Report: Florida No. 7 in public school boundaries

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(The Center Square) – Open enrollment laws for Florida’s nearly 2.8 million schoolchildren are seventh best in America, says a new analysis.

Three states did better than Florida meeting four out of seven metrics, says report author Jude Schwalbach of the Reason Foundation. Public Schools Without Boundaries 2025, released Thursday, dives into seven areas of open enrollment for each state and offers related developments.

Scoring for a possible 100 points perfect score was in statewide cross-district open enrollment (60 points); statewide within-district open enrollment (15); children have free access to all public schools (10); public schools open to all students (5); transparent state reporting on transfers (4); transparent district reporting on transfers (4); and transfer applicants able to appeal rejected applications (2).

Florida scored 89 points and a letter grade of B-plus. Respectively, the list was led by Oklahoma (99), Arkansas (98), Idaho (97), Arizona (95), West Virginia (95) and Utah (91).

Schwalbach wrote, “Florida policymakers can improve their open enrollment laws in three main ways. Make public schools open to all students regardless of ability or disability. Require the SEA to publish data showing the number of transfer students and rejected applicants, and why they were denied. Require school districts to inform rejected applicants of the reason for their rejections in writing and establish a nondistrict appeals process.”

SEA is an acronym for state education agency, in this case the state Department of Education.

All three suggestions were metrics in which Florida did not get a point.

The 2025-26 fiscal spending plan appropriated by the state included about $15.9 billion for K-12 education.

The Reason Foundation is a Libertarian think tank. It promotes liberty, free markets and the rule of law.

Earlier this year, Florida was No. 1 in the 2025 Education Freedom Report produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council. Measurements are not apples to apples with Reason. There, Florida scored an A each for open enrollment, education freedom, charter schools, virtual schooling and a B for homeschooling.