As the field for the 2026 race for governor begins to take shape, a prominent education watchdog organization is issuing a challenge to anyone seeking the state’s highest office: fix the way Florida grades its schools.
The Florida Citizens Alliance (FCA) announced Tuesday that it is urging all gubernatorial candidates to commit to scrapping the state’s current “curved” school grading model. The group argues the current system artificially inflates school performance ratings, masking deep academic failures that would be obvious under traditional grading standards.
According to a new analysis released by the FCA using data from the Florida Department of Education, the picture of public education in the Sunshine State is far bleaker than official school grades suggest. The group applied a standard grading scale—the same 100-point scale used to grade students in the classroom—to the schools themselves.
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The results of that projection were stark.
Under a standard scale where anything below 60 percent is a failure, 44.5 percent of Florida’s public schools would have received an “F.” Conversely, only 21.5 percent of schools earned enough points to secure a “C” or higher.
“The reality about Florida’s public schools is that they’re abysmal,” said Pastor Rick Stevens, Co-Founder and Director of the Florida Citizens Alliance. “Parents and voters deserve to know the truth about how Florida’s schools are performing and we need actual commitments to resolve the dilemma.”
The crux of the Alliance’s argument is consistency. They contend that if a student is failed for scoring below 60 percent, the institution educating them should be held to that same metric. Stevens argues that the current curved model essentially hides the severity of the problem from parents and taxpayers.
“We are only asking that schools be graded on the same scale they use for our children,” Stevens noted. “Anything less hides the severity of the problem.”
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The push for reform comes after legislative attempts to adjust the standards stalled. Last year, House Bill 1483, which aimed to raise grading expectations over a seven-year timeline, failed to pass. The proposal was absorbed into another bill but ultimately died in the Senate. The FCA views this legislative deadlock as a signal that stronger executive leadership is required to push through comprehensive reform.
With the 2026 election on the horizon, the group is calling for transparency to be a non-negotiable platform for candidates. They are asking contenders to publicly outline specific strategies to end curved grading and restore what they term “real graduation standards.”
“We cannot continue pretending everything is fine while students fall further behind,” Stevens said. “When more than half of schools fail under traditional grading, and only a small fraction would pass with a C or higher, something is fundamentally broken.”
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