Florida’s public school enrollment is projected to drop by up to 70,000 students over the next five years, a decline reshaping budgets, staffing and campus construction across the state’s largest districts, from Broward and Miami-Dade to Orange County.
The losses trace largely to Florida’s expanded school voucher program, which has grown the share of state education funding routed to private and home education from 12% in 2021 to 24% in 2025, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
How significant is the enrollment decline at Florida’s biggest districts?
Florida’s five largest school districts, including Miami-Dade and Broward, collectively lost about 67,000 non-charter students between the 2023 2024 and 2025 2026 school years, according to figures compiled by the Lee County school district. Broward began this school year with roughly 13,475 fewer students than the year before, a 5.6% decline, while Miami-Dade lost 15,288 non-charter students in a single year between 2024 2025 and 2025 2026. Miami-Dade Superintendent Jose Dotres said the district had not seen a drop that steep since Hurricane Andrew.
Why are so many students leaving public schools?
The primary driver is Florida’s voucher expansion, which eliminated financial eligibility restrictions in 2023 under House Bill 1, making every student in the state eligible for taxpayer funded private school or homeschooling scholarships regardless of family income. As of February 2026, more than 500,000 students statewide were participating in these programs, and voucher enrollment is projected to grow another 14% for the 2026 27 school year, adding nearly 61,000 more students to reach about 490,400 statewide, according to reporting on Florida’s education budget.
How is the funding structure making the problem worse for districts?…