House wants major expansion of scholarship program

TALLAHASSEE — Republican House leaders want to expand a program that gives low-income public school students scholarships to attend private schools, funding it at more than $1 billion in 2019 and using sales taxes to fund it for the first time.

A tax bill passed by a House panel Wednesday includes a provision to expand the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships by $154 million, on top of the $873.6 million required under existing law. The program is mostly funded with corporate income tax credits paid by companies. But the bill would allow credits for sales taxes to be used starting July 1, the start of the next budget year.

“What we’re doing is opening up the funding so more people can participate,” said Rep. Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, sponsor of the bill. “These are mostly … poor, minority students who are struggling academically. They’re look-

ing for a life boat for education and a better future.”

The bill would also allow groups that administer the scholarship programs to have access to a list of the top 200 companies paying corporate income tax in the state. That information is confidential under Florida law, and the bill would not make it public.

The scholarship provisions were included in the House’s tax cut bill, which has reductions in business rent taxes, fuel taxes and would set up a 10-day salestax holiday for back-to-school items.

Republicans rejected an amendment from Democrats, who pleaded to have the scholarship-program provisions taken out of the bill so they could vote for the tax cuts.

“We’re asking you in the most cordial way possible, please separate this out,” said Rep. Joe Abruzzo, D-Boynton Beach.

Democrats, teacher unions and school administrators have decried the scholarship programs and Republican efforts to expand them as an erosion of the traditional public school system.

Kevin Watson, director of public policy for the Florida Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the state, bashed the measure as a “logrolled” bill.

“They aren’t fooling anyone: This is an attempt to blow the doors off our public school system and replace it with a universal voucher scheme to fund unaccountable private schools,” Watson said. “Worse yet, this bill would force taxpayers, whether they like it or not, to fund unaccountable private school vouchers at the expense of our public school students.”

The Gardiner and tax-credit scholarship programs, along with McKay scholarships that serve disabled students, are used by 140,000 students at 2,000 schools throughout the state.

Lawmakers have filed measures in both chambers to tighten controls on private schools that take the state-backed vouchers in light of an Orlando Sentinel investigation that found they operate with little state oversight.

The Sentinel reported in its “Schools Without Rules” series in October that some of the private schools have hired teachers with criminal records and without college degrees, falsified fire and safety inspections and held classes in rundown facilities or in buildings from which they were being evicted for failing to pay rent.

The House’s proposed reforms are more limited than the Senate’s, which would require most new teachers at participating private schools to have bachelor’s degrees and would prohibit school owners with recent bankruptcies from taking part.

Other tax-cut provisions include:

A one-year cut in agriculture fencing and building materials to help farmers recover from Hurricane Irma

A sales-tax exemption for nursing homes and assisted living facilities buying generators

A sales-tax holiday for hurricane preparedness items

Overall, the House plan would cut $189 million in taxes for the next budget year, and $241 million in future years. The plan does not, however, include a reduction in drivers’ license fees from $48 to $20, which was requested by Gov. Rick Scott.

The tax-cut bill, along with the rest of the budget, must be negotiated with the Senate before the scheduled March 9 end of the legislative session.