Should Florida give parents $8,000 for students' education? Devil is in voucher details
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Could it be that after almost 30 years, the Florida Legislature will pass a law giving nearly all K-12 students about $8,000 each to spend on education?
Some public school advocates say it would be the death knell of traditional public schools. School choice advocates say a comprehensive voucher program would ensure students get the individualized education they need and that competition with private schools would spur improvement in traditional public schools.
It’s not that simple.
In 1994, I was skeptical when Republican Florida education commissioner candidates Frank Brogan and Bob Morris visited our office pitching “school choice.” I had a good public school education and didn’t see a need for vouchers.
Especially in Indian River County, which had created magnet schools for children whose parents wanted more than just a traditional public school education. Such schools had enhanced curriculums and required school uniforms and parent involvement.
Brogan, superintendent of Martin County schools, became education commissioner, then lieutenant governor under Jeb Bush. The duo pushed statewide accountability standards, tying funding to success and ensuring parents knew how their children, schools and districts fared on state tests.
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Frank Brogan: key elements of reform
In a Dec. 6, 1995, Press Journal article, Brogan cited three key reform initiatives:
Letting students attend public schools of their choice.
Creating charter schools, publicly funded and subject to accountability standards, but operating independently.
“Scholarships,” or vouchers, for low-income families. These eventually were given mostly to help children flee troubled schools. In some cases, the vouchers paid for less expensive private schools; in others, financial aid from private schools made up the difference.
For this year, the Legislature has allocated up to $1.1 billion in tax-credit scholarships for tens of thousands of students in families of four with incomes of up to $111,000.
The last time (2019) I checked, Glendale Christian School at 8th Street and 27th Avenue, had the most voucher-receiving students in Indian River County. It had voucher enrollment of 135 students (generating about $684,000), up from 92 students in 2014.
In September 2022, the school received county approval to build a campus kitty-corner from Citrus Elementary (Fourth Street at 27th Avenue) that would allow 400 students, up from 250.
While I’m not keen on the traffic-laden location, it’s good when private entities, including charters, build schools. That keeps the burden off the taxpayer.
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Public money means being accountable
So it should have been good when Nation Christian Academy opened in 2018 with the promise of top-notch sports programs in Port St. Lucie, right? The problem is by 2019 the school had folded amid allegations of wrongdoing. TCPalm reported it collected at least $581,293 in state vouchers to help students pay the $10,000 annual tuition.
In other words, private schools are not a panacea.
No matter what voucher program the Legislature approves this year, some things would be wise:
The state should maintain school oversight, including requiring private schools to have track records, pass site visits and post adequate bonds before receiving vouchers.
Increased accountability. While private schools receiving vouchers already are required to offer norm-referenced tests, those results and lots more information should be easily found online. Schools also should be accredited by high-quality organizations.
At what could be between $7,800 to $8,515 per voucher, the state must set a budget so the program is sustainable. Projected costs range from $210 million to $4 billion, depending on who you listen to. The state should incrementally increase the number of students eligible ― by income, disability or other need ― each year. A massive, rapid change could have dramatic and negative unintended consequences on children in a public school system so many depend on.
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How would home-schoolers qualify?
Critics, such as the Florida Policy Institute, said it analyzed participation in voucher programs such as in Arizona, where it says 75% of students in private schools used the vouchers. It estimated the cost at $4 billion.
What’s more, it said, Florida would spend $971 million to cover 75% of its existing 114,082 home school students. It begs the question of whether parents who home-school their children should be reimbursed and, if so, how much.
“Is the full amount of the scholarship really necessary?” Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, who has home-schooled her children the past eight years, asked in a recent committee hearing.
I don’t think so. After all, most home schools don’t have the brick-and-mortar or administrative expenses accredited schools do. A state bureaucracy overseeing publicly funded home-schooling ― which would seem the one place the state should really keep out of ― seems unreasonable.
My middle-income family sacrificed a lot for private school education; the government didn’t take care of it. While it would have been nice to have received a simple tax credit ― my school property taxes have never exceeded $1,000 – I didn’t expect it.
Does that mean I should request state funding for all those years I didn’t get it? No, nor do I think folks without children should NOT have to pay school taxes.
Educating our nation’s children is a responsibility we all share, hopefully to build a better future for everyone.
But we’d better make sure we can afford it. Most importantly, we better get what we pay for. That can be done in many private schools; probably, like public schools, not all.
But, like most things, the devil is in the details. So the Legislature must be prudent.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: School vouchers OK, but Florida must balance demand, cost with reality
