A national study released Thursday takes a look at access to public charter schools in the ten biggest school districts in Florida.
The report put Lee County Schools at the very top.
The Washington, D.C.-based Center for School Options found that Lee County is doing a good job of getting students who want to be in a public charter schools into them.
Right now, with 12.2 percent, Lee County has the highest percentage of students currently enrolled in public charter schools.
Policy Researcher Deborah Thornton authored the study. She says many of the other schools in Florida she reviewed also had a lot of students in charter schools, but they had a long waiting list.
While some counties had up to 20,000 students on a list; Lee County only has 217 students on its waiting list.
Thornton says that’s why Lee County scored higher than counties such as Miami Dade in the study.
“The fact that there are only a few students on the list, while at the same time their percentage is the highest in terms of being just over 12 percentage means that the school board has done a good job of approving charter schools and then the district has done a good job of getting the students signed up and placed in them when they have expressed that interest,” Thornton says.
Lee County received a B overall in the study. The only low mark the county received was for denying eleven new charter applications in 2011.
