Miami-Dade County’s plan to raze and redevelop Liberty Square could prove detrimental to hundreds of children and the Liberty City public schools fed by Miami’s oldest and largest public housing project, the Miami-Dade School District has warned.
Weighing in for the first time since Mayor Carlos Gimenez rolled out his Liberty Square Rising proposal one year ago, school district officials say they’re concerned about plans to move dozens of families from Liberty City to Brownsville in the project’s first phase. They’re also worried about the increasing likelihood that a large charter school will be built, potentially siphoning students away from under-enrolled schools.
“If a charter school is built, this will have an enormous negative impact on public schools in Liberty City,” said Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, the school board member who represents Liberty City. “I believe it would decimate a majority of the schools.”
