Stop the Takeover of Miami-Dade's Public Schools

By Crystal Etienne, DEC member and President of the EDUVOTER Action Network

I have a request: I would like to move into your home, rent-free.

I’d like full access to your electricity, water, food pantry, medicine cabinet, vacuum cleaner, and alarm system. And, by the way, while I’m benefiting from everything you’ve bought or built, I will be trying to replace you in your current job or position.

You’re thinking, “Are you insane?”

Why? Because what I’ve just described is a hostile takeover of your property, a draconian case of squatter’s rights.

Ninety-one of Miami-Dade’s district schools have just learned that they are the potential victims of just such a takeover.

Thanks to budgetary language that passed the Florida Legislature in the final hours of the 2025 Legislative Session, charter schools designated by the state as “Schools of Hope” may “co-locate,” free of charge, in the same buildings used by currently operating district schools, provided the schools have empty seats. The school district–and the taxpayers who fund it–are responsible for providing not only the space the charter requests, but utilities, maintenance, nursing care and food service. Transportation and security may also be part of the package, with no guarantee of full reimbursement. The school district must foot the bill even if the School of Hope is run by a for-profit management company.

Co-location creates two parallel school systems under one roof, sharing playgrounds, cafeterias, parking lots, auditoriums, gymnasiums, and media centers. An incoming School of Hope may have its own calendar, discipline model, staffing rules, and enrollment practices. No matter. The district school must make accommodations. Public schools are emergency shelters, community hubs, and polling places. But if the space is shared, who makes decisions in a crisis? Who controls access during an election?

The co-location of Schools of Hope was sold in Tallahassee as a way of persuading out-of-state charter school chains claiming a record of success among high poverty student populations to set up shop in Florida. The stated goal was to provide students in low-performing district schools another chance, another choice. Florida legislators should have known better, but they failed to do their due diligence. They would have discovered that our state’s already existing Schools of Hope had a mediocre performance record, at best. They would have learned that there was no significant difference in school grades between district-run schools and charter schools enrolling similar percentages of economically disadvantaged students. Most importantly, they would have found out that school districts like Miami-Dade already offer a myriad of choices and have an established track record of significant success among high poverty student populations.

This carelessly-adopted piece of legislation was not really about expanding choice for students in low-performing schools. The proof is in the pudding: of the 91 Miami-Dade schools targeted for co-location so far, only 13 are actually designated as low-performing. The law’s real objective seems to have been to expand charter school market share in the face of increasing competition from voucher options, while simultaneously financially bleeding the public system most families rely on.

The consequences are already on our doorstep. On November 20, the District’s Attendance Boundary Committee, a citizens’ advisory group charged with making recommendations to the School Board, began its annual discussion of what school boundaries to change, which schools to consolidate or reconfigure, and whether any schools should be closed. Normally, only a handful of schools are involved. With the threat of co-location hanging over every corner of the District, the committee is now considering whether to recommend changes affecting more than two dozen schools.

Last year, when funding for AP, IB, AICE and CTE classes was threatened, parents and communities rose up to kill the proposal. The need for public resistance is even more critical now. What can we do? Here are three suggestions:

Support Senator Darryl Rouson’s SB 424, a bill to repeal the co-location option. Contact your state legislators now, and if possible, sign up to speak at the December 15 public hearing of the Miami-Dade Legislative Delegation.
Urge your School Board member to exhaust every avenue to deny unsolicited, unwanted, and disruptive co-location in district-owned facilities and to assert the Board’s constitutionally-established authority over schools under its jurisdiction.
Support local efforts to champion public schools by partnering with groups that engage in community education and challenge misinformation and disinformation.

Public education is the backbone of our democracy.

We cannot stand by while it–and our democratic values–slip away. The time to act is now.

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