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Miami's SEED School's $1.5 Million Ask Raises Lawmaker's Ire

SEED school
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http://www.seedfoundation.com
promotional photo via The SEED Foundation

A charter school in Miami created two years ago through last minute maneuvering is getting a second look from lawmakers who aren’t comfortable with how the school is being run or how it was created.

The SEED school in Miami is a charter boarding school that houses low-income and academically struggling students five days a week. It was created in 2011 through a last-minute amendment on an unrelated bill on the last day of the legislative session. Senator Nancy Detert (R-Venice) has long questioned SEED’s high cost per student and did so again during a recent Education Committee meeting:

“If we spend $32,000 per-student we’d get a probably better than 56 percent of them going to college, so I really question the SEED school frankly. The other thing is... this year’s focus is to expand charter schools, vouchers, etc. And, we’re not putting $32,000 a kid into that.”

The school plans to open in August but is struggling to recruit students. The Florida Department of Education has requested $1.5 million for SEED for the upcoming school year, a cost of $25,000 per-child. The rest of the money would come from the Miami-Dade school district and other sources.

Follow @HatterLynn

Lynn Hatter is a Florida A&M University and Florida State University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master's in Professional Communication. Lynn has been with WFSU since 2007 with education and health care issues as her key coverage areas.  She has worked with several organizations, including Kaiser Health News.  Lynn has also partnered with USC-Annenberg's Center for Child Wellbeing on the nationally acclaimed series "Committed," which explored the prevalence of involuntary commitment use on children.
She serves on the board of RTDNA and the United Way of the Big Bend, with previous service on the board of the First Amendment Foundation of Florida.

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