Tallahassee Community College (TCC) recently announced the formation of the Tallahassee Collegiate Academy (TCA), a tuition-free STEM charter high school that will open in August.
The Florida Department of Education approved TCC in January as the first college charter school authorizer under an initiative supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis aimed at boosting workforce programs called “Building Florida’s Future.”
“We are so grateful that Governor Ron DeSantis named us one of five colleges in the state of Florida to stand up a public charter high school that would allow students to earn both a high school diploma and an Associate in Science degree in a STEM field at the same time,” said Dr. Jim Murdaugh, president of TCC. “Our successful track record in career and technical education brought us this opportunity and we are thrilled to make this announcement.”
The TCA Board of Governors is chaired by the school’s founder, Karen Moore, founder and CEO of Moore, a marketing and communication agency. Additional board members include Kim Kelling, Director of Content and Community Partnerships at WFSU Public Media; Randy Pople, Chief Operating Officer at Pople Investment Management; David Clark, Founder and CEO of Allegiant Strategies Group; and Sean Pittman, Senior Partner and CEO of Pittman Law Group.
“Tallahassee Collegiate Academy is a game-changer, offering a first-of-its-kind educational experience for students,” said Moore. “There is no other place in the community that can offer the resources that we provide. TCA graduates will have a high school diploma as well as an Associate of Science degree in a STEM field, and zero debt. Our students will be ready to go directly into the workforce where they will be qualified for in-demand, high-paying jobs, or they can choose to continue their education.”
Current A.S. degree options include Cyber Security, Computer Programming and Web Development, Engineering Technology, Dental Hygiene, Nursing (R.N.), Building Automation Systems, and Video Game Design.
The school will be located on the campus of TCC and is accepting applications from rising ninth- and tenth-grade students in Leon, Gadsden, and Wakulla counties for the 2023-24 academic year.
“We all know that students learn best when they are supported with three things: high expectations, quality teaching, and real-world engagement,” said Jessica Chapman, Director of Charter Schools at TCC. “TCA offers a powerful curriculum that will benefit both students and their future employers. The project-based and place-based educational experiences that they have in store will move students to a level of expert thinking required for many STEM degrees. The high-expectations and high-support model that already exists here at TCC will be followed at this school. TCA will provide strong rigor and real care at the same time in a safe, welcoming environment that is appropriate for high school students. We should all be encouraged by the choice that TCA offers students and families, not only in Leon but in Gadsden and Wakulla counties as well.”
The TCA website is now live at www.tca.fl.edu and prospective students can apply at www.tca/fl/apply.
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TCC has gone down the drain and is now a diploma mill. I can’t imagine this charter school will be any better. TCC has gutted whole departments and the mantra from administration is “pass students” or lose your job. Wait til these kids graduate with their useless degrees.
@Cannonfodder. Who are you trying to convince? Me or You?
@Cannonfeeder – So what you’re saying is that the Union Army sent a bunch of black soldiers to Tallahassee to get shot? Wouldn’t that make their Union commanders the racists?
Would the outcome have been any different had the Union sent white soldiers? Or would the locals have defeated that squad, too, in which case history would not be one iota different.
Does that mean Tallahassee Collegiate Academy will be a “safe, welcoming environment” for an LGBTQ student to live their best student life? Or is that only so long as they are meek quiet little sheeple?
Y’all don’t try to whitewash the fervor of locals for the Battle of Natural Bridge. There is a persistent element of white against black for that battle.
Per the Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXIX, No. 2, Oct. 1950, “All Federal troops at Natural Bridge were black, of the Second and Ninety-ninth U. S. Colored Infantry (the last described by the Confederate newspaper as the 19th Louisiana), with white officers.”
And there are media sources too numerous to list stating, “This event commemorates the Civil War battle fought by a ragtag group of battle weary Confederates and young cadets from what is now Florida State University, which preserved Tallahassee as the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi River never to fall into Union hands.”
“Confederate troops and volunteers, mostly composed of teenagers from the nearby Florida Military and Collegiate Institute that would later become Florida State University, and the elderly, protected by breastworks, prevented Union forces (consisting of African-American soldiers of the United States Colored Troops) from crossing the Natural Bridge on the St. Marks River.”
Having lived in Willkillya County for many years, and attended the event many times, I can tell you over those campfires there is no end to the bragging rights of the reenactors so proud their white ancestors beat back black soldiers. And no-sir-ee, they weren’t using nice language like “Confederate defenders defeated Union soldiers!” To this day, there is great glee when, through the gunpowder cloud, people see those colored troops start falling “dead” on that reenactment field. And when they retreat, you’d think the local yokels had beat em themselves. Last but not least, a lot of you go on and and on about how taxpayer money is spent. Just saying not a dime of tax money, via FPS, should go to materials used by the Daughters of the Confederacy’s memorial service during which they salute the 1st National Flag of the Confederacy and sing “Dixie”. Also, the park should charge mandatory attendance fees instead of suggested donations to cover the cost of the portolets, vehicle use and work hours they put in.
@Cannonfodder Tallahassee Collegiate Academy will be a “safe, welcoming environment where children who are not indoctrinated to the woke agenda can actually LEARN safe and welcoming against being forced to learn how transgenderism is real and not a mental disorder.
Found the “I subscribe to woke history” liberal! @Cannonfodder
Cannonfeeder seems to not understand the history that is involved in the Battle of Natural Bridge.
Blacks didn’t attack whites, and whites didn’t attack blacks. The Union Army/militia attacked the locals and the locals defended themselves. Color is irrelevant.
Inserting race into this nothing more than a way to attack something you don’t personally like but don’t have a legitimate argument against.
Tell us more about how
Tallahassee Collegiate Academy will be a “safe, welcoming environment” as long as they arent LGBTQ, per Desantis’ idea of education.
How will TCA be a “game-changer” when, after about 2-3 years of dumping out graduates, the grads will no longer be in-demand – there will be an overabundance of them. The high-paying jobs will slowly drop to barely above min. wage because of the glut of graduates.
That is in fact what happened with the TCC Radiologic Technology program. Hardly any local jobs to be had.
Battle of Natural Bridge is only popular with local yokels because they can shout out how a small “ragtag” group of white kids and old men fought off a bunch of black union soldiers.
Past time to do away with the Florida Park Service subsidizing the Daughters of the Confedrracy to put on this event. But that wont happen under white nationalist Desantis government that is only by the nonwoke people, for the nonwoke people.
The name has been changed from “reinactment” to “living history”. This weekend is the Battle of Natural Bridge “living history”. The truth of what caused “The American Civil War” has been obsurered so badly. I’ll be there. Only on Saturday. Take the kids and attend.
Sean Pittman. You had to know it.