House votes to expand vouchers

Florida families making nearly $100,000 could qualify for scholarships

The Florida House voted to expand the state’s school voucher programs Wednesday, opening up scholarships created to help children living in poverty to youngsters from families earning nearly $100,000 a year.

Republicans in the GOP-controlled House said the sweeping bill (HB 7045) represented the “largest expansion of school choice programs in our nation’s history” and would give more Florida parents educational options outside public schools. The House estimates it could cost up to $200 million.

“This bill fights for children. This bill fights for parents,” said Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, its sponsor.

But Democrats criticized the legislation as a vehicle for sending more taxpayer money to unregulated private schools. Florida’s voucher programs now provide scholarships to more than 160,000 students at a cost of nearly $1 billion.

The bill expands who is eligible for the scholarships, aiming to provide up to 60,000 more, and boosts the value of the scholarships, adding to the cost.

Democrats noted that, unlike public schools, private schools that take state scholarships do not have to report their students’ standardized test scores, hire certified college-educated teachers or provide specialized services to youngsters with disabilities.

Some students receive a “subpar” education on these

campuses and only “the illusion of choice,” said Rep. Kamia Brown, D-Ocoee.

“This bill is so bad on so many levels,” said Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, who was among a group of Democrats who tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to amend the bill to add accountability measures.

“If you’re taking my hardearned money, and Floridians’ hard-earned money, you need to have some sort of standard,” Bartleman said. “You can’t just give out money without any accountability.”

The bill passed 79-36, with all Republicans present and five Democrats voting in favor.

Fine and other Republicans argued private schools taking state scholarships do not need state accountability rules, such as A-to-F school grades because parents serve that purpose.

“These schools have the ultimate accountability,” he said, because if parents don’t send their children, or pull them out unhappy with their services, the schools will close.

“I don’t want bad private schools to stay open,” he added. “But I trust parents … I trust them to make the right decisions for their students.”

But as the Orlando Sentinel reported in its 2017 “Schools Without Rules” series, some of the private schools that take scholarships have hired teachers with criminal backgrounds, been evicted, set up in rundown facilities and falsified fire and health reports but still remained in the voucher programs.

In March, the Sentinel reported on a private school in west Orange County that has been the subject of four state investigations and hired numerous teachers without college degrees and several with red flags in their employment history. Providence Christian Preparatory School remains open, serving about 250 scholarship students. It has received more than $5 million in state scholarship money since 2015.

The Senate earlier this year provided an even more sweeping overhaul of voucher programs in its pending bill (SB 48). But a proposed amendment filed this week would make it more similar to the House version.

The House measure combines three of Florida’s current five scholarship programs — Family Empowerment, Gardiner and McKay — into one and makes more children eligible.

The Family Empowerment program currently is targeted to children in low-income families while the other two are for youngsters with disabilities.

Under the bill, families of four earning more than $99,300 could qualify for the income-based scholarships as could children of active-duty military members and the siblings of disabled youngsters who already have scholarships, among others.

When questioned Tuesday about the higher income levels — the median family income in metro Orlando is $61,876 — Fine responded, “I do not believe people should be punished for being successful.”

He also said even families earning $100,000 a year might find it “quite difficult” to pay for private school tuition and noted, “Those parents have paid those taxes.”

The scholarship just means they are using their child’s share of that money in a private school rather than a “government-run school,” he added.

Rep. Randy Maggard, R-Dade City, said his daughter was “losing the battle” when she was in public school but did well after his family found a small private school for her to attend. It was a “sacrifice” to pay the tuition bills, “but I at least had a choice,” he said.

Other parents need those options, too. “If the school system can’t do it, I need to have the right to do what’s best for my child,” Maggard said.

Some parents who use the Gardiner scholarship now, meant to help students with the most significant needs, are worried about the bill, fearing a loss of money or a chance for a scholarship with so many more children eligible for the programs.

Fine said that would not happen and that the bill would make more children with disabilities eligible for help. “No student is hurt,” he said. “Many are given more.”

Democrats also objected to the bill because money the state has earmarked for teachers’ salaries and school transportation would now be part of the scholarship funding — helping to raise overall dollar value.

The private schools, unlike their public counterparts, however, do not need to raise teacher pay to meet a state-mandated minimum of $47,500 and do not need to provide bus service to their campuses.

Brown said parents sometimes choose scholarships to escape “that stressful test” required in public schools. Florida’s standardized tests are given starting in third grade to public school students and are used for promotion and graduation decisions.

But she said the state’s “top tier” private schools do not take state scholarships, so parents often choose from among the new and “subpar” private schools that have cropped up mostly in low-income neighborhoods solely to accept Florida’s school vouchers.

In Central Florida, for example, some of the regions’ most prestigious private schools, such as Lake Highland Preparatory School and Trinity Preparatory School, do not accept state scholarships.

“Do these programs really create a legitimate choice for families?” Brown asked. “They create a false sense of choice” and an “illusion of choice,” she said, as parents pick from schools that don’t always offer quality academics but face no consequences.