Religious schools get vouchers
Most Florida students using state vouchers to pay for private school spend their scholarships at religious schools, as their parents select campuses where lessons from the Bible, the Torah and the Quran are taught alongside traditional academics.
At two of Central Florida’s Islamic schools, girls must wear hijabs, a head covering worn by some Muslim women, as part of their school uniforms.
IBN Seena Academy — its mission to nurture children “in an Islamic environment” free of the “evils of modern society” — and Leaders Preparatory School combined received more than $1.6 million in taxpayer-funded scholarships this school year to educate more than 430 students.
At a large Jewish school in South Florida, where girls and boys are in separate classes starting in first grade, rabbis recently warned parents that neither coed summer camps nor organized sports were appropriate for the yeshiva’s students.
Yeshiva Toras Chaim Toras Emes educates more than 1,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, about 86% of them on state scholarships that provided the school more than $3.5 million so far this year.
At Azalea Park Baptist school in east Orlando, the Bible is “the sole authority” and the school’s foundation. The school, which received more than $679,000 so far this year for nearly 200 scholarship students, posts its “biblical stance on homosexuality, marriage and sexual identity” in its handbook — a policy that indicates LGBTQ students and staff are not welcome.
Supporters of school vouchers are thrilled the Florida Legislature this year is pushing to expand the programs that now serve children from low-income families or those with disabilities into a “universal” plan open to all students. That will likely mean more money and students for religious schools, which now educate about 76% of Florida’s voucher students, according to data from the Florida Department of Education.
That worries critics, among them some faith leaders, who are
convinced that public money paying for religious education is problematic.
“If you want to religiously educate your child, that’s good and wonderful. Do it the old-fashioned way — pay for it yourself,” said Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, who lives in Flagler County. He is a past president of the board of Americans United For Separation of Church and State, which opposes Florida’s voucher programs.
Under Florida’s voucher programs, Shapiro said, he and other taxpayers end up “funding religious education that is anathema to us.”
The state should focus on paying for quality public schools, not going further down the “proverbial slippery slope” of intertwining government and religion, he added.
Supporters, however, view a “vouchers for all” plan as the next logical step for a state already at the forefront of the school-choice movement. They see no problem with the scholarships funneling taxpayer money into religious schools as U.S. Supreme Court rulings, the most recent in 2020, have cleared away the biggest legal obstacles to such programs.
Florida’s legislation to expand school voucher programs (HB 1 and SB 202) is part of a nationwide push by Republican-led states to expand school-choice options for families. Arkansas, Iowa and Utah already passed legislation this year similar to that under consideration by Florida lawmakers and those in about 10 other states.
In Florida’s GOP-dominated Legislature, the House approved its version of the bill Friday, and the Senate measure also is moving quickly. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a supporter of Florida’s voucher programs, so he is expected to sign the legislation that would create education savings accounts available to any student in kindergarten through 12th grade not enrolled in public school.
Parents could use the money for private-school tuition or homeschooling services.
Currently, Florida provides scholarships to more than 255,000 students, most of whom use them to attend private schools, though some funds pay for therapy, homeschooling supplies and equipment for children with disabilities.
More than 2,000 private schools in Florida accept state scholarships, worth an average of $7,700 a year, according to Step Up For Students, the private agency that administers most of the state scholarships and provided scholarship numbers and payments for participating private schools.
Most of the religious schools are Christian, according to data from the education department.
‘Should be parents’ choice’
Jessica Mullins, an Orange County mother, uses a state scholarship to send her daughter to Orlando Christian Prep, a Baptist school in east Orlando, where about 88% of its more than 630 students use scholarships, bringing in more than $2 million so far this school year.
She thinks religious schools should be an option for families who do not want their children in public schools.
“It should be the parents’ choice,” she said.
A single mother of two, Mullins said paying for the school, which her daughter has attended since kindergarten, was “absolutely not” in her budget without a scholarship.
Mullins loves everything about the school, an athletic powerhouse in the area, including the academic offerings, extracurricular art and music classes, and the religious focus that means chapel, Bible study and prayer are part of her 9-year-old’s week.
“It’s definitely what you want for your kids,” she said.
Some religious leaders have pushed lawmakers to support the bills and urged parents to make their support known to the Legislature too.
Yeshiva Toras Chaim Toras Emes in Miami asked parents in a March 2 message to sign a petition in support of voucher expansion bills.
“State scholarships are a critical part of our Yeshiva’s budget,” read the message posted on its website, and making every student eligible for state funding “would make a major difference for our schools, parents, and the Jewish community longterm.”
School administrators did not respond to a request for comment.
Representatives from Baptist churches and schools, including Eastland Christian School in east Orange, traveled to Tallahassee to tell lawmakers they support expanding the current scholarship programs. A representative of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops told them his organization does too.
Florida’s more than 240 Catholic schools combined educated more than 37,431 scholarship students last year, according to the conference.
Parents choose Catholic schools for a variety of reasons, including the faith component, though not all of them are Catholic, said Henry Fortier, the secretary of education and superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Orlando.
The scholarships make the Diocese-run schools affordable for families who could nototherwisepaythetuition, he said. But there are many families who now pay tuition out of pocket, and in Fortier’s view they should qualify for scholarships too because they pay taxes that support public schools their children do not attend.
“The parents are the ones that are choosing where to put their tax dollars,” he said.
Denise Balbuena, who runs the small One Accord Christian Academy in north Orange County, agreed. Most of her school’s 50 students use state scholarships to attend the “loving” school where all lessons are Bible-based, Balbuena said.
Their parents want a Christian school and, in her view, should be able to choose that for their kids.
“Where does public money come from? It comes from the public,” she said. “And the public should have a choice.” the