School vouchers closer to expanding

A bill that would expand Florida’s school voucher programs and offer privateschool scholarships to some middle-class students easily passed the Florida House’s education committee Thursday.

The committee proposal would create a Family Empowerment Scholarship Program that would help about 28,000 students attend private school with state money. The bill is a more expansive version of the Senate’s voucher plan, which its education committee approved last week.

Some version of the legislation is likely to pass the Florida Legislature this spring as the proposals have the support of both House and Senate leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In both efforts, lawmakers seek to provide scholarships for students on the waiting list for the Tax Credit Scholarship program, which helps low-income students attend private school. That program now serves about 100,000 youngsters statewide and has a waiting list of about 14,000 students.

The House, however, crafted a new scholarship that would help those on the waiting list — and also serve youngsters whose families now aren’t eligible because they earn too much. Private-school vouchers under the new House plan could be available in a few years to families of four earning nearly $97,000.

The proposal prompted lots of debate during a meeting that stretched past its two-hour allotment, with proponents arguing the benefits of giving parents more choices and critics warning about — and questioning the constitutionality of — sending taxpayer money to private schools governed by few state rules.

Rep. Susan Valdes, DTampa, was one of three Democrats who voted for the Republican-backed proposal, but said she still had concerns.

Valdes said she worried that opening the scholarships up to middle-income families could squeeze out “the most vulnerable children” because their parents could not pay the difference between the scholarship and a private school’s tuition, the way wealthier ones could. The private schools can charge more than the scholarship — likely valued at about $7,000 — covers and might do that more often, if they knew more parents could pay, she argued.

“We may not be able to fund the very neediest students we’ve talked about,” she said. “We have work to do on this bill.”

But others said bumping up the income limits made sense.

“I’m just a middle-income mom who wants options for their kids,” parent Julie Fessler told lawmakers. “What you have proposed here would mean the world to my family.”

The bill passed 15-2, with full support of the committee’s Republican majority. The two “no” votes came from Democrats, one of them Rep. Bruce Antone, DOrlando, who said it represented “mission creep” since the tax credit program was sold as a way to help low-income children escape their failing neighborhood schools.

But parents and other advocates said expanding Florida’s current voucher programs, which help lowincome students and those with disabilities attend private school, would give more parents the ability to pick a school that’s best for their child.

Critics, however, said the proposal would send public money to private schools that don’t have to meet state rules when it comes to teacher qualifications and student testing.

Antone, for example, said he knows private schools that take scholarships that have closed mid-year and left students stranded. He also said some offered questionable academics. “Are the kids learning anything?” he said. “When they go back to their public school, they’re a year or two behind.”