reaction to what they considered to be an unresponsive neighborhood school monopoly. The argument was that, given choices, parents would migrate to successful schools, and the poor-performing ones would improve or fail.

It was a centerpiece of former Gov. Jeb Bush's controversial education policy in the early 2000s. Charter schools were to offer the additional perk of serving as innovators that traditional schools could learn from.

The two camps haven't always been willing partners, especially in an era of shrinking budgets. Research has varied, too, on whether parents make good choices based on academic needs and whether choice has been good for education overall.

But over time, the idea of competing for children by providing programs that appeal to families has taken hold.

Browning suggested that public schools, which still educate the vast majority of Florida children, must play a vital role.

"This is not to say that charters, private schools, home schooling and so on don't have any value," he said. But "the implication should not be that we are inferior to those options."

Pinellas County schools, which had steep declines in enrollment, recently added several new programs after surveying parents to assess what would generate the most interest.

The new choices include middle-school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs, technology-themed elementary schools and a "personalized learning" center for grades 6-12.

When long waiting lists prompted families to go private, the district bulked up its choices and the lists shrank, said Bill Lawrence, Pinellas director of student assignment. Now "we are seeing parents more satisfied."

Hillsborough has a history of offering school choices, too. Its magnet program, started in the '90s, serves nearly 18,000 children a year. Another 14,500 switch schools through open enrollment and about 14,000 attend charters.

"People are looking at schools for a myriad of reasons," choice spokeswoman Terri Dodson said. "Our goal is to educate families on the options we offer."

Theresa Seits heard the message. It made a difference for students at Bellamy Elementary School, where she is assistant principal — and for her own children.

Having moved to Tampa from out of state, Seits knew little about the district's offerings. When the time came for her son, George, to attend high school, she applied for an International Baccalaureate program, but that wasn't really his thing.

George was an engineering guy. The family had concerns about traveling to the Middleton High School engineering magnet in east Tampa, so George wound up at Alonso High, his neighborhood school.

"He excelled academically," Seits said. "But I could tell he wasn't really thriving."

So they visited Middleton.

"The experience was like the heavens opened up," Seits said. "There were kids like my kid."

The move has been worth the daily drive, she said. George has become a popular, confident teen who owns a patent and has competed in world championship robotics tournaments.

She's so enthusiastic about school choice that, as an assistant principal, she works to make sure families know about all the options available to them.

"I want them to be happy," she said. "For me, as an educator and as a parent, it's all about fit."

Sometimes, though, fit doesn't matter. State law requires schools to conduct random lotteries for choice programs that have more applicants than seats.

Not everyone wins.

In the first round, Maddie Miniati failed to get a spot at Carrollwood. Her neighbor, meanwhile, got both her magnet and open enrollment choices.

"At the time, I thought it was a completely unfair process," Miniati said.

She held out for another two rounds, waiting for others to make their decisions and hoping a position would open. Eventually, it did.

"It was certainly a long six to eight weeks," Miniati said, noting it was easier when her younger daughter got in thanks to preference given to siblings seeking to attend the same school.

Now, they're grateful the options exist.

"If you're willing to be patient, you can usually get what you're looking for," Miniati said. "I've never looked back."

Contact Jeffrey S. Solochek at jsolochek@tampabay.com or (813) 909-4614. Follow @jeffsolochek.