Killing public schools

Looks like DeSantis is pulling it off:

This is the sea change in real time: Florida is inexorably moving away from traditional public schools, a transformation that has at long last begun to touch every corner of this sprawling city. Proposed school closures are not limited to Black or low-income neighborhoods, as shocked residents of Atlantic Beach learned in recent weeks when they saw their eponymous A-rated art deco neighborhood elementary school on the list.

Forcing the district into this Hobson’s choice can only be the end-result of a desire to cancel traditional public education: The closures would also include schools like A. Philip Randolph Academies of Technology, a magnet school that offers high schoolers the chance to enroll in career academies, which include building trades and welding — the kinds of skills Florida’s Republican politicians often claim they want to see offered to students more frequently. Yet this is the consequence of decisions they are making in Tallahassee.

Charters — those quislings of public education — are becoming the de facto norm, the favored venue for Republican politicians. In Jacksonville, Gov. Ron DeSantis hardly steps foot anymore in traditional public schools for bill signings and news conferences. Instead, he prefers places like Jacksonville Classical Academy, a charter school founded by John Rood, a prolific Republican donor, and with, at best, a mixed record of success — but an unmistakable, increasingly brazen right-wing bent.

Both City Hall and the Legislature have rewarded Jacksonville Classical with taxpayer money above and beyond what charters — and traditional public schools — are already entitled to: The state provided the school with $5 million to build a gym on its Brooklyn campus, complemented by an earlier outlay from city government of $1.4 million for the same purpose.