School choice has put Florida schools head and shoulders above the rest | Opinion

As public schools across Florida get ready to open, parents have greater choices and control than ever for their children. This state policy providing parents more and better educational choices started over 20 years ago and continues today. The focus on student achievement, as opposed to adult interests, has launched Florida students to the top of class.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Florida ranks No. 1 nationally this year for education, with higher education, in particular, top-ranked. The state recently earned its highest-ever NAEP rankings for grades 4 and 8, with top-five scores in key categories — all along with the continuation of two decades of narrowing “achievement gaps” for minority, low-income and disabled students.

While high-profile national political leaders take issue with a couple words in Florida’s new 216-page Black history curriculum, Florida continues to make learning and achievements gains on behalf of all students, particularly students of color. Florida is one of only a few states committed to teaching Black history as an expressed part of the required curriculum.

It has been over 70 years since the landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Florida has delivered — and continues to deliver — on the much-lauded promise of the Brown decision, closing achievement gaps between minority students and white students. Sadly, in too many cities, Black students remain trapped in separate-but-unequal educational facilities, educational opportunities and educational outcomes.

In last year’s NAEP results on fourth- and eighth-grade proficiency — dubbed the Nation’s Report Card, the results for Black children were stark: “The continued alarmingly low Black student scores on both reading and math sections and their inability to close the racial gap.”

Dragging down those scores: “(T)he dismal performance of Black students in the poorest performing cities: Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.” Moreover, under Gavin Newson’s “leadership” the Golden State is now dead last nationally in literacy and first in dropouts, with declining test scores and a rising exodus from public schools.

Money isn’t the issue. Baltimore’s City Council president has acknowledged that its schools’ bottom-dwelling performance came despite “outspend(ing) 97% of other major school districts.”

In contrast, the Sunshine State has generated years of gains among disadvantaged students. The Florida Legislature continues to invest in increasing teacher salaries, focusing on the basics — reading, writing and arithmetic — while rejecting using school time for woke-tilted programs.

Florida continues its commitment to school choice, parental choice and true academic progression. A steady expansion of charter schools, tax credits, and vouchers — the last recently extended to all families — has delivered remarkable results by liberating disadvantaged pupils from their poorly performing segregated schools into top-notch color-blind schools where all students are welcome.

In Florida, charter schools outperform district-run schools in virtually every major category tested. Charters bested traditional schools in 58 of 77 measures in students achievement. More important, charters are better at addressing the achievement gap between white and African-American students in 18 of 22 comparisons, and charter schools beat district schools in 81 of 96 comparison in learning gains — with charter schools serving just over 70% minority students.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program has driven increased graduation rates among “largely low-income students from low-income schools” — predominantly students of color — 73% minority.

It’s no wonder that a recent Rasmussen poll shows overwhelming support for school choice among Floridians by more than 2-1.

School choice works and has become the definitive civil-rights issue of our time. Progressives are entrenched on the wrong side of this issue with a reflexive aversion — promulgated by teachers unions — to educational choice. Left-run cities that have failed to embrace meaningful educational choice deny those in most need educational and career opportunities.

This stubborn opposition recently inspired an ad by economist Stephen Moore’s watchdog group underscoring the comparison of Democratic-controlled failing school systems to continuing segregation. That comparison may seem harsh. But in states where the systematic denial of minority students and their families to school-choice opportunities and thus increased learning is akin to the 1960s when certain state governors blocked schoolhouse doors denying Black students pursuing integration.

The focus should remain on providing greater educational and career opportunities for minority students and positioning students for success in the future. All of the angst regarding curriculum is about the past, the Florida-style educational choice options are about the future.

Florida’s strides should be celebrated and replicated. Our state has and continues to aggressively live up to the promise of Brown v. Board of Education — and the academic results of all students are proof.

Edward J. Pozzuoli is the president of the law firm Tripp Scott, based in Fort Lauderdale, and hosts the podcast “Politics & Sunshine.”