School choice and a history of segregation collide as one Florida county shutters its rural schools

By Kate Payne

Less than two months into her two-year Report for America assignment, Tallahassee-based reporter Kate Payne delivered a compelling all-formats package on how school districts in the United States are grappling with the racial and economic realities exposed by an explosive expansion in school choice.   

As a new wave of school choice has swept the U.S., especially in conservative states, the role the policy has had in furthering segregation has gone largely untold. The South has a long history with this phenomenon. Following Brown v. Board of Education, white families who didn’t want their children in school with Black students left in droves for new private schools that sprang up across the South, schools that researchers now call “segregation academies.” Insiders have pointed to this history and predicted that white families would use school vouchers to place their children in mostly white private schools. 

But reporting capturing the phenomenon outright — much less quoting parents — has been lacking. 

Payne delved into this by focusing on a tiny, rural district in the Florida panhandle where some parents had long resisted meaningful integration and must now reckon with that history. With enrollment dwindling, the district next fall will consolidate its last standalone elementary schools — closing two where students are mostly white and one where students are majority Black and sending them all to a school that is currently predominately Black.

Payne visited the elementary schools on their last first day of school and found parents and students who were upfront about their plans to leave the district entirely, rather than attend the consolidated school. One parent said their decision wasn’t about race, but rather the school’s reputation of having more fights. A mother of multiracial children said she is considering homeschooling because the school has a reputation of having a segregated student body unwelcoming to mixed-race kids.

The package was used by a wide variety of AP customers and was highlighted as one of the best stories of the week by “The Grade,” a widely read education blog. It also garnered nearly 60,000 page views on AP News and hit almost 70 percent of Google search referrals. 

Best of the Week judges were impressed that Payne was able to carve out time for a story that addressed a national issue through a local lens while being responsible for a busy Statehouse beat, and handling every element of the package, all while less than eight weeks into her new role. For producing an all-formats story on her own that tackled a long-standing issue with historical context and fresh perspective, and included a variety of voices, Payne earns this week’s Best of the AP — First Winner.

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