Florida: Prioritizing Education or Privatizing It? We all Know the Answer…
“We’re trapped in a Twilight Zone, with a state claiming to prioritize education while systematically dismantling it.” – Anne Watts Tressler
ICYMI, NAEP scores were released on Wednesday January 29, 2025 – and they weren’t great.
Nationally, scores remained below pre-pandemic levels (2019) in all tested grades and subjects, suggesting students have yet to recover from the impact of the pandemic on education. The achievement gap widened between higher- and lower-performing students. Reading scores declined in both 4th and 8th grades. While fourth grade math scores saw a modest 2-point increase, the gains were concentrated among middle- and high-performing students, with lower-performing students seeing no improvement. Meanwhile, 8th-grade math scores dropped 8 points from 2019.
Edu-blogger Peter Greene cautioned against overreacting to standardized test scores, even those touted as the “gold standard,” writing:
“(T)here is one serious lesson to be learned, which is that having all this cold hard data doesn’t actually change a damned thing— everyone just “interprets” it to support whatever it is they wanted to do anyway.”
Cue Florida.
Florida’s results were especially “not great.” And Florida definitely “interpreted” them to support “whatever it is they wanted to do anyway.”
Florida’s Reading and Math scores fell to their lowest levels in more than 20 years, with declines in both 4th and 8th grade Reading. Florida’s middle school scores have been far worse than its fourth grade score in every NAEP cycle since 2003. This year, Florida was one of only four states where the 2024 8th-grade math mean score was significantly lower than in 2022. FSU Physics professor Paul Cottle, who has been sounding the alarm regarding Florida’s declining Math performance for years, noted “Florida’s mean score on the 2024 8th grade math exam was lower than Mississippi’s.”
[Additionally, Florida’s SAT scores—math and reading—have been declining since 2017.]
Florida’s Response? Blame Biden.
Seriously.
Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr responded to the NAEP scores with an op-ed in The Daily Signal, a conservative American political media news and commentary website founded by the Heritage Foundation (yes, the same group that wrote Project 2025). ICYMI Diaz serves on the Heritage-organized National Council of Conservative State Leaders.
In the op-ed – published almost simultaneously with the NAEP results – Diaz blamed Biden for “major flaws in methodology” and claimed that so many of Florida’s “high-performing” students have left for private voucher schools or homeschooling that NAEP no longer reflects the state’s academic success under all this “EducationFreedom.” Diaz called for the USDOE to “Make the NAEP Great Again.”
There is no evidence that Florida’s homeschoolers or other voucher recipients are “high-performing,” but at least Diaz finally admitted that their exodus from public schools—encouraged by his own policies—has harmed public education.
Rather than taking this moment to reflect and find ways to improve Florida’s public schools, Diaz chose to deflect and play politics. For that, Florida’s Department of Education earned Florida Politics’ dubious title of “Almost (but not quite) Biggest Loser of the Week.”
Unfortunately, reflection and meaningful improvement haven’t been priorities in Florida’s education system for over 25 years.
For more than two decades, Florida’s focus has NOT been on improving public schools – but on creating “opportunities” for families to leave them.
In a recent op-ed, public school parent Anne Watts Tressler highlighted the absurdity of calling Florida the “Education State” while it deliberately defunds and dismantles public schools:
“Instead of supporting teachers and students, state leaders are defunding public education—one book, policy, and budget cut at a time.”
She continued:
“Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to gaslight the public, claiming Florida sets the standard for education. But the reality is a system of defunding, censorship, teacher shortages, and widening inequalities.
Teachers are working in fear, uncertain whether their lessons or answers will lead to career-ending complaints. Many educators are leaving the profession, exacerbating the teacher shortage and leaving students without qualified instructors. All of this is part of the plan — to help build distrust in public education while incentivizing parents with means to seek out private options with the help of vouchers…
We’re trapped in a Twilight Zone, with a state claiming to prioritize education while systematically dismantling it.” – Anne Watts Tressler 1/30/2025
Getting on My Soapbox
We moved to Florida in 2008 so our children could grow up next to their grandmother. Governor Rick Scott’s drastic education cuts in 2011 and the growing emphasis on standardized testing led me to advocate for public education. I’ve closely followed the Florida Legislature, studied Jeb Bush’s accountability system, and witnessed its damaging effects on public schools. I will never forget when, in 2014, then-Representative Keith Perry suggested in the Florida House that completely dismantling public education would allow market forces to build something better from the wreckage—he called it “creative destruction.” My children were 8 and 10, and we depended on high-quality public schools. My advocacy became my mission that day. Over the past decade, I have watched Tallahassee systematically undermine public education, and I have come to believe the following:
- The “Failing Public Schools” Narrative Is Manufactured. The myth of failing public schools has been used to advance political agendas, nowhere more effectively than in Florida. This began with the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, which ignored the role of poverty in student achievement and declared a “rising tide of mediocrity” in education. The immediate response? President Reagan called for prayer in schools.
A later study, the Sandia Report, showed that American students from all socioeconomic backgrounds outperformed similarly situated students worldwide. However, as childhood poverty rose, average test scores declined. Rather than addressing poverty, politicians blamed schools and teachers, demanding they “work harder.” - Poverty Matters. If we want to improve educational outcomes, we must improve the lives of children first. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of childhood poverty among OECD countries. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs tells us that students need food, water, and safety before they can focus on learning—giving well-resourced students an advantage.
When No Child Left Behind (2002) mandated annual standardized testing, the achievement gaps between low- and high-income students became undeniable. Yet, instead of addressing systemic poverty, politicians doubled down on blaming educators. Florida’s own A+ Plan, introduced by Jeb Bush, graded schools on an A-F scale and funneled students out of so-called “failing” schools into private voucher programs—ignoring the clear correlation between school performance and family income. - Standardized Tests Measure Wealth, Not Learning. There has never been an “F” public school in a wealthy Florida neighborhood. Researchers can accurately predict school grades using U.S. Census data alone, making high-stakes testing obsolete. A study by Tienken and Maroun found that nearly 63% of test score variance is explained by family income and social capital, factors outside a school’s control. Yet, Florida’s Department of Education refuses to adjust school grades for demographics, instead using them as a weapon to justify closing public schools while allowing private voucher schools to operate with little to no accountability.
- Florida’s Education System Prioritizes Privatization Over Students. Florida’s school grading system has been weaponized to justify privatization under the guise of “choice” and “freedom.” Private schools accepting public vouchers face no academic accountability – no standards, no accreditation, no state oversight. Unlike public schools, they are not graded, so there are officially zero failing private schools in Florida. Lawmakers argue that parents will naturally identify and leave low-quality private schools, yet insist public schools need heavy regulation and punitive grading because students are “trapped” there.
Florida deliberately suppresses voucher and private school performance data because the outcomes would likely be mediocre at best. National research shows vouchers do not improve academic performance. Instead, they increase segregation and discrimination. Since 2013, multiple studies have found that vouchers cause some of the largest academic declines ever recorded—worse than the impacts of COVID-19 or Hurricane Katrina. - The Proven Way to Improve Education: Fund Public Schools. School funding matters. Research consistently shows that increased investment in public education leads to better academic outcomes, higher graduation rates, improved future earnings, lower poverty, and reduced incarceration rates. Well-funded public schools can provide universal school meals, health clinics, early childhood programs, after-school care, and summer learning opportunities—strategies with far stronger evidence than school vouchers.
Yet, instead of pursuing these policies, Florida continues its march toward privatization, funneling billions into unaccountable alternatives while starving public schools. Because in Florida, ideology—not evidence—dictates education policy.