ABANDON ALL HOPE: Florida's Charter Takeover Exposed

The sun hung merciless over Sarasota that September afternoon. Parents edged their minivans into the pickup line at Oak Park School — the county's only sanctuary for children with profound disabilities. Inside: wide hallways engineered for wheelchairs, sensory rooms bathed in calming blues, communication devices costing more than cars. Progress here doesn't show up on standardized tests. It sounds like a child's first laugh through a speaking valve. It looks like three unassisted steps after two years of daily physical therapy.

Then, in October 2025, the notice arrived.

Mater Academy — a Miami-based charter giant managed by the for-profit Academica Corporation — had filed to "co-locate" inside Oak Park. Not to help. To claim "underutilized" space. Rent-free. With the district forced to subsidize everything from buses to janitors to cafeterias.

Jennifer Ortiz stood clutching the notice, her face crumpling. "They're not just taking space," she told reporters. "They're taking my daughter Sofia's future."

Sofia, 11, cerebral palsy tightening her limbs like wires, wheeled out that day beaming — unaware that her adaptive playground might soon host a charter's recess chaos.

WHAT WE FOUND:

$390 million annually flowing through a network of 56+ interlocking LLCs and nonprofits controlled by brothers Fernando and Ignacio Zulueta

$9 million per school in management fees — rates reaching 20% of operating budgets, multiples of industry standards, with no competitive bidding

$115 million real estate empire financed with tax-exempt public bonds, generating $19 million in annual rent — properties leased back to charter schools at inflated rates while capital gains flow to private LLCs

The $400,000 ghost loan: Federal investigators documented a scheme to funnel taxpayer money between entities controlled by the same people. The loan was never repaid. The college lost accreditation. Degrees were "virtually worthless." No one went to jail.

The fixer in the commissioner's chair: Manny Diaz Jr., former Chief Operating Officer earning $122,000 annually from the Zulueta network's Doral College, now oversees the regulatory system that enables their expansion — despite allegations of inappropriate conduct as a teacher, documented by the Miami Herald from multiple former students.

690 co-location notices sent to Florida public schools since July 1, 2025. That's five schools per day, every day, for nearly five months straight.

This isn't expansion. It's a blitz.

THE TARGETS: Vulnerability Is the Point

Mater Academy didn't target failing schools. It targeted vulnerable ones.

Emma E. Booker Elementary: 94% economically disadvantaged, 87% students of color. Recent grade: B. Improved from D through sheer force of will. Teachers arrive before dawn, stay past dusk, running food pantries from their own classrooms.

Brookside Middle School: 65% economically disadvantaged. Steady A and B grades year after year. Teachers coach basketball in donated shoes. The band director pays for instrument repairs out of pocket.

Oak Park School: Sarasota County's only school for children with profound disabilities. The "underutilized" spaces Mater covets? Hydrotherapy pools. Sensory integration rooms. Medical treatment areas. Equipment storage for devices that keep children alive.

None were academically failing. All serve predominantly low-income, minority, and disabled students — communities with the least political clout and fewest resources to fight back.

THE WEAPON: How Florida Law Was Rewritten

Senate Bill 2510 — a sprawling 387-page omnibus bill passed in spring 2025 — handed charter operators a statutory sledgehammer:

• 20 days to prove "material impracticability" — an impossible evidentiary burden
• No local control. No referendum. No meaningful community input.
• Districts must provide rent-free space, transportation, food service, maintenance — subsidizing charter operations while losing per-pupil funding
• Charter operators get priority access. Districts may suggest alternatives. Charters aren't required to accept them.

Rebecca Beltran, former general counsel: "This isn't collaboration. This is a legal hammer disguised as policy. It transforms co-location from partnership into forced occupation."

Holly Bullard, Florida Policy Institute: "No one asked the parents of these schools if they would want a squatter school to set up shop in their school."

THE RUSSIAN NESTING DOLL OF SELF-DEALING

The Outermost Layer: Nonprofit "collection vehicles" — Mater Academy, Inc., Mater Academy Central, Mater Foundation — funnel $390 million annually in taxpayer funds.

The Middle Layer: Academica Corporation "manages" everything for 10-15% of operating budgets. Some schools paid over 20% — $9 million annually per school — with no competitive bidding.

The Inner Layer: Properties leased from separate Zulueta-controlled LLCs at above-market rates. The brothers negotiate with themselves, set their own prices, and invoice their own schools.

