After four years of failed attempts, lawmakers in the State of Florida sanctioned charter schools in 1996. This paper traces the political origins of the charter school movement in Florida and the USA as a whole. Examining legislation and reforms at the federal level, as well as state legislative proceedings, this paper identifies key political precedents. Nationally, the privatisation initiatives of the federal government created a climate conducive to charter school programmes. In Florida, a dual educational emphasis on local operational autonomy and accountability to the state appeared in the early 1990s, which paved the way for charter school legislation. By 1996, new federal charter school programmes solidified bipartisan support in Florida for this particular brand of school choice. (Contains 39 notes.)