In 1996, then governor Jeb Bush co-founded the first charter school within the state of Florida, when most educators across the nation thought of charter schools as nothing more than a fad. Now, there are more than 350 charter schools within the state of Florida; there are 38 across the Tampa Bay area with several in the Tampa Schools area private and public. The movement has mushroomed across Florida with charter school enrollment expected to top 100,000 students this year.
Yet, if you ask the average adult on the street, most have no idea what a charter school is. Though many charter schools are private businesses that operate under the guidelines of the state school board, many were traditional schools converted to public charter schools and still under the direction and control of the school districts, such as the Tampa schools.
Charter schools are given more flexibility from many of the regulations that apply to the traditional Tampa schools in exchange for greater accountability. Charter schools can be as different as day and night in their mission, vision for their students, approaches to curriculum and teaching methods, and administrative structures, as...