Miami-Dade County Public Schools is asking independent microschools to bid for empty classroom space inside district buildings. Proposals are due Dec. 1, and the district plans to finalize agreements by March or April 2027.
The offer is aimed at buildings the district says are using 66% of capacity, with a goal of 80%. The 74 reported that one of the nation's largest school districts has no plans to publish a list of available schools. It wants microschool leaders to name the facilities or neighborhoods they prefer. Enterprise development officer Verena Cabrera has described the effort as a way to advance partnerships, offer private providers a supportive setting, and steward taxpayer-owned property. The leases are also being treated as a revenue stream while public enrollment falls.
A Bid Without a Building List
The paperwork is a 64-page invitation to negotiate. Vendors have to describe the type, size, configuration and amount of space they need, and they may negotiate access to shared campus amenities, Education Week Market Brief reported. A gym or a cafeteria is a negotiation, not part of the room.
Moms for Libros says the score sheet puts money at 40 points. The operator's approach and its experience are 30 points each. Applicants are expected to have operated for five years. The district may count a leader's other education experience, including teaching or administration, toward that requirement.
District leaders say they plan to be as flexible as possible with providers. Cabrera has said the district will not dictate a private microschool's curriculum or programs. On a pre-bid call attended by about 35 people, she said tenants would have to provide student lists for safety reasons and take part in emergency procedures. If a hurricane damages the school, she has said, the microschool may need to relocate.
The way out is shorter than the way in. The initiative document, The 74 reported, gives the district the right to terminate an agreement with 30 days' notice. Don Soifer, CEO of the National Microschooling Center, said that clause concerns leaders who already have commitments to families. He started discussing the leasing idea with former Superintendent Jose L. Dotres about a year ago.
Fewer Students, Same Buildings
The decline has been counted more than once, on different days, and the figures do not describe the same snapshot.
In June, district projections reported by the Miami Herald said traditional public-school enrollment would likely fall by 8,000, to 217,100, in 2026-27. Voucher use, in that same forecast, would rise by about 10,000, to 82,500. The district already allows students on Florida vouchers to take à la carte public-school courses in core academics and electives. A microschool lease would go past a borrowed period and put a private program on the campus.
Opening day produced a separate count. WLRN reported 18,910 fewer students at the start of 2026-27 than at the end of 2025-26. Officials said that figure was a point-in-time snapshot, not a final enrollment determination, and that a fuller count would follow October's state surveys. The official October enrollment, as of Oct. 9, was 15,848 students below the previous year, the Herald reported.
Stanford economist Thomas Dee has been describing what districts do when the trend is national, not just local. His study found that in one in four schools, enrollment through 2024-25 was at least 15% below the pre-pandemic level. Districts under budgetary pressure, he has said, may look for new revenue. More often than they close schools and lay off staff, they hollow out programs, defer maintenance and cut extracurriculars. Closing and layoffs, he has argued, are not necessarily the best response for children. Miami-Dade has announced school closures. It is also offering unused classrooms for lease.
Safety Lists, Not the Same Tests
Private microschools would not be expected to follow the same academic standards or testing requirements as the district schools around them. The categories Moms for Libros found on the score sheet do not fill that in. Money, approach and experience are what get points. Matching the district's tests is not one of them.
The safety terms are narrower. Cabrera has said operators would have to provide student lists and join emergency procedures. Moms for Libros has warned that outside operators could still enter public buildings without clear safety coordination or accountability for instruction, and that a campus could end up with two tiers of students. The group wants community meetings at schools where a microschool may lease space, joint emergency safety plans, and state assessments for microschool students.
Executive director Lissette Fernandez has said leasing empty space could return some departed voucher money to public schools, but must not compromise children's safety. On the group's Substack, Moms for Libros wrote: "I'm against signing leases before parents know who's moving in, what they'll teach and who keeps our kids safe."
The union was not in the planning. Antonio White, president of United Teachers of Dade, said he was just beginning to receive information about the initiative. Shared facilities can cause a more ordinary conflict: disputes over drop-off and pick-up times, and over use of playgrounds, gyms and cafeterias.
A Whole School, Then a Shorter Clock
Miami-Dade is already leasing the former Biscayne Gardens Elementary School to a Jewish elementary school affiliated with the Talmudic College of Florida. That deal is the nearest local precedent, and it is not the same contract.
A memorandum dated April 29, 2026, recommended authorizing an agreement with Yeshiva Elementary to use the former campus. The district described the proposed arrangement as the first of its kind, and as a framework that could be used for similar agreements. Under the draft, either party may terminate for convenience with 90 days' written notice, but the exit takes effect only at the end of the current academic year. After written notice of default, the breaching party has 60 days to cure a material breach.
Those exit rules are in the Yeshiva draft. The microschool solicitation is a different document. What The 74 reported from the initiative document is a 30-day termination right held by the district. A family promised a school year is in a different position under that clause than under a lease that cannot end until the academic year does.
Broward Closes, Orange Competes
Broward County Public Schools is closing campuses while it counts empty seats. It enrolled 224,324 students on Sept. 14, 12,343 fewer than the previous year, and reports more than 60,000 empty seats. The board voted in January to close and consolidate six schools. Superintendent Howard Hepburn has recommended closing 10 more, with board decisions expected in December, USA Today reported.
Eva Goldstein-Meola, who runs a microschool and resource center in Broward, expects local leaders to monitor Miami-Dade's approach. She has said Palm Beach could be the third district to pursue something similar, and that South Florida has undergone a major change, especially over the past two years.
Orange County has launched district-run microschools to compete with private providers, The 74 reported. It also closed seven elementary campuses earlier in 2026 because of low enrollment. WFTV reported that district presentations have said vacant buildings could be reused, leased or sold if students are reassigned. Board members have also discussed changing grade configurations and school models to keep more schools open, WESH reported.
In the Coral Gables area, Ty Gabriel is already running the kind of program the bid is written to house. He runs Archangel Innovations from a storefront and offers STEM classes that include coding, 3D printing and soldering. District space, he said, could reduce overhead or give him a chance to expand. He also said the district is testing whether underused buildings have a market.
Bids are due Dec. 1. If the district holds to its schedule, agreements would be finished in March or April, with money the largest category on the score sheet and the buildings identified by the bidders rather than by a published list.
