While corruption is endemic to the decades-old charter school sector, it is extra rampant in Florida’s charter schools. To add insult to injury, Florida also has the nation’s second highest charter school failure and closure rate. No amount of “school choice” rhetoric in Florida has improved this record. School privatization is notorious for lowering the level of education.
According to Florida Politics (Jan. 14, 2026), “Florida [high school] graduation rates are rising, but district [public] schools are driving gains far more than charters.”
When data from the Florida Department of Education is broken down by school sector we learn that, “In the 2024–25 cohort, traditional district public high schools graduated 93.8% of students within four years, while charter high schools graduated 78.4%, a gap of more than 15 percentage points.” That’s a big difference.
Even though Florida’s strong graduation rate is driven mainly by the state’s public schools, not its non-unionized charter schools, charter school proponents try to create the impression that charter schools are part and parcel of the state’s impressive high school graduation rate. But as Florida Politics reveals, “While nearly 94% of students in traditional district public schools graduate on time, more than one in five charter students do not. Graduation rate alone understates the disparity.”
Indeed, when state data is further disaggregated, we see that, “In 2024–25, 13% of charter students remained enrolled beyond four years, compared with 2.6% of students in traditional district public schools. Charter dropout rates were nearly three times higher, 4.4% versus 1.5%. These outcomes reflect thousands of students whose path to graduation is delayed or disrupted.” These are not trivial differences. To be sure, “Florida’s graduation gains are real, but they are being driven overwhelmingly by traditional district public schools.” Privately-operated charter schools are actually dragging down the state’s graduation rate. Privatization, wherever it takes place, lowers standards and quality.
Graduation data from Florida and other states once again reveals the need for investing more money in public schools while opposing school privatization, which mainly enriches a few people in the name of “innovation,” “choice,” and “serving the kids.” When private interests supersede the public interest through the continual seizure of state mechanisms, agencies, and levers, both society and education suffer. For more on the differences between public schools and charter schools, see here.
Depending on which source one uses there are currently about 3,100 public schools and roughly 700 charter schools in Florida. To learn more about the problems, scandals, and controversies surrounding charter schools across the country, see here.
The post Florida’s Charter Schools Lower State’s 2024-25 Graduation Rate appeared first on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Shawgi Tell.