How one Florida county is saving its public schools

Public schools in Broward County are listening to what parents want in order to boost enrollment.

Alfonso Duran for BI

In Broward County, Florida, the start of this school year brought more than the usual first-day jitters — it came with a sense of urgency.

About 10,000 fewer students entered its public schools this year, a 4.7% drop from last year, putting 34 of its schools on a watchlist for risk of closure or consolidation.

Broward County isn’t alone; public schools nationwide are reckoning with shrinking student bodies as publicly funded vouchers for charter and private schools expand, birthrates fall, the cost of living rises, and immigration crackdowns deter some families. The Trump administration’s push to redirect funding away from public schools has intensified the pressure. Faced with dwindling enrollment, which is directly tied to their funding, public schools must either reinvent themselves or risk shuttering classrooms. Business Insider visited five schools in the county that are doing the former — and seem to be succeeding.

“It costs a lot of money for a family to live in South Florida,” Howard Hepburn, Broward County’s superintendent, told Business Insider, which is pushing some families to move to areas with lower costs of living. “So incrementally, the district has been trying to address it, but it’s compounded itself, and we have to make some tough decisions.”

Students at Millennium Collegiate Academy — Students at Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy use augmented reality in their lessons.

Alfonso Duran for BI

The county’s solution, a plan called “Redefining Our Schools,” is now entering its second phase. The plan includes shutting down or repurposing some schools and incorporating community feedback to stay competitive with private schools.

“We’re constantly in an iterative process of enhancing academic programs at schools,” Hepburn said.

The county is also offering school choice reassignments, allowing families to attend schools outside their residential boundaries. Everglades Elementary School has approved over 100 reassignments, said Eliot Tillinger, the school’s principal. Tillinger said the school’s debate team — which often isn’t offered until high school — is a likely draw.

“It could be people who know the reputation of the school, know the programs that we offer, and they just want to be part of what they believe is the best opportunity for their children’s education,” Tillinger said. “And that’s a phenomenal, phenomenal thing.”

Why families are leaving public schools and what might make them return

Andreina Gandica pulled her fifth-grade son from Coral Cove Academy of the Arts, a public school in Broward County, because she was worried about the switch to a larger public middle school in sixth grade. She sent her son to a K-12 charter school instead.

It turns out, she wasn’t the only parent worried about this. Stephanie Saban, Coral Cove’s principal, said that a high percentage of families used to leave the public school system after fifth grade because parents weren’t satisfied with the transition to middle school. She’s now overseeing Coral Cove’s transition into a K-8 school.

“We knew that we had something very special here, but we were not able to just draw the kids in based solely on that because of the competing charter schools,” Saban told Business Insider. “Many families in my community wanted the K-8 continuity.”

Teachers had to adapt, too. Some quit because they weren’t prepared to work with older students.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not,” Dina Becker, Coral Cove’s art teacher, told Business Insider, adding that she ended up being happy with the transition. “I’ve always said I’ve never wanted to teach middle school, but then to save our school, we had to do something.”

So far, the transition’s first year is going well: 513 students were enrolled in the academy as of the 10th day of the current academic year, compared to 443 at the same point last year.

And Gandica has since reenrolled her son at Coral Cove.

“We never left because of a negative experience; it was simply a preventive decision related to future enrollment,” Gandica said. “Once the new grade structure was announced, coming back felt like the most natural choice for us.”

Students at Coral Cove — Parents in Broward County said the unique offerings at their neighborhood schools drew them in.

Alfonso Duran for BI

At Apollo Middle School, Principal Louis Kushner is also battling competition from private schools. He described Apollo’s robotics program as the school’s “hub,” saying it helps attract families and boost enrollment. But it’s not enough to stop student attrition. He said a family recently asked him to write a recommendation for their child to attend a private school, and he plans to have a conversation with them to understand why.

He’s now working to strengthen the robotics program at the feeder high school to show parents that there is continuity for their kids after they leave Apollo.

“We have to get the parents to be in the building to see and feel what’s happening,” Kushner said.

Coral Cove and Apollo are examples of how public schools are trying to compete with charter and private schools. It’s an uphill battle. The Trump administration has moved to expand school vouchers, directing the education secretary to explore shifting federal funds to “K-12 educational choice initiatives” and prioritizing support for schools promoting “patriotic education” over “woke” ideology.

The administration’s immigration policies are also leading some families to leave the public school system, Hepburn said. Immigration has historically offset declining birth rates, “but with federal policies restricting immigration in the country, it’s likely that it will not be enough to sustain enrollment going forward,” said Tara Moon, a policy analyst at Georgetown University think-tank FutureEd.

