Letter: Closing schools in Alachua is the wrong solution
Letter to the editor
Why are schools in Alachua even being considered for closure? Has the school board — or Superintendent Kamela Patton and board leadership — taken the time to drive through Alachua and see just how many new developments and homes are being built? Growth in this area is obvious, and it continues every month.
Closing schools in a community experiencing this level of development feels short-sighted and neglectful. Consolidating students from Irby Elementary and Alachua Elementary onto a single campus that does not have the infrastructure to support them is careless planning.
There are also real human impacts that must be considered. What happens to the principals, assistant principals, executive assistants, media specialists, and bookkeepers who serve these schools and their communities? Schools are more than buildings — they are staffed by dedicated professionals who support students every day.
Rezoning may be necessary, and that is a conversation worth having. But closing schools in a growing area is not the solution. Instead, the Alachua County Public Schools system should focus on attracting students back from private and charter schools. Because of the district’s reputation and ongoing instability, many families are already pulling their children out of public schools and moving to private or charter options. Decisions like this will only accelerate that trend.
It breaks my heart to see what is happening to public education in our community. If the school board continues making decisions without clear justification or thoughtful planning, they will lose even more families — including mine.
Lila Lee, Alachua
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Although Alachua County’s population has steadily grown and is projected to have continued growth, the enrollment in public schools has taken a dive and is not projected to increase anytime soon. Economic and population growth does not necessarily lead to increased enrollment at public schools.
This is mainly due to the lack of a quality environment and lack of a quality education at our public schools, whether perceived or real. The activist politics of several school board members definitely doesn’t help either.
With the fairly recent codification of school choice legislation this trend will not stop anytime soon. The school board must make major changes or else it will dig a financial pit too deep to ever recover from. For years the school board has actively spit in the faces of thousands of concerned parents and now their actions have come home to roost.
Florida has been one of the most aggressive states in implementing Heritage Foundation-aligned education policies, largely under Governor Ron DeSantis. Here’s a comprehensive overview:
School Choice Expansion
Florida passed one of the most expansive universal school choice programs in the country. The Family Empowerment Scholarship was expanded in 2023 to make every Florida student eligible for state funds to attend private schools, use for homeschooling, or other educational expenses. This effectively redirected billions in public school funding toward private alternatives.
Erika Donalds, wife of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds. She is a highly significant figure in Florida’s school privatization movement. Here’s a comprehensive picture:
Erika Donalds is an American school choice activist who leads education policy at the America First Policy Institute. She is also a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and serves on the advisory boards of Classical Learning Test, Moms for Liberty, and the Independent Women’s Forum Education Freedom Center.
How It Started
In 2013, following a dispute with administrators at her second child’s public school in Naples, she placed her child in a private school and became involved in local efforts to deploy state education funds to establish a charter school, the Mason Classical Academy.
Building a Charter School Business Empire
In 2017, Donalds founded OptimaEd, a company that provides management support for several classical charter schools in Florida. Tax filings reviewed by CBS News show that between 2020 and 2023, the schools spent roughly 30% of the government funding they received — totaling about $35 million — on outside firms with ties to Erika Donalds.
That’s about the time SBAC”s current superintendent left if memory serves me correctly. Any connection?
Invitado, I couldn’t care less about schooling in Naples. You and your CBS article are trying to make this into a left/right partisan issue when it’s a local educational issue for most parents. Byron Donalds and his wife didn’t start this movement, they’re capitalizing on it like any other slimy politician would do. If government schooling didn’t fail so many students we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
What’s your thoughts on funds allocated to home schoolers, like my family?
If you care to look this is happening across the state and country due to a political partisanship strategy and greed.
Deny what is staring us in the face if you like.
Kids graduated from public schools and had a great experience. Go Eastside!
During elementary we paid private school tuition for a couple of years. Yes it was difficult. No state help.
Other family members homeschooled without any state money.
Recently an acquaintance living in Haile were paying full tuition at a private HS and then the voucher, without income restrictions, came through and they got a windfall. Yes I’d probably done the same…college is crazy$$$$
Parents must do what they can to support their kids and, in my opinion, if one chooses not to attend the free public school then it is their responsibility to make that happen. Public school dollars are for public schools.
All the best.
I appreciate the reply and respect your point of view. One contention I have is that our public education system has been funded per pupil for a long time.
This means the more students, the more funding. The opposite is also true.
Those taxes are already collected and set aside for education. They aren’t going to cut taxes or refund us. What should be done with that pot of money?
Greed is what brought Patton to Gainesville.
Gullibility is what keeps her here.
Agreed, but when has the majority of SBAC members applied any real world experience and common sense to any decision.
It’s sad that it came to this point but maybe public school families will be more inclined to vote in local elections going forward. I’m sure parents on the eastside of the county as well as parents on the westside are both beyond irritated with school closures near them. Newberry residents were able to see the writing on wall and were proactive.
Alachua County intentionally place local elections on off-season or primary ballots instead of on the ballot for large, general elections. This leads to reduced voter turnout.
Nov 2024 Presidential: 84.57%
Aug 2024 Local (school): 22.72%
I do not expect any entrenched governing body to change their underhanded ways – especially in regards to elections – so it’s up to parents to either show up and vote, walk away from public schools, or both.
There is lots of money sitting at the Kirby Smith Center. Millions of dollars for a huge staff that does not teach students. I understand the Chairman of the ACSB makes 300K. Is this so? Can she justifty this sort of expense when our childrens reading and math scores suffer? How many other very highly paid adminstrators are there? What actually are thier jobs? How does their position help educate children in this county? With the focus on government spending and government waste I would bet my property taxes they’re wasting piles of money. Prove me wrong!