South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Bullied students can get vouchers to move schools
School principals may be neglecting to tell children about a way they can escape bullies: by switching schools.
The state offers vouchers so families of bullied children can move to other schools, but in the program’s second year few South Florida students are choosing that option.
These Hope scholarships offer a different twist from Florida’s other vouchers. Students can get money to attend a private school but can also switch to a different public school if it has room. Few South Florida students have made that move, either.
In Broward County, 11 bullied students selected another public school last year. In Palm Beach County, only four have made the move. Miami-Dade’s numbers were not available on Friday.
The private school option is proving similarly unpopular. Only 15 Broward students, 10 in Palm Beach County and five in Miami-Dade switched to secular and religious schools through the Hope program.
Bobby Olszewski, a former state representative from Winter Garden and a co-sponsor of the 2018 legislation that created the scholarships, said Friday that the program was designed to give traumatized students a feeling of safety in Florida’s schools.
“I never thought there would be tens of thousands who would want this scholarship,” Olszewski said. “But I thought it would be impactful for a few.”
Across the state, 177 bullied students switched to another public school last year — far fewer than the number of students bullied.
School districts reported about 3,000 bullying incidents the previous year and more than 40,000 other incidents that would qualify victims for the scholarships, including fighting, sex offenses and making threats.
It falls on school principals to tell bullied students and their families about the Hope program, and principals may not be doing that, said Patrick Gibbons, spokesman for Step Up For Students, which administers the state’s voucher programs.
Step Up For Students plans a campaign to make sure Floridians know they can contribute to the program and participate in it if their kids are bullied or harassed. Qualifying incidents include battery, hazing, kidnapping, physical attack, robbery and sexual offenses. Principals are supposed to investigate the incident and tell families about the Hope option.
The program raised $42 million last year through a sales tax diversion that allows purchasers of motor vehicles to contribute a portion of their taxes to the Hope Scholarship Fund. The car buyer can designate $105 or their state sales tax of 6%, whichever is less.
“We got the money for it,” Gibbons said. “Now we need to advertise it.
Florida’s five voucher programs send more than 140,000 students to private schools, at a cost of nearly $1 billion. The most popular voucher, with about 100,000 users, comes from the Tax Credit Scholarship program, which offers students whose families have limited incomes a private school stipend.
About 80% of these recipients attend religious schools, most of them Christian.
Most of the programs serve either low-income students or those with disabilities, although the Hope program doesn’t have an income qualification. Families of bullied children can apply for grants of up to $7,100 for a private school. Students choosing a public school can get transportation money of up to $750.
State Rep. Byron Donalds, RNaples, who sponsored the Hope scholarship legislation, said he was thrilled the new law has appealed to even a small number of families.
“That’s a dozen families that feel they’re in a better situation,” Donalds said. “No matter how many use it, I’m just happy they have options.”