One provision of a new sweeping state education law allows for a library, community service organization, museum, performing arts venue, theater, cinema or church to house a school.
The new Florida law (HB 1285), which took effect July 1, allows private, charter and microschools to rent or buy these spaces and use them to open a school without having to comply with local land-use and zoning restrictions.
It adds about 50,000 locations where these types of schools can open, according to Ryan Delk, the CEO and founder of Primer, a microschool company with schools in Florida and Arizona.
Delk pushed lawmakers to support the policy and he is launching three schools in a Miami Shores church this year, made possible in part by the legislation.
Microschool supporters and leaders like Delk, who has 16 Primer schools in South Florida, hope the legislation will allow them to open small private learning environments of often no more than 14 students and one teacher across the state, and even the country.
Critics say the new law allowing for the proliferation of more schools with few restrictions is troubling.
“Anytime that there's the potential for these public spaces to be moved toward what is an increasingly privatized orientation, we should look at it with a critical eye,” said Aaron Kuntz, the dean for the school of education at Florida International University.
Local land-use and zoning restrictions have been the primary barrier for teachers to open a new school. Besides finding a space, teachers had to go through a lengthy and costly process trying to get local boards and city commissions to approve the location.
“And this is even if you're hitting all of the regulatory standards that are set by the Department of Education,” Delk said. “This is a totally separate process.”
"Many churches across the country like ours have amazing spaces that go unused during the week, and this is a fantastic way for us to better utilize the space and deliver world-class education to our community," said Jessica Derise, senior pastor of Miami Shores Community Church.
Felicia Rattray, the founder and director of Permission to Succeed Education Center, has her microschool in a Salvation Army building in Fort Lauderdale. Three years ago, before she started renting the education wing the organization uses for Sunday school, Rattray said she had a hard time finding a place to move the growing school.
“Either the rent was insanely ridiculous or I found the perfect spot only to discover it wasn’t zoned for a school, so I couldn’t take it. The process at the onset was extremely depressing, very frustrating,” she said.
Rattray considered options in Sunrise and Lauderdale Lakes, but each city had zoning stipulations that wouldn’t allow for a microschool.
Rattray started the education center after her nephew, Christopher Philips-Barrow, who is under the spectrum, was having a hard time at school during the COVID-19 pandemic. She aimed to create an environment where students could learn at their own pace.
In 2020, she started teaching by herself with six students, and now she has a team of 11 teachers and 80 students enrolled.
As a result of the new law, she has been in discussions with the Church of the Holy Spirit, an Episcopal church in Apopka, to open a microschool there.
“That's opening up doors for us that weren't open before,” she said. “Because of this new law… more children are going to be able to be served.”
Rattray’s goal is to open one of her microschools in each Florida county.
HB 1285 is the state’s newest attempt at increasing school choice in Florida. It was part of a wide-ranging 57-page bill that limits book-removal challenges and eases the process of charter schools taking over operations at traditional public schools that lag in performance.
Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis opened a new voucher program, directing more than $1 billion from public education to scholarships for private schools.
FIU's Kuntz worries that attempts like these could have a negative effect on public schools in the long run.
“The worry becomes when these microschools pop up and are able to be positioned within public spaces or nonprofit spaces and the like without the regulatory eye of the local communities and districts,” he said. “It could have a negative effect on the very public schools we're trying to fund, and that the majority of our students are accessing.”
All locations will continue to go through state inspections for fire and health safety.
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