Q&A – Are There Fewer Students in Florida’s Schools or Only in Public Schools?
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Today’s entry: Hey, good morning, Brian and Joel. Brian, for the last few days I've been listening to you talk about the school system and how we're losing students. My question is why are we losing students? Is it because of private schooling, loss of illegals that are enrolled, or homeschooling? And Joel, you're a very, very bad man. Thanks. Have a good day.
Bottom Line: Great questions and an amazing reference for Joel. When diving into the question of what’s taking place within Florida’s school population decline – there's a delineation with an important distinction. While Florida’s total public, in person, K-12 student population has slightly declined for three straight years, we’re not seeing declines everywhere. In fact, Florida’s total student population has been rising, and we’re seeing record student populations in certain settings.
Let’s start with the in person public school population changes for each of the prior three school years:
- 2023-2024 (record high K-12 population): 2,872,309
- 2024-2025: 2,791,000
- 2025-2026: 2,786,275
Florida’s total student population was 79,633 students below its peak of three years ago. Almost all of the losses in student population were in the Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Orange and Pinellas school districts. Over that same time here’s what Florida’s total K-12 student population has been:
- 2023-2024: 3.85 million
- 2024-2025: 3.9 million
- 2025-2026: 3.95 million
Many public-school officials, especially in South Florida’s schools, have suggested that President Trump’s immigration policy has played a role in lower turnout levels. There’s some anecdotal evidence this may play a very small factor in select schools; however, it isn’t the driving factor.
While Florida’s in-person public school population has fallen by nearly 80k students over the past three years, Florida’s total K-12 student population has increased by approximately 100k overall. Therefore, there isn’t an issue with a declining overall student population, but rather a choice that’s been made by parents and students about how to go about education. So, about those choices...
Growth in students over the past three years:
- Private schools: +17%
- Homeschool/Personalized Education Programs: +291% (19,500 students to 76k+)
This is what really paints the picture of what’s been changing within Florida’s education landscape. Private school growth has been significant with the advent of Florida’s Universal School Choice program, while the advent of Florida’s homeschool scholarship program had led to a surge in homeschooling across the state. In fact, choice being the name of the education game becomes crystal clear with this recent distinction...
Effective with the 2025-2026 school year, just over half of Florida’s students exercised some form of school choice. This is to say that over half of Florida’s total K-12 student population received education in a non-zoned setting (charter school, private school, home school, or different traditional public schools).
For approximately two decades, Florida led the country in school choice. The advent of Florida’s universal school choice program in recent years has illustrated the extent to which parents and students prioritize having a choice in where/how their children are educated with most now seeking options that are different than the ones assigned based on how maps are drawn and one’s geography.
What we’re seeing playout with declining traditional public-school populations is a byproduct of competition entering the equation. And the results speak for themselves. As school choice has become the majority choice in recent years, Florida’s graduation rate has risen to records highs, as have test scores and those seeking high education options.
What Florida has done is create competition and flexibility which has had the effect of raising the educational bar – which is also why Florida has ranked first or second in pre-K through college education for each of the past three years.