Florida leads the nation in providing educational options for students and families.
The recent court ruling in favor of the State of Florida in the case of Citizens for Strong Schools et alv. Florida State Board of Education et al further supports the value of comprehensive education reform, which Florida began in 1999 and continues today.
A part of that transformational reform is providing thousands of Florida’s most vulnerable students with educational choice – both public and private. Sadly,one effort to limit school choice continues. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, which currently serves more than 70,000 students, remains under attack by groups seeking to boot children out of their classrooms.
Leaders and families across the state are sharing their support for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program and children’s access to a quality education.Read their takes below:
Tallahassee Democrat, May 24, 2016
We know many people have school choice. Some have enough money to move into neighborhoods where the public schools are excellent. Others choose to send their kids to private schools. Many of us can’t afford to move, but thanks to the scholarships, we have choices.
My daughters attended public elementary schools, but when it came time for middle school, our zoned school wasn’t rigorous enough. I tried to get them into a different school through the district’s choice program, but it was full.Fortunately, I heard about a school called Academy Prep, and the scholarships that allowed me to enroll them there.
I absolutely love the school. All the students are on Tax Credit scholarships,and they move on to the best high schools in Tampa – public or private – then to college. A few years ago, one student went on to Columbia University.
redefinED, May 19, 2016
[John] Kirtley [the chairman and founder of Step Up For Students] said he supports charter and traditional public schools, but low-income families should have the same options as wealthier ones.
“I just worry about people who can’t make a choice because they don’t have enough money,” he said. “Parents who have the means exercise school choice, either by moving to a neighborhood that has the school that they like, or by paying for an alternative. … I only worry about those who don’t have the means to make that decision.”
redefinED, May 16, 2016
[Deanna] Joyner, a single mom, had transferred four of her five children from their neighborhood school in Polk County to Victory Christian in large part because Deondre, her oldest son, was struggling.
The move was only possible because of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, a program that gives low-income parents the ability to access private schools that may be a better fit for their children. In Deondre’s case, it changed the course of his life…
…Fast forward nearly a year and Deondre has a 3.85 GPA in a senior year thathas been a model of focus.
In a few weeks he will become the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college.
Miami Herald, May 15, 2016
Years of test data show these students were the ones who struggled the most in public schools, but once in schools their parents choose, they make solid progress. Studies show us public schools are not financially harmed, and that public school students benefit from the competition…
…It is hard to fathom such a scenario a half century after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech, but it could happen. It is also hard to imagine the NAACP being part of it. I can only assume it has been swayed by the smoke screens of misinformation about the program and by misperceptions about choice supporters.
NewsMax, May 13, 2016
Over 100 black ministers from throughout Florida have urged the Florida NAACP to drop a lawsuit with the Florida teachers union challenging a state tax credit program that provides low income families corporate-funded vouchers to attend private schools…
If the suit is successful, 78,000 poor mostly black and Hispanic children will be removed from private schools where “they are thriving, and returned to public schools where they were not. This would be a monumental injustice.”
Tallahassee Democrat, May 13, 2016
The average household income of corporate-tax scholarship recipients is $25,000 a year, for a family of four. Proponents of the program say 75 percent of the kids are minorities. A great many of the beneficiaries were failing in their public schools, but are doing better in their new academic atmosphere.
And some undoubtedly aren’t. Different students, different schools, different circumstances will have different results.
It’s a sad reality that some schools are horribly deficient and the corporate tax scholarships can’t rescue all the poor kids trapped in them. But, as in Jeb Bush’s starfish story, it can sure make a difference for those it does reach.
Tampa Bay Times, May 10, 2016
Supporters of the scholarship program have waged a months long marketing campaign that has vigorously criticized the teachers union and urged it to”drop the suit.” That continued with news releases Tuesday from scholarship supporters, and before the hearing, several black ministers held a news conference in Tallahassee to call on the NAACP to withdraw as one of the plaintiffs in the case.
“That great organization is on the wrong side of history on this,”said the Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes of Tallahassee’s Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.
Education Next, May 10, 2016
A study that was published in Education Next looked at the impact of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program on the students who remain in local public schools…
The authors explain
We examine whether students in schools that face a greater threat of losing students to private schools as a result of the introduction of tax-credit funded scholarships improve their test scores more than do students in schools that face less-pronounced threats. We find that they do, and that this improvement occurs before any students have actually used a scholarship to switch schools. In other words, it occurs from the threat of competition alone.
Tallahassee Democrat, May 10, 2016
Giving disadvantaged parents the power to send their children to schools of their choice is not just educationally right. It is morally right. I will always stand with those parents, no matter who is aligned against them.
That includes the NAACP, which I love and have supported my entire life.
The NAACP is a party to the lawsuit that seeks to terminate Florida’s tax credit scholarship for low-income children. If the suit succeeds, 78,000 poor children – most of them black and Hispanic – will be removed from private schools where they are thriving, and returned to public schools where they were not. This would be a monumental injustice.
Florida Politics, April 29, 2016
Moving methodically through the arguments, [John] Kirtley pointed out that money from the state treasury already is used by students at faith-based,non-public schools through popular programs like Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten,Bright Futures, McKay and Gardiner scholarship programs for students with unique abilities. Unlike these programs, the money in the Tax Credit Scholarship program never touches the state treasury.
He said “uniformity” is not a good guiding principle for public education with today’s diverse Florida students.
Florida’s innovations like online education (through the Florida Virtual School), magnets, charters and dual enrollment programs between high schools and community colleges show that Floridians are willing to embrace new models and broader definitions. But they’re certainly not “uniform” with traditional public schools. Take down one, and you may take them all down.
