For years, Florida politicians have trashed public schools, describing them as “failures.” Traditional public schools get it wrong, they say. Charter schools get it right, they say. We need to take money away from “failing” traditional schools and give more of it to charter schools, they say. Yet when school grades were released this past week, not a single traditional school in Orange County received an F. Five charter schools did. Yes, every single “failing” school in Orange County was a charter school. The numbers looked similar statewide. Less than 1 percent of traditional public schools earned F’s. But 3.4 percent of charter schools did.
