What we know
Ten findings, one sentence each. Every one links to its source and to the data behind it.
- 01
Nearly half of Florida students now use school choice, by the state’s own count.
- 02
Teachers feel far less ready for the new settings: 34% feel prepared to teach in a microschool, against 87% for a district school.
- 03
All 11 of Florida’s teacher certification routes end in a district, charter or charter network.
- 04
Florida’s colleges prepare 60% fewer teachers than in 2010–11, but 89% of that drop came before universal eligibility in 2023. The timing does not support blaming portable funding.
- 05
Florida’s largest teacher preparer is not a university. District and charter programs finished 657 teachers in 2023–24; UCF, the largest university, finished 392.
- 06
A charter-school service firm, Noble Education Initiative, finished more Florida teachers (116) than the University of Florida (106).
- 07
53 of 102 leading universities show no response we could find to portable funding.
- 08
One of 102 universities helps people open a microschool: Arizona State, outside its education school.
- 09
Florida institutions that engage do it by running or authorizing charter schools. None of the 13 has built a program to prepare educators for the sector.
- 10
Districts moved faster: 53 of 67 Florida districts are approved or applying to sell services to students they don’t enroll. Colleges took 0.25% of what PEP families spent.
What these findings can't tell you
Teacher counts cover only programs that lead to a Florida certificate. Private-school and microschool teachers who need no certificate don't appear, and no source records where completers go on to teach. "No response found" means we searched and found nothing, not that nothing exists.
How we work