Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted Florida’s top spot in several education accomplishments and initiatives ahead of the 2026-27 state school year while speaking at a press conference in Leigh Acres this week.
Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the workforce education rank happened five years ahead of schedule earlier this year.
Moreover, DeSantis emphasized Florida’s No. 1 ranking for charter school education by the Center for Education Reform, rounding out a slew of high marks for the state ahead of the new school year which begins next week.
“We, of course, have pioneered parent-focused decisions when it comes to education. We do have universal school choice,” DeSantis said, noting Florida has 408,000 students in charter schools and 150,000 students in home schools.
“School districts know they got to compete for parents. Parents have options, and you need to provide options,” DeSantis said. “And so maybe you live in one part of a county, and that local school that’s run by the district may not have everything you want, then you now have the option to go to a different district school and have those opportunities as well.”
Over 1.6 million K-12 students in Florida go to a school outside of their neighborhood, Gov. DeSantis mentioned.
“A bulk of that is choice within our public-school districts, and I think that when you do choice, there’s some folks they just resist, they just want the old guard,” DeSantis said. “But then there’s others within our school districts, and more and more the superintendents are like ‘hey this is the wave of the future, we’re going to compete here. “We want to be able to provide great options for parents and show that we’re able to do well. And I think the ones that have done that have seen their performance increase.”
In addition, DeSantis highlighted 76% of Florida schools earned an “A” or “B” grade for the 2025-26 school year, a 5% jump from the previous academic year. The governor also specified 60% of Florida schools maintained or improved their grade from the prior year, while five districts jumped from “B” to “A”, and two districts form “C” to “B”.
DeSantis also emphasized the state’s 92.2% graduation rate, as well as 60% of Florida students reading at or above grade level in English language arts and mathematics.
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