Tallahassee: Closing Title i Schools and opening Private Schools for the Privileged.

While rumors swirl regarding the gutting of the U.S. Department of Education and future of federal funding, Florida’s charter school corporations are beginning to shift gears toward completely private, but voucher funded schools.

Charter Schools USA (CSUSA), one of Florida’s largest and most politically connected for-profit charter school management companies, has announced it will close Renaissance Academy, Leon County’s only Title 1 Charter school at the end of this school year. Leon County taxpayers have been funding the building for more than a decade. In the fall, CSUSA will begin leasing the building to Discovery Science Schools, who will open Tallahassee Preparatory Academy, a private school “dedicated to serving advanced and gifted learners.”

Discovery Science Schools is a charter school management corporation which manages several STEM-focused charter schools in Central Florida, including Orlando Science Schools, which were (are still?) part of a group of charter schools in the U.S. linked to the controversial Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Learn more about Gulen here. It is unclear, whether Discovery Science Schools expansion into private schools is also Gulen-linked but it appear so.

Yesterday, Alaijah Brown, a journalist for the Tallahassee Democrat, published a great report on the school’s conversion from a Title I charter school to an exclusive private school. Read her piece “New private school in Tallahassee will replace Title I charter school.“

Renaissance Academy was initially opened by CSUSA, in 2012, as Governor’s Charter Academy. In 2023, they changed the school’s name to Renaissance. Rennaissance currently serves a student population that is 71.2% economically disadvantaged and 89.3% minority. The school has been consistently underenrolled and underperforming, earning school grades of C or D since its inception.

Tallahassee Preparatory Academy will be a private school serving academically advanced students. Advertised tuition amounts assume families will utilize the state scholarships through Step Up. Families not using the Step Up vouchers will be charged an additional $8,000.

• Grades K-3: $2,800 + voucher ($2,400 if paid in full by June 5th)
• Grades 4-8: $3,200 + voucher ($2,800 if paid in full by June 5th)

In addition, new students must pay a one-time, non-refundable, New Student Fee of $300 within ten (10) days of acceptance and tuition will not cover:

• Breakfast/Lunch
• Extracurricular Activities
• Extended School – from 2:40pm and 3:40pm every school weekday, and 9:00am – 4:00pm on Saturdays ($1,000 annually).
• After School Care – 4:00pm and 6:00pm every school weekday, only available to students participating in the Extended School program ($1,200 annually).
• Certain Field Trips

It is doubtful that many of current Renaissance Academy charter school students will be able to afford attending the new private academy. It is likely few will qualify for admission. Using 2024 state assessment scores, less than 40% of Renaissance Academy students scored high enough on Florida’s state ELA assessments to meet Tallahassee Preparatory Academic’s admission standard of Level 3 or higher. Even fewer (approximately 10%) scored the Level 4 or high in Math required for admission. Students not meeting the test scores requirement, will be required to score high enough on an entrance exam to earn admission.

The new private school’s website makes clear that “limited ESE and ESOL services are available,” quoting the Federal IDEA website: “Pursuant to 34 C.F.R. § 300.137(a): No parentally-placed private school child with a disability has an individual right to receive some or all of the special education and related services that the child would receive if enrolled in a public school.”

The Tallahassee Democrat quoted Charter Schools USA’s State Superintendent Eddie Ruiz as saying “While this was a difficult decision, it is ultimately the best one for students in Leon County. Renaissance Academy has been consistently underenrolled and is no longer financially sustainable. This offers a new choice for students.”

Yes… sure… this offers a “new choice” for high performing students whose parents can afford it and gives CSUSA a perpetual funding stream through the lease payments on a building the public paid for.

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In the era of Universal Vouchers, the transformation of publicly-funded charter schools to voucher-funded private schools was just a matter of time. Private schools can openly select their student body and have no obligation to comply with pesky requirements like state testing or services for students with special needs.

Project 2025, recommended sending IDEA and Title I funding “to the states” with “no strings attached. Project 2025 also recomended that Title I funding be phased out over 10 years. Charter management companies can read the writing on the wall. Private schools can charge tuition above and beyond state and federal funding and need not comply with most regulations. As a “business decision” it is a no-brainer.

Residents of Leon County should be asking what happens to the taxpayer funding they have invested in Governor’s/Renaissance Academy over the past 13 years? The school received $1.8 million in tax dollars for its operations during the 2023-24 school year. Also, since the passage of HB1259 in 2023, districts are required to share capital outlay funding (meant to build and maintain facilities), on a per-pupil basis, with its charter schools. In the two years since the bill’s passage, Leon County Schools have transfered more than $250,000 to Renaissance Academy Charter School. Now Charter Schools USA will collecting lease payment for the private school use of the $14.5 million building, which was paid for, to a large extent, by Leon County tax dollars.

Leon County superintendent, Rocky Hanna, said it best:

“This has to come to an end,” referring to vouchers, some of which divert public money to private schools. “It is going to systematically destroy our traditional public schools. This is what happens when you put a business model over what’s really best for kids.”