Jason Gaecia, writing at Seeking Rents, details how special interests pushed for expansion of Florida’s privatization program for education.
A billionaire hedge-fund manager and a New York City charter network lobbied to expand a school-privatization program in Florida, according to records obtained by Seeking Rents.
The two-month old state law has set the stage for a potentially massive expansion of Florida’s “Schools of Hope” program, in which charter school operators can get lucrative cash grants and low-interest loans if they open up new schools in certain areas around the state. It has already resulted in a more than five-fold increase in potential locations for the heavily subsidized charter schools, which are public schools managed by private entities.
The privatization legislation was a top priority for Republican leaders in Tallahassee — including Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Danny Perez (R-Miami), who made sure to get it done even as they clashed over a host of other issues during a dysfunctional legislative session that dragged on more than a month longer than expected amid the infighting. Legislative leaders ultimately tacked the measure onto a last-minute budget bill that they passed just before finally gaveling their 2025 session to a close.
“I’m glad we were able to work with the Legislature to get that through in this extended session,” DeSantis said two weeks later, when he signed the legislation into law.
They got it through, at least in part, at the behest of Ken Griffin, the billionaire investor and Republican megadonor in Miami, and Success Academy, a prominent charter school system in New York City known for impressive test scores and graduation rates but also cherrypicking the families it chooses to teach and pushing out kids with behavioral problems.
Lobbyists for Griffin and Success Academy engaged in an extensive behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign for the privatization legislation, according to emails obtained through a series of public records requests.
The records show, for instance, that they worked on the bill with Rep. Jennifer Canady (R-Lakeland), a future speaker of the state House who currently leads the chamber’s top education committee. They also arranged meetings to discuss their proposal with Senate President Ben Albritton (R-Wauchula) and some of his senior aides.
Success Academy wrote an initial draft of the legislation. Griffin’s team gathered intel.
The lobbying blitz may not be over. The records also show that Success Academy wants an enormous infusion of taxpayer money — beyond the existing subsidies Florida already offers through the Schools of Hope program.
Read the full post for additional details here. This is some powerful and well-researched reporting.