MADISON, Florida — Tens of thousands of students have left Florida public schools in recent years because of a explosive expansion in school choiceNow districts large and small are grappling with the harsh financial realities of empty chairs in outdated classrooms.
Now that some districts are forced to close schools, administrators are facing another long-overdue reckoning: How to integrate students into buildings that remain racially and economically unsafe? separated.
In the Florida panhandle, a small district plans to consolidate its last three independent elementary schools into a single campus because there aren’t enough students to cover the costs of keeping them open. But the Madison County School District’s decision to do so has exposed racial tensions in a community where some white families have resisted public school integration for years.
“It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about,” Katie Knight, a member of the county school board, told The Associated Press.
“Ultimately, these children are going to be exposed to all people of all races, abilities, personality types,” she said. “Trying to segregate our children is not an option.”
Shirley Joseph is a product of Florida’s segregated schools. She was a black student in one of the first integrated classes at one of the local high schools.
Now, as superintendent of Madison County Public Schools, it is her job to close some of these schools.
Fewer than 1,700 students remain in traditional public schools in this rural county in the state’s old cotton belt. Many families have moved to places with more jobs and housing — or have chosen other types of schooling. For those who have stayed, the schools offer more than just an education: All Madison students are eligible for free meals because of the county’s poverty rate. One in three children there lives in poverty.
“If we want to survive as a district,” Joseph said, “we have to make tough decisions.”
Earlier this month, Joseph walked the halls of elementary school campuses on their first day of school, pointing out one empty classroom after another.
One of the schools to close is Greenville Elementary, which has fewer than 100 students – about a third of the total school population. capacityWhen schools in Florida officially became segregated, Joseph attended what was then called the Greenville Training School.
Generations of black residents cherish the school’s legacy in the small town from Greenville where music legend Ray Charles grew up.
More than 50 years after desegregation, the school is still 85% Black. Class sizes have been reduced as the school struggles to retain certified teachers. The school’s state ratings have fluctuated, but Greenville has been given an “F” five times in the past decade due to low student achievement.
Fourth-grade teacher Mannika Hopkins had just eight students in her class when an Associated Press reporter visited her recently.
“I hate to see it close. This is my heart. This is our community. … This is us,” Hopkins said. “Who wants to move to a community where there’s no school nearby?”
Starting next year, Greenville will merge with Lee and Pinetta Elementary Schools, which are predominantly white. All of those students will be sent to Madison County Central School, a majority black K-8 campus that is a 15- to 20-minute drive from the outlying elementary schools. The district has not yet announced which teachers will move to the consolidated school and which will be laid off.
Madison County is located an hour east of Tallahassee in a region once dominated by cotton and tobacco plantations. A statue of a Soldier of the Confederacy still towers over Central Park in the county seat, Madison.
The neighborhood has struggled with student loss for years as birth rates decline, businesses close and families move to places where there are more jobs than just the lumber industry, truck driving and working at the nearby state prison.
Other families have stayed but left the public schools.
For decades, Aucilla Christian Academy in neighboring Jefferson County has attracted some of the region’s wealthiest families. Founded in 1970, Aucilla opened as a wave of new private schools sprang up in the South, founded by white people who resisted integration. Researchers call these “segregation academies,” and many of them remain predominantly white. As of the 2021-2022 school year, Aucilla’s student body was more than 90% white, according to federal data.
Families in Madison have resisted consolidation in the past: In 1998, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights intervened when residents postponed plans to send students from the predominantly white Lee Elementary to Central, the school that will soon host the county’s elementary students. After the department got involved, the district moved forward with the plan.
These days, it’s probably never been easier to leave Florida’s public schools. The chaos of COVID-19 has forced many families to try homeschooling or microschooling — small, private learning environments that often serve multiple families. And now, under Governor Ron DeSantis, all students in Florida can qualify for taxpayer-funded vouchers worth approximately $8,000 per year to cover private school tuition, regardless of family income.
For families opposed to the Madison merger, Aucilla is a possible destination, along with Madison Creative Arts Academy, a public school.
The parents of 9-year-old Noel Brouillette are hoping she will get a spot at the Academy. It’s not about race, said mother Nicole Brouillette, but about the predominantly black Central school’s reputation for being a hotbed of conflict. If Noel doesn’t get into the charter school, the family could leave Madison County altogether.
The fourth-grader says she is devastated that she cannot remain at Pinetta Elementary.
“If I had never come here, I would never have met my best friend,” she said.
Other parents are considering homeschooling, like Alexis Molden. She said her sons love going to Lee Elementary, but she’s heard rumors about Central — that multiracial kids like hers get bullied there.
“I’ve heard that … it’s pretty segregated,” Molden said. “You’ve got the white kids, the black kids, and then the mixed kids pretty much have to decide which side they’re going to be on.”
Katie Knight, the school board member, said she could retire if she had a dollar for every rumor she heard about Central.
Yet the county has a history.
When Shirley Joseph, the current principal, taught at Madison County High School a few decades ago, she said her students would sort themselves when they entered her classroom — white kids on one side, black kids on the other — until she had them switch places.
“We have to figure out somehow: How can we unite the communities?” Joseph said.
There’s always talk about leaving the public schools, Joseph said, but she believes most families will stay. In the meantime, she’s focused on providing the best education possible for the students she has — the ones who can’t leave.
___ Kate Payne is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.