Bristol, Florida, is a town of 996 people on the edge of a national forest in a piney slice of the Sunshine State that has as many bears as people. Despite the myths, school choice is alive and well here.

Five years ago, a family of educators with 200 years of collective experience working in local public schools started a private school in Bristol. They didn’t have any animus toward public schools. In fact, three members of the family had been district superintendents. They just knew that some students and families in this tight-knit community, the most rural county in the state, needed something different.