By 2010: $115 million in tax-exempt real estate, generating $19 million in annual rent. Buildings purchased using tax-exempt public bonds, leased back at inflated rates. When properties appreciate or are sold, capital gains flow to private LLCs.

Public financing. Private profit.

Jordan Mitchell, forensic accountant: "This is self-dealing at an almost incomprehensible scale. They negotiate with themselves, set their own prices, and siphon public funds with absolute impunity."

THE PERFORMANCE PARADOX: Success Built on Exclusion

Charter operators love to wave test scores like proof of excellence. They're not. They're proof of selection.

Suspension rates of 30-40% at some Academica schools — multiples of nearby public schools — used as a selection mechanism to exclude challenging students.

The discipline-to-dismissal pipeline: Aggressive enforcement. Frequent suspensions. Students pushed toward dropout or transfer. Those who remain? The most compliant, most likely to have stable homes, most likely to succeed on tests.

2018 documented case: Mater middle school in Hialeah suspended over 40 students — nearly all Black or Hispanic boys — in a single month. Most were performing below grade level. After removal, most fell further behind. Several transferred out or dropped out.

Meanwhile, the school's test scores rose.

Dr. Raymond Carter, University of Florida: "It's a selection mechanism disguised as discipline. You remove struggling students, test who's left, and claim success."

Akil Bello, testing expert: "Your model only looks successful if mine is forced to take every child you reject. That's not competition. It's a rigged game."

THE CONTEXT: Florida's Manufactured Crisis

Dead last. Florida ranks 51 out of 51 (including D.C.) in adequate school funding.

• Teachers earn median salary of $51,000 — lowest in the nation when adjusted for cost of living
• Support staff survive on $33,324 annually — $97/month above poverty level
• Per-pupil spending declined $400 since 2019 (inflation-adjusted)
• True shortfall: $8,000 less per student than needed for adequate education
• Effort Index score: 0.48 — investing less than half what it should relative to economic capacity

47% of Florida children live in poverty. Over 60% read below grade level.

Yet Florida diverted $4 billion in 2023-24 to vouchers and charter schools — vouchers expanded to families earning up to $200,000 annually with no accountability measures.

Dr. Noreen Alvarez, former state education official: "This is not about improving schools. This is about destroying public education and profiting from the wreckage."

THE FIXER: Manny Diaz Jr. and the Captured State

The Teaching Years: Multiple students in the 1990s accused Diaz of inappropriate conduct. Comments about female students' appearances. Casual discussions of drugs and clubbing. Flirtatious behavior blurring professional lines. The Miami Herald documented the accounts. Former State Representative Cindy Polo tweeted the allegations had circulated within education circles for years.

Result: No investigation. No disciplinary action. Doors stayed open.

The Academica Years: Chief Operating Officer of Doral College during the $400,000 loan scandal. Earned $122,000 annually for 12-13 years. When the scandal broke, he'd already moved on.

The Legislative Years: Sponsored bills expanding charter access, reducing oversight, loosening financial reporting requirements — while receiving six-figure salary from Academica. Campaign contributions flowed from charter-affiliated entities.

The Commissioner: In 2022, Governor DeSantis appointed Diaz Florida's Education Commissioner — granting him authority over the very programs and facilities that once lined his pockets. He now approves charter applications, greenlights co-locations, oversees billions in education funding.

2025: DeSantis gave Diaz a second six-figure job as interim president of the University of West Florida — dual compensation from the education system he oversees.

Alicia Summers, former federal prosecutor: "You have the state's top education official, the referee, who used to work for one of the players. Even if he recuses himself, the structure itself undermines public trust."

THE PATTERN: Over 500 Charter Schools Closed Since 2010

Many amid financial scandals. Students stranded mid-year. Yet operators like Academica continue receiving public funds and approval for expansion.

Federal investigations documented conflicts of interest, self-dealing, questionable financial practices. Result: No meaningful penalties. No criminal charges. No restrictions preventing continued operation.

Why Academica remains eligible: Intentionally weak oversight structure. Legislators with direct ties consistently rewrite laws to relax accountability provisions. High test scores used to justify continued operation — even when achieved through student selection rather than educational excellence.

Marcus May, Newpoint Charter chain owner: Convicted 2018 of racketeering and fraud, pocketing millions. Ordered to pay $7 million. As of recent proceedings, had paid only $270,000.

