As Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) tentatively approved a $7.4 billion budget for the 2025–26 fiscal year — down approximately $100 million from the previous year — educators, parents and advocates gathered at the district’s first budget hearing with a single message: public education is under attack.
State and federal policies, they say, are stacking the deck against traditional public schools by expanding charter conversions and diverting public dollars to private school vouchers with shrinking oversight.
“Our public schools and the future of Miami-Dade’s children are under attack,” said Tiffany Peacock, a member of Power U Center for Social Change, who rallied outside the school board’s building hours before last week’s hearing. “If we don’t act now, the consequences will be catastrophic. Privatization is the existential threat to our public school system.”
District CFO Ron Steiger called it a “historically difficult budget.” Despite a 2% increase in revenue, the expiration of federal COVID relief dollars and growing capital obligations have forced painful trade-offs — including the re-envisioning of two schools, three primary learning centers, and the longstanding Community Schools program…