A.G. Gancarski
A $4 million proposal to create “educational recovery” scholarships for K-12 students impacted by emergencies cleared its first of four House panels Monday.
HB 1117, sponsored by St. Johns County Republican Rep. Cyndi Stevenson, cleared the House Early Learning and Elementary Education Subcommittee unanimously. She said the bill offered financial resources to families affected by closed schools “in order to mitigate learning loss.”
The legislation aims to help “kids that we know are at risk anyway, and the interruption could be especially costly,” Stevenson explained.
The proposal, funded by leftover reading scholarship funds, would set up educational recovery scholarship accounts for students at schools closed for more than 10 consecutive school days because of an emergency, which would include natural disasters.
It would mirror reading scholarship accounts, but would expand the scope of service to students struggling with mathematics. The bill targets help for students with low scores on standardized tests in language arts or math, or who otherwise have been identified as having performance issues.
The scholarships would be for “about $1,000” and available on a first-come, first-served basis “in the event of an emergency.”
Stevenson allowed that these emergencies are “fairly unusual” when asked how many students could be helped by the scholarships. She said though it’s impossible to say how many would be served, it would not be an “overwhelming amount.”
While some aspects of the proposal need fleshing out, recent student performance speaks to the need. Standardized tests showed a decline in student performance after COVID-19 precautions drove a shutdown of schools in 2020.
The National Coalition for Public School Options showed up to support the legislation.
A version of this bill is also in the Senate, and like the House version it has a number of review points ahead. Sen. Jason Brodeur’s companion bill (SB 488) has yet to have its first committee hearing, and it has three stops ahead before the full Senate would take it up.