The pattern is consistent enough to constitute a business model: Extract public dollars. Deliver private failures. Move on when scandals break.

THE DEATH SPIRAL: How Co-Location Becomes Hostile Takeover

When a charter co-locates, per-pupil funding follows students who transfer. But the district retains all fixed costs — maintenance, utilities, insurance, infrastructure.

A school losing 50 students might lose $250,000 in revenue while still heating the same building, maintaining the same roof, staffing the same front office.

For schools serving high-needs populations, the damage compounds catastrophically. Specialized programs rely on economies of scale. As enrollment declines, programs die.

Dr. Linda Hernandez, former Miami-Dade principal: "The charter moved in, took the nicest classrooms, got access to our cafeteria and gym. Within two years our enrollment dropped 30%. We lost teachers. We lost our art program. We lost after-school tutoring. And the charter's enrollment grew. That was the whole point."

THE VOICES FROM THE FRONT LINES

Jennifer Ortiz, mother of Sofia: "If they do this, they are not just taking space. They are taking my daughter's future. Sofia needs a nurse. She needs a physical therapist. She needs a classroom with a lift. If the school has to share those resources, what happens to her? Where does she go?"

Marcus Johnson, fourth-grade teacher, Emma E. Booker: "People talk about 'school choice,' but what choice do my students' families have? Most don't have cars. They can't transport kids across town. And even if they could, the charter schools don't want their kids — they don't want the kid who's homeless, the kid with a behavioral disorder, the kid who's two years behind in reading."

Elena Ramirez, speech therapist, Oak Park: "We make it work because we love these kids. But it is heartbreaking to know what we could do for them if we had the resources. And now we might have to share our already-inadequate resources with a charter operator who will skim money off the top."

Maria Torres, special education advocate: "Targeting schools that serve predominantly Black, brown, and disabled children isn't a bug in this system. It's the feature. It's the entire point."

THE PLAYBOOK: A National Template for Privatization

What's unfolding in Florida isn't unique. It's a refined playbook exported to vulnerable districts across America:

1. Starve public schools through legislative budget cuts
2. Label schools as failing using manipulated metrics
3. Rewrite laws through lobbying and campaign contributions
4. Build opaque corporate nests obscuring money flows
5. Install political protectors who previously worked for charter operators
6. Target vulnerable districts serving poor, minority, disabled students
7. Cream students by excluding expensive, challenging cases
8. Rinse and repeat — Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, now Florida

Dr. Ethan Cardenas, Florida State University: "Florida is the canary in the coal mine. What happens here is a preview of what could happen nationally if these policies spread. And they are spreading."

THE HOLLOW PROMISE OF "HOPE"

Florida ranks 50th in teacher pay and dead last in school funding adequacy. Yet DeSantis and Diaz Jr.'s "Schools of Hope" promises salvation through operators who've profited from exclusion and self-dealing for 27 years.

The veil can be torn. The tools exist:

• Follow the money: Demand line-item accounting for every management fee, every lease payment, every related-party transaction
• Expose the protectors: Name the politicians who take charter PAC money then vote to gut public school funding
• Amplify the vulnerable: Center the voices of parents, teachers, students whose futures hang in the balance
• Organize relentlessly: Pack meetings. Flood inboxes. Make opposition louder than compliance
• Demand legislative accountability: SB 2510 can be amended or repealed

BECAUSE FOR KIDS LIKE SOFIA ORTIZ...

...who wheeled out of Oak Park that September afternoon beaming with innocent joy, unaware that adults are fighting over her future — hope isn't a slogan. Hope isn't a brand. Hope isn't a legislative gimmick designed to transfer wealth.

Hope is a hallway wide enough for a wheelchair and dreams big enough to imagine a future where every child, regardless of disability, race, or zip code, gets the education they deserve.

That's a future worth fighting for.

And the first step is tearing down the veil.

READ THE FULL INVESTIGATION

"Schools of Hope, Pools of Profit: Inside the Predatory Charter Network Targeting Florida's Most Vulnerable Children"

Complete documentation of how this system works, who profits, and why Florida has become ground zero for the privatization of public education.

Investigation by Christy Chilton, Spotlight Sarasota

November 2025

CONTACT: For questions, additional documentation, or to report similar experiences in your community: Christy Chilton, Spotlight Sarasota