GOP senator: Raise voucher schools’ bar
Sen. David Simmons, a veteran Republican lawmaker, is pushing for higher standards for the thousands of private schools that take nearly $1 billion in state scholarships, aiming to reduce potential waste and improve the quality of education at some schools. Among the most significant changes proposed by Simmons in a bill he filed Friday is a requirement for all teachers at private schools that receive public money to have at least a bachelor’s degree.
Current state law allows schools to employ teachers without degrees as long as they have “special skills,
knowledge or expertise,” a requirement left up to the schools for interpretation.
In its “Schools Without Rules” investigation last year, the Orlando Sentinel found, for example, one Orlando school had a 24-year-old principal and teachers without college degrees. Other examples included a school in Kissimmee that had a 20-year-old owner without a degree and another Kissimmee school that said in paperwork sent to the Florida Department of Education that some of its teachers had not even completed high school.
The newspaper’s series highlighted how 140,000 children from low-income families or those with special needs are using the public scholarships to attend 2,000 private schools that receive little state oversight. Many of the children who participate are black or Latino. Some are from the state’s highestpoverty neighborhoods and are looking for alternatives to neighborhood public schools that have been labeled as struggling or failing. But, as the Sentinel’s series reported, many parents were unaware that the state’s standards for the private schools are so low.
Simmons said the Sentinel’s stories showed the need for changes in the laws that govern the Florida Tax Credit, Gardiner and McKay scholarships.
His bill (SB 1756) would also improve financial accountability for some schools, prohibit school owners with recent bankruptcies from receiving scholarship money, increase the number of private schools inspected by the state and make it harder for schools to submit falsified fire or health inspections.
He said he tried to strike a balance between too much regulation and not enough.
“The question is how much oversight,” said Simmons of Altamonte Springs. “I certainly have put in this bill a list of things that I think most people would consider to be justifiable for anyone who wants to take funds, whether directly or indirectly, from the state of Florida.”
His legislation would require the education department to visit more of the private schools — at least 5 percent and up to 7 percent during random site visits, or about 140 of the nearly 2,000 participating schools. Under current law, the department can visit only 10 schools a year, with a computer program randomly selecting them, plus those in trouble. Last year, it visited 22.
The Sentinel found cases of private schools that hired teachers with criminal records, set up shop in run-down buildings without computers or other materials and some that forged the fire and health inspection documents they are required to submit to the state. Several schools the newspaper investigated also were run by people with recent bankruptcy filings, which the state does not take into consideration when school owners apply to receive money from one of Florida’s three scholarship programs.
An official at Step Up for Students, the contractor who will earn about $18 million this year to administer many of the scholarships for the state, said the group is reviewing Simmons’ proposal. Spokesman Jon East would not say if the nonprofit supported requiring teachers to have college degrees.
Step Up has proved to be an influential voice in shaping Florida’s school choice policy. Nearly every significant change to the law in recent years was either initiated or endorsed by Step Up founder John Kirtley, a leading national voice for school choice and the man who helped start the tax credit program with thenGov. Jeb Bush.
The requirement for college degrees was not among the changes Step Up recommended last month to a House education subcommittee, which held a hearing about the program in response to the Sentinel’s stories.
“We share Sen. Simmons’ desire for the best outcomes for low-income children in all environments,” East said in an email.
Senate President Joe Negron said through a spokeswoman that he is reviewing the bill.
House Speaker Richard Corcoran did not respond to requests for comment. Simmons’ bill does not have a House companion so far for the session that begins today.
Corcoran is proposing to expand the scholarship program to allow students who are bullied to use money diverted from a state tax on vehicle purchases to leave their public schools for private ones.
Currently, there are three scholarship programs. The Florida Tax Credit program is funded by businesses who give what they would owe in certain state corporate taxes to Step Up or another scholarship administrator called AAA Scholarship Foundation. The McKay and Gardiner programs are paid through the state budget.
Simmons, a longtime supporter of school choice programs, said he continues to believe in the value of the scholarships but wants to see an end to substandard schools taking part.
“It’s a great program, and it’s better to weed out those that are unqualified as schools or don’t meet the standards that we want,” he said.