My South Florida school is thriving, yet it’s forced to share space with charter | Opinion

Last year, I graduated from Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High. I did not just attend Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS); I served as the elected student advisor to the School Board, representing over 340,000 students in America’s third-largest school district.

I’ve seen how decisions are made, and I understand our teachers’ and students’ needs. That is why it is deeply concerning that my own school is now one of nearly 90 Miami-Dade campuses targeted for co-location by “Schools of Hope” operators.

Success Academy, one of Florida’s approved Hope operators, is slated to take over two of my alma mater’s buildings in the 2027-2028 school year. When the Schools of Hope program was created in 2017, it established a special category of charter schools meant to serve students in “persistently low-performing” schools.

But after the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 2510 in 2025, charter schools can now share, at no cost, any underutilized public school building within five miles of an “Opportunity Zone.” Under the guise of maximizing public infrastructure, even high-performing or improving schools can be forced to share their building, custodial staff and cafeteria workers with privately-operated charter schools that are not accountable to the public.

Miami-Dade County School officials made it clear that the $700 per-student annual fee agreed upon by MDCPS and Success Academy is probably insufficient to cover the district’s costs, the Herald reported.

I’m not opposed to public charter schools. In fact, I have personally benefited from school choice. But I oppose public dollars being used to fund takeovers of traditional public schools by private operators without regard for the communities affected. School choice should expand opportunity, not come at the expense of the schools that serve the majority of students.

The Schools of Hope program is not really about choice. It is a deliberate effort by the state to shift space, resources and decision-making power away from neighborhood schools and into private hands. That is outrageous, but not surprising.

Under Success Academy’s proposal for Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High, the buildings it occupies would serve K-1 students. Integrating students as young as 5 years old into a high school campus raises serious logistical and safety concerns. How will dismissal work for elementary students on a campus built for teenagers? What happens when ordinary high school issues arise, from discipline to campus security? Too many questions remain.

Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High is not a failing school in need of outside intervention. As my principal would always tell us, “I’d put you guys up against any other schools’ students any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.” Last year, HML sent two students to Harvard University and earned acceptances to MIT, Duke, Yale, Princeton, Georgetown, the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Central Florida and more. We are a Magnet School of Excellence that just opened a brand-new courtroom and state-of-the-art planetarium.

Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High is not just surviving; it’s thriving. By labeling parts of our campus “underutilized,” the state is taking away our ability to grow. Those “extra” classrooms represent future capacity: expanded magnet programs, smaller class sizes, new academic pathways and seats for future students who deserve the same opportunities I had. It is ironic.

State leaders have long praised charter schools for encouraging competition and pushing public schools to improve. Yet when schools like mine rise to the occasion, they are not given the chance to scale before losing the very space needed to sustain that progress. Miami-Dade families should pay attention. Once a community loses its voice in its schools, it does not just lose control over buildings. It loses control over its future.

Maurits E. Acosta is a first-year student at Harvard University studying government. He served as the 40th Student Advisor to the Miami-Dade County School Board during the 2024-2025 school year.