Who cares about public schools in Florida anymore? No doubt, you’ve heard the occasional murmuring. Not me; our kids went to school up north. Not me; we don’t have kids in school anymore. Not me; our kids go to private school. Not me; we don’t even have kids.
But you know what? Most people — a quiet, steadfast majority — have deeply cared about public schools long before we were a nation. I’ve been to more than 100 schools as a Pinellas school board member and been involved in my two boys’ education at three of them. In thousands of communications with families, I know how much people care about their public schools. Unfortunately, some policymakers in Tallahassee have taken their eye off the ball. As we vote in these midterms, ask them: Do you care about public schools?
Go back more than a century before the Declaration of Independence. In 1647, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony made a remarkable decision: They would tax themselves to fund schools. The “Old Deluder Satan Act,” as the statute was known, required every town to hire a teacher so children could read the Bible. They believed that without the ability to read, citizens could be “deluded” by falsehood and tyranny. This moment marked America’s public commitment to education as the foundation of liberty.
Much later, Thomas Jefferson’s vision for public education was crystal clear. He believed just as a well-armed citizenry could resist tyranny, a well-educated citizenry could prevent it. In 1818, Jefferson wrote that primary education should give every citizen what he needs to manage his own affairs, to know his rights, and to understand his duties to his neighbors and his country. Think about its weight today: understanding our duties to our neighbors and our country. “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,” he wrote, “it expects what never was and never will be.”
In the 1830s, Horace Mann pushed for the Common School, public schools financed by local taxes that would be free for students, calling education the “great equalizer of the conditions of men.” His movement helped create public schools. He believed a democratic republic could not survive without an educated citizenry. So do I.
And so does our state constitution. Because “the education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida,” our most important state document unequivocally requires a “system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education.”
Nearly 85% of our K-12 students attend public school, and they should be front and center when state leaders talk about education. Yet under Florida’s new system of universal, unaccountable vouchers, we literally pay students to leave public schools instead of focusing on making them better. We should be investing our precious tax dollars where they do the most good for the most children: in public schools.
Many elected officials claim that Florida has record funding in public education. They conveniently forget about inflation. A Tampa Bay Times investigation pointed out that, “The amount of money the state Legislature gives districts per student looks like it’s growing — 36% since 2009.But accounting for inflation, (our) analysis of Florida Education Finance Program data found that it’s spending nearly 12% less.” Florida’s national standing has been declining in key categories. We now rank 48th in K-12 education spending as a percentage of gross domestic product, 44th in early learning spending, and last in teacher pay. We should not be proud of these numbers.
But we can be proud of what our public schools are doing. Here in Pinellas, we know what works. So we have targeted:
- Early learning. Full-day Pre-K for economically disadvantaged children.
- Third grade reading. To ensure students are reading by this crucial milestone in brain development, we have reading coaches and use a research-based PreK–3 reading curriculum in partnership with the University of Florida.
- Middle school innovation. We have increased the number of high-performing middle schools by 150% in three years.
- Teachers. We are nothing without our teachers, so we offer competitive salaries (thanks to Pinellas voters who agreed to tax themselves), professional development and public support.
We are seeing huge returns. Seven in 10 of Pinellas third-graders are proficient readers. That’s a 33% increase in the past seven years. In 2018, we were below the state average. Now we are nine percentage points above.
We have invested wisely in voluntary pre-kindergarten, preparing children to become good readers. A new 20-year study of 400,000 children in Miami-Dade County followed them from preschool through high school. Children who attended public school pre-K performed better academically than those in family-based child care. They earned higher grades and better test scores throughout their academic careers.
We are making these kinds of targeted investments in Pinellas, and they are working. Imagine if state education leaders scaled up the Pinellas model across Florida. Instead, they focus on universal school vouchers that are unaccountable and often ineffective. Florida could implement Pinellas’ four key programs statewide and spend far less than the $5.6 billion vouchers cost.
Recently, The New York Times asked dozens of education researchers and top academics to rank a host of ideas weighing cost and effectiveness. Universal pre-K ranked among the best programs, expensive but worth it — no surprise to us in Pinellas. Vouchers were the worst, expensive but not very effective.
Who cares about public schools? Floridians do. A generation ago, forward-looking voters amended the state constitution to make half-day voluntary prekindergarten available to all 4-year-olds, one of the first states to do so. In 2024, Pinellas voters voluntarily doubled the local property tax for education. Voters indeed care. Their elected leaders should, too.
As you vote, question your legislators: Have you backed bills that support our public schools? Have you visited one in the past two years? Despite the happy talk of funding increases, do you know inflation has outpaced education spending for nearly 20 years? What will you do about it?
Laura Hine serves on the Pinellas County School Board and is founder and executive director of Educating Florida’s Future, a non-profit, non-partisan education advocacy group. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and earned an MBA in finance from USF. Her two children attend Pinellas public schools.
