October 11, 2018

Stand-alone non-profit charter schools say they’re often overlooked in favor of for profit networks — while at the same time being unfairly tied to Betsy DeVos’s agenda. At a national symposium in New York, the first of its kind, a number of school leaders agreed to try to change that by launching a new national organization dedicated to independent, or “mom-and-pop,” charters. Christopher Norwood, who runs Florida’s independent charter school group, agreed that the networks exert outsized influence. “There’s no charter management association of America because their interests are being promoted through the charter associations,” said Norwood, who along with Zimmerman, emphasized that he is not opposed to networks of charters.

June 06, 2017

The Florida Association of Independent Public Schools supports HB 7069 because it encourages independently operated charter schools to serve communities with need. Most Charter Schools in Florida are NOT affiliated with For-Profit entities, its time to read more than the headlines, goto www.independentpublicschools.org for the bill's analysis.

May 05, 2017

Few issues in education inspire more debate than the issue of charter schools vs. traditional public schools. And few places is that debate more heated — or more partisan — than in Florida.

Charter school proponents argue that publicly funded, privately managed schools offer a better alternative in areas with low-performing neighborhood schools. Detractors say charters are bleeding traditional public schools of funding and aren’t subjected to the same level of oversight, allowing some to squander public funds and let down students.

April 04, 2017

Contending the Florida Board of Education overstepped its bounds, the Florida Association of Independent Public Schools had filed an administrative complaint over the board's new rule on charter school capital funding.

April 03, 2017

We welcome our Members and Prospective Members (all are welcome) to enjoy a great opportunity to network, collaborate and decompress. We will be welcomed by the President of Nova Southeastern University and the Dean of the School of Education and Lunch is on them!

March 22, 2017

Florida charter school operators took issue Wednesday with proposed rules governing their access to state capital outlay funding, a subject of heavy debate almost annually in Tallahassee. They pointed specifically to a section that would prohibit charter schools from receiving the money if they had earned one F or two consecutive state grades lower than a C. "Charter schools are public schools and need to be treated equally and equitably," Mark Gotz, an executive board member of the Florida Association of Independent Public Schools, told the Florida Board of Education during discussion on the proposal. "Our public schools that are going to be less than C's aren't going to lose their capital funding, are they? I wouldn't think so."

January 01, 2020

Oliver Brown, a welder, an assistant church pastor and the leading plaintiff in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education, wanted his daughter Linda to have a choice about her public school. In 1951, he couldn’t understand why his daughter had to walk six blocks to the bus stop to get to her segregated school, when a perfectly good school was seven blocks away. 

January 27, 2017

The NAACP Task Force for Quality Education held a charter school hearing in Orlando on Friday, January 27. This was one of seven hearings taking place across the country in an effort to gather information about charter schools. Unfortunately, Florida’s charter school leaders, teachers, students and parents were not included in the day’s agenda. We were still able to get Florida’s charter voices heard.s this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention.

December 06, 2016

An advocacy group representing independent charter schools has prevailed in a battle against the state over facilities funding — for now. The state Department of Education has withdrawn a new regulation that would have made charter schools earning two consecutive “D” ratings under the state’s school grading system ineligible for money that funds construction and maintenance. The department will likely rewrite the rule, so the charter schools' fight might not be over yet.

January 01, 2020

Donald Trump has provided only scant details on his education agenda but the ideas he has pitched make one thing certain: the president-elect’s vision for American schools is very different from that of his predecessor.

Trump has said he would shrink the Department of Education — or demolish it altogether — and vowed to be “the nation’s biggest cheerleader for school choice.” On the campaign trail he also called for an end to gun-free school zones, and for changes in the student loan system. His transition website, which devotes just two paragraphs to the subject, identifies a few other priorities including early childhood education and magnet and theme-based programs.

October 05, 2016

An advocacy group representing independent charter schools is challenging a newly adopted state regulation that limits the institutions’ eligibility for capital funding. The Florida Association of Independent Public Schools, as well as two Miami charter schools, successfully petitioned for an administrative hearing challenging a new state Board of Education rule that renders low-rated charter schools ineligible for state construction and maintenance support.

February 16, 2016

The Florida Legislature has made a dynamic shift and passed committee proposals supporting charter schools that serve the poor and disabled. Educating students of special populations is a challenge for both public and charter schools. The allocation of operational funds to assist in accelerating the learning of these students is critical, as is offsetting capital expenses for the survival of charter schools as their educational performance is graded and failure can close their doors. We applaud Chairman Don Gaetz and Sen. Bill Montford in the Senate as well as Chairman Richard Corcoran and Rep. Manny Diaz in the House.

September 23, 2015

The Florida Legislature’s education reform often centers upon public-school choice and charter schools. Charter schools are public schools governed by private nonprofits, but sometimes they are managed by large for-profit entities. African Americans, especially, are often lost in the public discourse on school choice, although solutions addressing the achievement gap of the poor has been the primary policy reason for school choice.

August 24, 2015

Our high schools must evolve from being an end unto themselves into effective launch pads for college, career and a higher standard of living. Miami-Dade County Public Schools understand this, which is why the district has adopted youth-driven intervention strategies, like College Summit, that empower students to help their classmates understand the connection between their education and their future plans. In fact, MDCPS was awarded the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2012 for its overall performance and student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among low-income students and student of color.

November 09, 2014

The Florida Democratic Party should not become the ideologues that we claim right-wingers are, especially on core kitchen-table issues dear to African-American families. We are out of step with our base when the largest Democratic county in Florida, Miami-Dade, is the same county where more than half of its public-school students are in choice programs, meaning schools that families picked themselves. Going forward, we should run candidates for governor and Cabinet that actually look like the Florida Democratic Party. If we want to bring out our base (crucial in non-presidential elections), let’s see its diversity in our candidates.