Government schools are improving in Florida. Not because taxpayers have been heaping money on them — although they have — but because school choice and other innovative approaches forced on them are working.

Duval County Public Schools now has an A grade for the first time. That’s great. But not every school has that rating, only the district as a whole.

There are still about two dozen schools on the “persistently low-performing” list.

They need hope. That’s where Schools of Hope come in.

Like anything new, this development has frightened the “education cartels” as they are called by Esther Byrd of Jacksonville, a member of the state Board of Education.

In a social media post, Byrd said, “It’s heartbreaking to see schools fail their students year after year, stealing entire cohorts of children’s hope for the future. Every child can learn, but it’s our responsibility to ensure they have the tools, resources, and environment to succeed. Schools of Hope is another tool in our toolbox to rescue students trapped in persistently low-performing schools. This program is a narrowly targeted safety valve for our most vulnerable students.”

What it does is allow charter schools to operate within under-performing schools that have excess capacity.

In other words, they would fill empty space in schools where kids are not learning. The hope is that they would be able to give some children the education they are not getting.

Opponents claim that is an unfunded mandate on the government schools because state funding would go to the charter schools for the students they have. As it should.

The state would pay for additional transportation and school safety required for the charter students. There is no other cost because the schools already are open and operating.

School districts will continue to get 100 percent of the capital funding they were getting.

Regardless, the school board can turn down any proposal and of 25 proposals in Duval, 23 have been rejected, sources told Eye on Jacksonville. There is an appeal process.

“The over dramatized reaction of the education cartels has intentionally sought to manufacture outrage and create chaos and unnecessary alarm among conservative school board members, Floridians and legislators,” Byrd posted. “Misleading claims that this initiative will bankrupt districts, force co-location, or initiate a ;take over’ of traditional public schools is nothing more than propaganda. The entities spreading these lies are working to protect their only real priority – DOLLARS.”

“The reality is co-location isn’t the bogeyman that they want you to believe it is.”

The program has been around since 2017, but it was expanded last year.

Proponents say the program came about because there were pockets of persistent historic failure that didn’t improve, despite overall improvement. Nothing ever seemed to change. There was a lost generation of students.

What stirred the opposition was when one charter school operator sent out hundreds of proposals.  Although many were dead on arrival because the proposal wasn’t justified, it was enough to spark fears of an attempted assault on government schools.

What the government schools get out of the program is a more efficient use of schools, which might keep some from closing.

Patricia Levesque with Foundation for Florida’s Future has said Schools of Hope offer families more choices. “So if there’s underutilization or unused space, how better than to let another public school, a charter public school, be able to use those facilities. Taxpayers funded the facilities, and we would be using them for public school students.”

That’s the bottom line: What is best for struggling students and tapped-out taxpayers?

When the smoke clears and the new approach to helping students who are not learning is examined, tried and if needed revised, it seems likely the current clamor will cease.

Here is a link to the state’s explanation of the law: https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/other-school-choice-options/schools-of-hope/

Here is a link with information provided by Hope operators: https://flcharterschool.org/school-of-hope-qa/