Naysayers are wrong: Charter schools work, and Florida is on the right path | Opinion

News out of New York earlier this month offers a powerful vision of what’s possible for every child in Florida as our state continues to grow high-quality K-12 schooling options for our students.

Success Academy Charter Schools, a network primarily serving economically disadvantaged Black and Hispanic students, has achieved what many in the education establishment claim is impossible: They earned the No. 1 ranking in math and the No. 2 ranking in reading across the entire state of New York, outperforming districts like Scarsdale and Chappaqua, which serve the state’s most affluent families.

This achievement portends a brighter academic future for Florida students. Our state recently made it possible for charter-school operators, including Success Academy, to expand into the Sunshine State.

With 96% of their students passing the state math exam and 92% passing the English Language Arts exam, Success Academy is demonstrating, at scale, that a child’s ZIP code or family income does not predetermine their destiny. This is not just a statistical victory; it is a profound win for those, like me, who still believe that high standards for all students yield strong results.

While others have abandoned the notion of high standards, Success Academy’s founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz has doubled-down her nearly 20-year vision and core principle-set that has guided consistent success.

For years, I have championed parental choice and accountability, believing that competition and innovation are the keys to a world-class education system, and that when schools are held accountable for their results, they can deliver. Several years ago, the Florida Legislature put these core principles to work through the creation of the Schools of Hope program to attract the nation’s best and most successful charter operators to the communities where our students have suffered in persistently low-performing schools.

Thanks to recent legislation, Florida’s Schools of Hope program has been significantly strengthened and expanded. With the strong leadership and championing this past session from Miami’s House Speaker Danny Perez, Rep. Jennifer Canady, Rep. Demi Busatta and Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida is better able to attract high-quality charter-school operators with track records of success elsewhere. What’s more, the legislature has provided a performance-based funding runway for Schools of Hope operators that achieve the kinds of results Success Academy has achieved in New York.

These policy moves by Florida lawmakers are exactly what’s needed to bring transformative excellence to the communities in Florida whose traditional public schools continue to struggle.

Naysayers have long argued that we just need to increase funding, and better results will magically follow. Yet, despite a yearly increase in education funding, that magic has yet to arrive in many communities. Students cannot wait.

Success Academy has a proven record of sending 100% of its graduates to four-year colleges, many of whom are the first in their families to attend, and many of whom are attending some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States. This is exactly the kind of “Hope” Florida envisioned when the law passed. This success proves that excuses that seek to explain poor outcomes are just that: excuses.

In Florida, we’re saying that the time for excuses is over. The data from New York is a loud, clear challenge to anyone who says disadvantaged children cannot achieve at the highest levels.

I look forward to watching Success Academy and other high-performing charter networks take advantage of our strengthened Schools of Hope law to create a brighter future for thousands of Florida students.

Every child deserves this opportunity, and in Florida, every family deserves the power to choose it.

Jeb Bush served as the 43rd Governor of Florida. He is the Chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Foundation for Florida’s Future.