Man, this guy really has it out for public education! Now he wants to hand out $8,000 vouchers to every K-12 student in the state, regardless of income. Personally, I would have a large problem underwriting wealthy families tuition to private schools. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently signed legislation that might radically undermine the state’s education system by making Florida’s already robust school voucher program the largest and most expensive in the country. Beginning in July, the state will make it possible for every Florida K-12 student to receive a taxpayer-funded voucher or savings account worth $8,648. And for the first time in Florida, the vouchers will be available to children from wealthy families, even those who are home-schooled or who already attend private or religious schools. The money can go to tuition and educational expenses. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/05/desantis-florida-school-voucher-program-costs/
When republicans first started pushing vouchers for low incomes, I figured this would be their end game
I never would have guessed it. Aren't the Pubs big on means-testing for social programs? The Florida treasury must be flush with cash, and nothing better to spend it on.
As of 2022, Florida had 2,838,866 students that would qualify. You do the math. No, really, I'm terrible at math.
Damn. Some families are going to get $30-40k from the state or more. FL about to turn into a state of homeschoolin’ welfare queens? There better be some serious checks and balances as to where that money goes. Not even sure how that math is supposed to add up. One of those things that will probably turn into a disaster after Desantis is long gone and not accountable for it. It will be someone else’s mess to clean up in 5-10 years.
Should be income based and like Bling said full of checks and balances. I am pro voucher, but not a free for all model for rich folks.
If this really happens, it will only take a few years to destroy schooling in FL. Here's your experiment pubs. Get ready to own it.
They can’t really get rid of a well-funded public education system in Florida without changing the Florida constitution that says they have to have it.
Interesting that in TX, rural Republicans voted down Abbott's voucher bill. Guess why? Texas: NO VOUCHERS IN TEXAS! ABBOTT VOWS TO CALL SPECIAL SESSION!
In truly rural areas you don’t have enough students to support a bunch of different schools. You can maybe have enough for 1 religious school and 1 public school (and of course plenty of efforts want to make the public school act as both).
Income-based vouchers are a bit of a self-contradiction. Tuition is a gatekeeping device as much as a means to fund school operations. What you'll see with this voucher is private schools somewhat rapidly raising tuition to approach or match the value of the voucher, so that the out-the-door cost is still out of reach for low-income families. And it will be a tactic pushed by the parents in addition to the schools themselves.
Education policy professor who used to be in favor of vouchers: OPINION: After two decades of studying voucher programs, I’m now firmly opposed to them Vouchers fail to deliver for the kids who are often most in need. All of these results have a straightforward explanation: vouchers do not work on the large scale pushed for by advocates today. While small, early pilot voucher programs showed at least modest positive results, expansions statewide have been awful for students. That’s because there aren’t enough decent private schools to serve at-risk kids. Advocates are re-packaging vouchers as a solution to pandemic-related learning loss, while all but insisting that low-income parents ignore the learning loss caused by vouchers themselves. The stakes are too high, and we already know too much to believe them.
I know. I mean when DeSantis took over as Gov FL was 7th overall in education and now they are 1st. What an idiot, right?
All 3 branches of the Florida government couldn’t care less about what’s in the Florida Constitution. How’s it going with former felons getting their voting rights restored in Florida? Nada. What’s going to happen to women’s rights to make their own health care decisions in Florida as intended to be protected by Florida’s constitutional right to privacy. My guess is that we can kiss that one goodbye. So, if the $8,600 that a multi-millionaire gets for sending his kid to private school comes out of the public school budget, we can kiss that constitutional right goodbye too.
More than 400,000 are now in private schools. That's $3.2 billion. And no telling how much that number grows
interesting article. “The conservative rationale for doing away with income caps and sweeping in private and religious school students seems rooted in a twisted sense of “justice for all.” In their view, those parents are paying what amounts to a wasted tax for public schools their children don’t use — and returning that money to them to pay for their schools of choice is only fair.” State House Speaker Paul Renner (R), who championed the Florida bill, said as much recently: “We don’t want your child to go to a school where their values are mocked.” A serious concern: The evidence in favor of voucher programs is not as strong as boosters claim. Similarly, the evidence against them is not as damning as critics assert.…….the scale of Florida’s program catapults the state into unexplored territory.”
About 2,300 private schools in Florida accept vouchers; 69 percent of them are unaccredited, 58 percent are religious and 30 percent are for-profit, according to the Hechinger Report.