More school voucher oversight proposed

Probe prompts education panel hearing

TALLAHASSEE — School voucher advocates on Wednesday recommended increased oversight of private schools that take state-backed scholarships, including more campus visits by state inspectors, new rules aimed at preventing schools from falsifying fire inspections and requiring more schools to turn in financial reports.

The suggestions came during a House education subcommittee hearing prompted by an Orlando Sentinel investigation in October that examined how the state is sending nearly $1 billion this year to 2,000 private schools that operate with little oversight.

“What’s the right balance between consumer choice and regulation?” asked Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up for Students, the nonprofit paid by the state to administer many of the scholarships that go to children from low-in-

come families or those with special needs.

All the suggestions for more oversight were issues raised in the Sentinel’s “Schools Without Rules” stories.

Tuthill said the current limit in state law that prohibits Florida Department of Education inspectors from more than 10 random visits to schools each year should be eliminated and that every new school should be visited by a state official. About 200 new schools are approved each year, according to a report by a department official during the hearing.

Last year, as the Sentinel reported, state inspectors visited 22 schools, which amounted to just 1 percent of all schools in the program.

Tuthill also said the required annual fire and health inspections should be submitted directly to the state by fire and health officials, rather than by school administrators.

The Sentinel stories showed that at least 19 schools had forged their fire or health inspection documents, in some cases multiple times, during the past five years — sometimes signing the names of inspectors who no longer worked for the agencies or altering the dates on forms.

In addition, Tuthill said he wanted to strengthen the financial reporting requirements for schools. Right now, only schools that receive at least $250,000 from the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship or from the Gardiner Scholarship are required to submit an annual audit. Under his recommendation, that rule would also include the McKay Scholarship, the second-largest program in the state, so that schools receiving $250,000 or more from any combination of the three programs would be required to turn in a report.

The Sentinel investigation found schools that received large sums of scholarship dollars but were being sued by teachers or contractors for lack of payment or were evicted during the school year because they didn’t pay rent.

The voucher supporters’ recommendations may be drafted as part of a bill to be considered when the Legislature convenes in January.

The Sentinel’s investigation also revealed that some private schools hire teachers without college degrees — and even with criminal records — and that some schools hold classes in tiny storefronts without computers or other technology.

The voucher supporters at the hearing Wednesday did not suggest changes on those issues.

All of the people invited to speak at the meeting are either in the voucher business or strong advocates for the programs that pay private tuition at religious or other private schools for 140,000 children, making Florida’s the largest program in the country.

James Herzog of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said more than 24,000 scholarship students attend Catholic schools across the state and talked about the importance of school accreditation and certified teachers but stopped short of saying all private schools should be accredited or hire certified teachers. Florida does not require either for schools to receive scholarship money.

As other speakers did, Robyn Rennick, of the Coalition of McKay Scholarship Schools, warned about the risk of over-regulation, saying it would stifle too many schools but proposed that schools be required to provide parents with more information, including a contract detailing what they intend to provide to special needs students.

“We need to be able to let McKay schools do what they do best, and one of the things is to be different,” she said.

Matthew Chingos, a researcher from the Urban Institute, presented his study that showed participation in the tax credit scholarship appears to lead to a higher rate of enrollment in community college, but not necessarily college degrees, compared with similar students who did not use a scholarship.That report also said schools that have 50 percent or more of their students getting scholarships do not see as big of a benefit.

He did not bring up his more recent paper that 60 percent of the private schools rely on the scholarships for at least half their students, up from 30 percent in 2010. That’s significant because schools that rely on the state for most of their revenue also “might not be the highest quality,” his report said.

That indicates the program has “shifted toward schools with weaker track records of improving student outcomes,” according to a corrected version of the paper published on the Brookings Economic Studies site Tuesday.

Two people from the audience, both in favor of the scholarship programs, were allowed to speak before Rep. Chris Latvala, chairman of the PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee, said the meeting was over.

Catherine Baer, of the Tea Party Network and part of a coalition of education advocacy organizations called Common Ground, said she had hoped to speak.

“I don’t want my tax dollars being used to teach religion,” she said after the meeting. “That’s not our government’s job.”

Nearly 80 percent of students on the scholarships attend religious schools, with some teaching creationism instead of evolution.

After the meeting, some committee members expressed support for stronger oversight.

“Whoever is getting public dollars, they should abide by the same rules as our public entities are abiding by,” said Rep. Robert Asencio, D-Miami.

The Sentinel stories showed that at least 19 schools had forged their fire or health inspection documents during the past five years.