Contact: Kate Wallace
Email: media@kateforkids.com
Facebook and Instagram: @kateforkidsfl

As a Polk County School Board member and a candidate for a full term, I have been open about my support for robust school choice. Some suggest that supporting taxpayer-funded choice options means I am against public schools. I do not see it that way.

Now that families have more choices than ever, Polk County Public Schools cannot rest on its laurels or cling to antiquated practices—and that is precisely the point.

Polk must now make sure our public schools are the destinations families choose because they are excellent, not because they are the only option. That means improving academic performance, supporting teachers, expanding strong career and technical programs, and increasing the number of A-rated schools. Competition pushes all of us to get better, and so far, it has.

Polk’s students saw widespread achievement gains in the 2025-2026 state assessment data, improving in math, science, and English language arts. Our graduation rate climbed to a historic 87.7 percent, and 92.7 percent among traditional high schools. A total of 29 traditional PCPS schools improved their letter grade this year, more than double the count from the year before, with ten rising to an A and sixteen rising to a B. Not a single traditional PCPS school earned an F.

Up until the late 1990s, real education freedom belonged only to families who could buy into the right school zone or afford private school tuition. Everyone else, including families in historically segregated communities, was stuck with whatever school their zip code assigned them, regardless of quality. Once charter schools, vouchers and virtual school came along, the same freedom wealthy families always had was finally extended to families who could not previously afford it.

Simply put, the single mom working two jobs in Bartow or Mulberry deserves the same ability to choose the right fit for her child as a family that can write a full tuition check. That is not a threat to public education; it is accessing a civil right.

More than half of Florida’s K-12 students, roughly 1.9 million children, now use an educational option their parents chose rather than their zoned district school, whether a magnet school, career academy, open enrollment, charter school, home school, virtual school or private school scholarship. Families are increasingly expecting education to be personalized and are seeking environments that fit their children.

Polk families clearly love choice. In 2015 and 2016, fewer than 6,000 students in our county used a private school scholarship. Today, that number is more than 22,000, and charter enrollment has grown from 13,321 to 21,000 students in the same time frame. Yet our district schools continue to serve close to 100,000 students, and enrollment in special programs like IB, magnet schools, and career academies has grown, too.

When you elect board members who support school choice, your district embraces innovation rather than runs from it. For example, PCPS just partnered with a local private microschool to launch a new blended kindergarten/first grade program, designed to offer families an additional educational option rooted in hands-on learning, creativity and connection.None of this means choice should come without guardrails. Background checks, financial transparency, and basic safety standards should apply to any school receiving public dollars, and Florida law already requires much of this. Private and charter schools also carry their own built-in accountability: if parents stop choosing them, they close.

Those who resent local families for choosing a scholarship, home school, or virtual school should remember those families still live, pay taxes, shop and volunteer in Polk County. Meanwhile, our district loses thousands of students each year to higher-performing public schools in neighboring counties. If there is something to get upset about, that is it. That’s why a focus on excellence within the schools we oversee is the wise approach.

School choice is here to stay. Attacking choice or suing to end it will not win back a single family. Earning their trust through excellence will. Every child in Polk County deserves an excellent education, and every school should have to earn that family’s trust.

Source: Mid Florida Newspapers, “Why being Pro-School Choice is Pro-Public Schools”