Meanwhile, this nugget of sanity caught the attention of the folks at Step Up for Students, a Florida-based nonprofit that matches students seeking educational options with scholarships to fit their needs. (Full disclosure: I occasionally contribute to the organization’s media arm, reimaginED.)

Here’s the part of DeSantis’ inaugural speech that properly gave Step Up for Students a thrill:

“Florida is leading the nation. We are the nation’s fastest growing state. We rank No. 1 in education freedom, and we rank No. 1 in parental involvement in education. Florida also ranks No. 1 in public higher education.

“This is a record we can all be proud of. And we’re far from done.

“ … We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups. And we must ensure our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence in pursuit of truth.

“Florida must always be a great place to raise a family — we will enact more family friendly policies to make it easier to raise children.”

While DeSantis’ attention to routing wokeness in education is annoying all the right people — professors, pundits, teachers unions and their Democratic allies — organizations such as Step Up for Students committed to helping students find and follow the educational path that suits them race ahead to make certain the way is well-paved.

Far from what critics would have you believe — self-segregating enclaves of narrow-minded bigotry thriving on taxpayer dollars — school choice is a panoply of opportunity for every sort of student — every sort of youngster — everywhere.

Ranging from traditional parochial schools to charter schools (publicly funded; privately managed) to microschools to specialized academies and beyond, choice allows the thriving of the educational marketplace to meet students at their place of need — a need that went largely unnoticed until parents witnessed firsthand when, during the coronavirus lockdowns, the agenda-spiced swill that passed for education invaded their homes via computer screen.

When the history of COVID-19 is written, education reform will emerge, alongside renewed skepticism of scientific “authorities,” as unexpected blessings of an awful, awful pandemic.

Putting those young thinkers seeking fresher frontiers in excellent facilities is the goal of Building Hope, with offices in Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale, and Salt lake City. Building Hope is a soup-to-nuts developer of state-of-the-art buildings for charter school organizations. (I also write occasionally for them.)

As charter schools increasingly demonstrate their ability to deliver, demand for access inevitably increases. This is particularly true in Florida, where, year after year and across every demographic, charter school students consistently outperform their cohorts in traditional public schools. Across America, Building Hope helps charter schools bursting at the seams expand, sometimes by building completely new facilities, sometimes by buying and rehabbing existing buildings.

The larger news involves Arizona, where, despite deep-pockets opposition financing from the usual suspects, the legislature passed and then-Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a revolution in school choice: Arizona’s school-aged children are eligible for more than $6,500 annually to pursue educational opportunities outside the traditional public school system (which includes charters).

Called education savings accounts, or ESAs, participating families can use the money for a range of instructional options, including private school, microschools, tutoring, and homeschooling.

So, about that claim to being No. 1 in education freedom: While Florida’s efforts on that front once were cutting-edge, and remain much-admired, now it sounds like DeSantis and the GOP-dominated Legislature have some work to do.

Expect more howling from our friends on the establishment left.