Florida tops in conservative Education Freedom metrics, group says
Tampa Bay Times | By: Jeffrey S. Solochek | September 22, 2026
The big story: The conservative political think tank behind Project 2025 has again named Florida its top state for education freedom.
The Heritage Foundation’s 2026 Education Freedom Report Card ranked the Sunshine State No. 1 for a fifth consecutive year, citing its strength in education choice, academic transparency, teacher freedom and civic education.
“In the backdrop of the Trump administration working to wind down the U.S. Department of Education, states like Florida and Iowa have met the moment by reclaiming more education responsibilities, which our nation’s Founders always intended, and providing families with more education choice,” Heritage president Kevin Roberts said in a press release.
“More states need to provide families with K-12 education savings account programs that allow them to choose learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children.”
Several of the items that Heritage Foundation magnified for Florida have been the subject of heated partisan debate, including key culture war topics that lately have diminished.
The group praised Florida for expanding vouchers and recognizing the autonomy of homeschooling families. It also cheered the state for rejecting the “prejudiced ideas that critical race theory teaches” and adopting law that bars any requirement that public school employees, contractors or students must refer to another person using titles or pronouns that do not correspond to that person’s sex.
It applauded Florida’s widespread use of alternative teacher certification and its refusal to use assessments tied to the Common Core. It suggested that the state has room to improve in this area, though, noting that several districts employ a chief diversity officer. Florida could improve even more, it stated, “by ending certification requirements altogether.”
And it commended Florida for its civics education requirements, the growth of classical education schools and the adoption of the Classic Learning Test for admission at state universities. A recent USA Today report showed the CLT skews toward being a remedial high school graduation test.
One key area where the organization didn’t place Florida in the top two is return on investment, noting that while the state ranks 48th in per student spending, its average NAEP scores for fourth and eighth grades aren’t strong — 26th, tied with Vermont and Rhode Island.
