Voters will make calls on amendments

Scholarship would help bullied kids go to private school

Florida lawmakers moved last week to expand the state’s school voucher programs — pushing to create a new one for bullied students — even as they also worked to impose more rules on participating private schools.

The state’s three current voucher, or scholarship, programs pay private school tuition for 140,000 students statewide, serving youngsters from low-income families and those with disabilities. These school-choice programs, the first begun more than 15 years ago, remain controversial parts of Florida’s education landscape — and that was evident during debates on both the scholarship and reform bills.

The proposed Hope Scholarship would give tuition vouchers to students bullied in public schools whose parents want to move them to private ones. The House proposed the program in October, with House Speaker Richard Corcoran saying it would give students who’d been victims of abuse or violence “hope, dignity and a real opportunity to succeed.”

Both House and Senate committees have voted in favor of bills (HB 1 and SB 1172) that would create this new scholarship. The Senate education committee amended its bill Monday, however, to require the bullying accusation be “substantiated” before a child could take the scholarship, a provision not in the House proposal.

The House, in another multi-pronged education bill (HB 7055), has also proposed a fifth scholarship that would give parents of struggling readers in public schools “small-time scholarships,” perhaps up to $500, to pay for private tutoring or other services. That measure isn’t in a Senate bill, so the two chambers will have to work out their differences as the 2018 legislative session continues.

Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, chairman of the House education committee, said the newest scholarships, like the existing ones, would give parents more say over educational decisions. “The parent is the most influential person in the