5 public school principals pitch parents on staying out of private school — and one involves flying an airplane

• Public schools nationwide are reckoning with declining enrollment numbers.
• The large school voucher movement and high costs of living are hitting districts in Florida.
• Principals at a handful of schools in Broward County, Florida, explained how they’re combating the issue.

Math class at 10 a.m.; flying a plane at noon.

That’s a day in the life of some students at Northeast High School in Broward County, Florida.

The school champions a program that allows students to pursue an educational pathway in aviation, technology, or art, which includes real-world opportunities in their fields of interest. For students on the aviation pathway, it means a flight simulation class — or flying an actual plane at the nearby flight school.

“Our two instructors are both retired fighter pilots who have been in combat,” Anthony Valachovic, the principal at Northeast High School, told Business Insider. He recounted a recent graduate who was in the aviation pathway, went to flight school the summer before his junior year, and graduated as a licensed pilot.

In a county struggling with declining public school enrollment, the aviation program is just one of the ways that schools like Northeast High are innovating to continue attracting and retaining students.

At Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy, Gastride Harrigan, the school’s principal, pointed to the school’s STEAM program as a big selling point for students. The program allows for exposure to science, technology, engineering, aviation, and math, giving students a leg-up on the path they want to take postgrad. An added bonus: students can receive a free associate degree alongside their high school diplomas.

“The goal is just to continue to excel and grow the program, and we’re seeing higher interests,” Harrigan told Business Insider. “The question becomes now, do we take all these kids, and will we have the space? We are in a unique situation compared to a lot of schools, and that is a blessing.”

Business Insider is exploring how America’s public schools are fighting an enrollment decline due to the school choice movement, declining birth rates, funding challenges, and more. Share your story with this reporter at [email protected].

Broward County saw a 4.7% enrollment decline from the previous academic year. As a result, the county put together a list of 34 underenrolled schools to review, with some at risk of closing or consolidating. Nationwide, public school enrollment challenges persist; the growth of the school voucher movement, declining birth rates, high costs of living, and immigration challenges are pushing some families out of the system.

Business Insider visited five public schools in Broward County that have avoided enrollment declines, which teachers and administrators partly credit to the unique programs they offer. Timothy White, a former pilot in the Air Force and Marine Corps, now teaches aviation at Northeast High, and he said that students come from all corners of the district to take part in the flight programs.

“We won the top aviation program in South Florida,” White said. “And it’s very rewarding for students who know they want to go into the field.”

‘I always feel the competition’

Coral Cove Academy of the Arts in Broward County transitioned from a K-5 to a K-8 school earlier this year. Parents highly requested this move to allow for educational continuity up until high school. It’s paid off: 513 students enrolled in the academy as of the 10th day of the current academic year, compared to 443 one year prior.

“If I didn’t have the option of keeping him in a K-8, I probably wouldn’t go into public education for middle school,” Gabriela Marte, whose son is in fourth grade at Coral Cove, said. “I would probably look into a charter or a private school.”

It doesn’t mean that pressures from neighboring schools are going away.

“I always feel the competition,” Stephanie Saban, Coral Cove’s principal, told Business Insider. “There’s no shortage of charter schools and private schools, so I’m always feeling that.”

Public school is still the primary choice for parents. In the fall of 2023, 49.5 million students were enrolled in public schools, compared to 4.7 million students enrolled in private schools in the fall of 2021, the most recent year the data was collected. But the outside factors — some of which are not controllable, like declining birth rates — place heightened pressure on public schools to continue bolstering their programs and responding to community needs.

Louis Kushner, the principal at Apollo Middle School in Broward County, told Business Insider that he has ongoing conversations with parents who are considering enrolling their children in local private schools, with the goal of showing them that their kids’ needs would best be met in the public school system.

Apollo’s robotics program, Kushner said, is a big attraction because it requires problem-solving and independence, which are critical skills for students to have in a STEM field. At Everglades Elementary School, it’s the debate program that stands out and draws parents in.

Eliot Tillinger, Everglades’ principal, said he’s approved over 150 school choice reassignments, in which families come from outside the school’s boundary to enroll.

“We’re doing some endeavors that historically have been reserved only for high school, notably the debate team,” Tillinger said. “And the fact that we’re doing it at the elementary level, the fact that we’re exposing them at a younger age, and they’re getting more comfortable with the ability to speak before a crowd or before a group of people, it’s just a tremendous benefit.”

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