Imagine that someone is allowed to come into your home and claim extra space, like a spare bedroom. They do not have to clean or pay rent, utilities or property insurance. And you have to drive them around. Your living room? Shared. Bathroom? Communal. It doesn’t matter if you need that space in the future, or if this hurts your ability to financially provide for your family.

Duval school district officials are “having meetings” with members of the state legislative delegation and will travel to Tallahassee this month to “engage with them privately in their offices” about changing the Schools of Hope charter school program, Duval Superintendent Chris Bernier said Monday. 

SEBASTIAN — The superintendent of Indian River County schools urged the local community to push back against an expanding state program that allows outside charter school operators to move into public school buildings, warning that such groups are eyeing space in a new classical academy here despite the district’s strong performance.

Charter school operators are bigfooting their way into public K-12 classrooms across Florida, with plans to grab taxpayer-funded buildings and other amenities. No one should be rolling out the welcome mat

A new law passed earlier this year  greatly expands Florida’s Schools Of Hope program, which lets charter-school operators move into “underused” public-school classrooms while still qualifying as charter schools. That law took effect on July 31, and the march is on: Miami-based Mater Academy has put Broward County on notice that it plans on moving into 27 public school campuses. In Orange County, another provider has set its sights on a region in the northwest corner of the county. In its application, it described plans to move onto the campuses of two as-yet-unidentified schools, and expand from there.