Scholarship schools need a closer look.
It’s been almost three months since an Orlando Sentinel investigation exposed failings in Florida’s oversight of programs that provide state scholarships to students to attend private schools. With Tuesday’s start of the 2018 legislative session, a two-month window for remedial action has opened.
It’s time for leaders in Tallahassee who profess to be committed to accountability in government programs, “world class education” and fiscal responsibility to put up or shut up.
The three scholarship programs at issue allocate or redirect nearly $1 billion in public funds to almost 2,000 private schools in Florida to educate 140,000 students from low-income families, or with disabilities. But Florida applies precious little scrutiny to those schools to ensure that students and their families are getting the high-quality education they expect and deserve, and that taxpayers’ dollars aren’t being wasted.
The Sentinel investigation, “Schools Without Rules,” spotchecked scholarship schools in Central Florida and uncovered an array of shortcomings and outright abuses. Some schools hired principals and teachers without college degrees. Some schools were run by people who had recently filed for bankruptcy. Some hired staff with criminal records. Some falsified health and safety records. How could this go on? Blame a policy of willful blindness. State law doesn’t require scholarship schools to hire teachers with college degrees, or rule out recently bankrupt operators. And while the law does prohibit the schools from hiring staff with criminal records, and falsifying health and safety records, the state Department of Education is legally limited to visiting just 10 randomly chosen schools a year, plus any others where problems are reported. Last year, state regulators visited only 22 — a little more than 1 percent.
State Sen. David Simmons, a member of his chamber’s Education Committee and a former chairman of its subcommittee on education spending, has introduced a bill for this year’s session that would fix some of the problems highlighted in the Sentinel series. It would require private schools that take state scholarships to hire teachers with college degrees. It would rule out schools whose owners have recently declared bankruptcy. It would require state regulators to conduct random visits of at least 5 percent of schools, and inspect any others reporting problems.
Simmons, an Altamonte Springs Republican, is a strong supporter of school-choice programs. But as he told the Sentinel, “it’s better to weed out those that are unqualified as schools or don’t meet the standards that we want.” Doing nothing to crack down on schools that exploit the current regulatory vacuum only discredits the state scholarship programs.
Other states with Republican-led legislatures or GOP governors, or both, don’t hesitate to make sure that students, their families and taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from schools that receive state scholarships. Wisconsin, for example, requires those schools to hire administrators and teachers with college degrees and undergo annual audits.
While Simmons’ modest measure doesn’t address every problem enabled by official neglect of scholarship schools, it’s a good start. But so far, no House member has filed a companion bill, normally a necessary step toward its provisions becoming law.
In his opening remarks Tuesday to the House, Speaker Richard Corcoran vowed, “Finally, we will continue the fight to ensure that every child in this state — regardless of gender, race, religion or income — has access to a world-class education.” If he’s serious about this goal, the House will join Simmons’ effort to remove the state’s blinders on scholarship schools.