“We’re almost at a reckoning point for the public education system since we’re seeing so many families choose to leave,” Moon said.

There are bright spots: Broward’s Apollo Middle School, Everglades Elementary School, and Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy have maintained steady enrollment or experienced growth over the past year. Broward’s population has also been growing — it’s up 13% since 2010 — and rose 0.79% in the past year. Some families say that the unique programs, like robotics and debate, drew them to the schools. Gastride Harrigan, the principal at Millennium, told Business Insider that parents are drawn to the school’s structure, which enables students to receive an associate degree alongside their high school diploma when they graduate.

Gastride Harrigan and Kay Thomas said Millennium’s STEAM program helps students shape their career plans.

Alfonso Duran for BI

“We noticed that 80% of our high school students were our middle school students, so that tells us we’re doing something right,” Harrigan said. “But the selling point for most parents is the free associate’s degree.”

Brian, a Millennium 9th-grade student, is part of the school’s STEAM program. He said the science and technology programs are helpful because he wants to pursue a career in pediatrics.

“It really correlates to what I want to do when I grow up,” Brian said.

Kay Thomas, the coordinator of the STEAM program, said it’s designed to give students experience in their fields of interest and help them discover less familiar careers.

“It’s providing also the hands-on experience and the exposure to the unknown, to not just sitting down and being instructed, but how can you really integrate this and have the kids engaged in what they’re doing and learning what other options are out there,” Thomas said.

A call to action for public schools

Public school student bodies are expected to continue shrinking.

Faidra Monachou, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Management, coauthored a report that estimates public school districts nationwide could lose up to 6.5 million students over the next quarter-century.

Overall, 49.5 million students were enrolled in public schools in the fall of 2023, compared to 4.7 million students enrolled in private schools in the fall of 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.

States dole out funding to schools based on their number of students, and those with already limited resources could be hit the hardest by further enrollment declines.

Students at Northeast High School — Northeast High School offers free industry certifications for its students.

Alfonso Duran for BI

Hepburn said that Broward County has lost over $300 million in public school funding over the past decade due to declining enrollment, including an $85 million budget deficit this year. While closing schools is difficult for the community, he said, “it costs a lot of money to operate under-enrolled schools, and we’re spending more resources on operating and maintaining the school than we are on educating the students.”

Public schools gaining enrollment aren’t immune from funding stressors, either. At Apollo Middle School, Kushner said the robotics program, which helps attract new families, is largely made possible by grants from the National Science Foundation. The Trump administration has canceled a range of NSF grants that it said did not comply with its priorities, and Kushner worries that the funding could end.

For Florida in particular, there’s an additional challenge that could strain its public school system: property tax cuts. Lawmakers are considering cutting property taxes — which account for nearly half the state’s public school budget — to help offset the strain of higher living costs. The Florida Policy Institute said in a September report that eliminating property taxes on primary residences could cost school districts $7.7 billion.

Sadaf Knight, CEO of the Florida Policy Institute, said the move would “leave local governments and school districts scrambling to balance their ledgers, whether it’s through cutting vital programs and services or by introducing or raising new fees to replace the lost revenue.”

Many schools are focusing on the factors they can control. Northeast High School champions a program that allows students to select a path in either art, technology, or aviation beginning in elementary school.

Principal Anthony Valachovic told Business Insider that the program was created to boost enrollment, with the added bonus of offering free industry certifications. He said he and his colleagues created the program after asking themselves, “What are colleges looking for and what can kids do hands-on?”

A student at Northeast High School — Northeast High School’s students can use flight simulators to gain credit for the aviation pathway.

Alfonso Duran for BI

Students in aviation can gain experience at nearby flight schools, and classrooms feature flight simulators that allow students to practice. Art students can showcase their work at a fair in Palm Beach, exposing them to the entrepreneurship element of the profession.

Christopher Blackman, a sophomore at Northeast High School, aspires to pursue a career in coding. He said he plans to earn college credits and an industry certification to further his experience in the field once he graduates. According to data from Broward County, 15 teachers at the high school offer industry certifications, and 457 students passed the certification exam in 2025.

Randolph Manchester, Blackman’s computer science teacher, said the certifications are “a big draw” for parents: “If they get certifications here with us, they might not have to pay for their children to get it elsewhere.”

Enrollment pressures aren’t going away. Hepburn said that public schools continue to be the first choice for many families, and districts must adapt to ensure that remains the case.

“Public education is not going anywhere,” Hepburn said. “I think we just need to evolve to address our current times. Just like every business has to evolve over the years, it’s now time for public education to evolve to really address the demands of today’s world.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

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