School Choice Fight Continues in Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Governor Rick Scott is receiving pressure from numerous groups to veto an expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships program. The program, created by state lawmakers in 2001, was designed to expand private education opportunities for children of low-income families. However, opponents argue the program will shift public education money to private schools, which in some cases are not held to the same standards or level of accountability.

Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, D-Maitland, a former educator, and Rep. Joe Saunders, D-Orlando voiced their opposition to the plan at a press conference in Orlando on June 16. In her address, Castor Dentel urged Gov. Scott to veto the expansion immediately.

“This last-minute legislation further undermines our public school system by allowing children to attend schools with no way of knowing what or if they are being taught,” Castor Dentel said. “In a year when we have record revenue, the Legislature chose to give our public school dollars away to private schools before fully funding the public ones where over a million children attend. It is up to Governor Scott to right this wrong and stand up for the children of our state and veto this bill.”

“We have a constitutional obligation to fully fund our public school system,” added Saunders. “This legislation bleeds critical resources out of our public schools and redirects those tax dollars into private organizations with a track record that’s sketchy as best. As a lawmaker, my job is to help the public understand the best use of our scarce resources and this isn’t it.”

Meanwhile, a number of other groups including parents and private school advocates have lent their support to the bill. Rep. Daphne Campbell, a Democrat from the state’s 108th district in north Miami-Dade, wrote in the Miami Herald that the expansion gives children “legitimate learning options,” noting it is an alternative for those students who tend to struggle the most in education.

“The news about the program is uniformly good,” Campbell wrote. “Their standardized scores show us they are achieving the same gains academically as students of all incomes nationally; the public schools most affected by the loss of students to the scholarship are themselves showing impressive academic gains; and the scholarship is small enough, $4,880 this year, that it saves tax money that can be spent on traditional public schools.”

Florida lawmakers approved the expansion with a 70-44 vote on May 2. With Gov. Scott’s support, the bill would increase scholarship amounts beginning FY 2016-2017 and widen the scholarship recipient income bracket, allowing students from families with household incomes of up to $62,000 to qualify for partial assistance. It would also require schools to submit testing data to Florida State University’s Learning Systems Institute for comparison and analysis.

Scott, who has praised the program for providing options to Florida families and dramatic savings for taxpayers, received the largely GOP-supported expansion proposal earlier this month. He must approve or veto the measure by June 28.

More information about the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships Program may be found at http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/information/ctc/.

Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program for 2013-2014
• Students participating: 59,674
• Schools participating: 1,414
• Average scholarship value: $4,663
DATA SOURCE: Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice