Andrew Powell
The Florida Senate passed a measure Wednesday that seeks various changes to school choice scholarship programs and funding to increase transparency and improve efficiency for schools and families.
The Senate Pre-K-12 Education Appropriations Committee introduced the bill (SB 7030), which was carried forward by Zephyrhills Sen. Danny Burgess, Pensacola Sen. Don Gaetz, and Tallahassee Sen. Corey Simon.
The Republican-led legislation conforms with the Senate’s proposed budget to ensure dedicated funding for public schools and school choice programs. It also establishes an operating categorical fund for implementing the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program.
The FES operating categorical fund would shift funding for FES scholarships out of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) calculation and fund the FES scholarships separately.
The bill would further create consistent timeframes and streamline registration so parents and schools can plan for the school year. It also seeks to improve transparency to ensure money follows the student by requiring documentation from the student’s parent to ensure they are not also enrolled in public school.
It also would streamline payment schedules to ensure consistency and reliability of scholarship funds, update reimbursement protocols to ensure timely invoicing and payment, and increase reporting and auditing to improve accountability to taxpayers.
“Once again, this year, Florida taxpayers will make an unprecedented investment in our children’s education,” Burgess said in a press release. “In the new environment of universal choice, where the money follows the student, we know everyone is working diligently to ensure students have access to the educational settings their parents choose.”
Burgess noted that despite the success, as the choice programs expand, mid-year transitions are difficult to keep up with.
“Additionally, parents with students in the personalized education program and unique abilities program have been frustrated by the reimbursement process, which can be quite time consuming and at times inefficient,” Burgess said. “This legislation is about lessons learned over the last few years. To ensure our school choice programs live up to their full potential and promise, this bill adds new efficiencies to improve both education choice and public-school funding for everyone.”
The legislation seeks to broaden the application of the Educational Stabilization Fund to reduce disruptions for school districts. Key measures include allocating funds to districts experiencing growth in student full-time equivalent (FTE) numbers, supporting students qualifying for the FES who exceed budget projections, and providing additional funding for students with a Personalized Education Program (PEP/Homeschool) scholarship that surpasses available tax credit revenue for scholarships.
Gaetz said the measure was important to ensure taxpayer dollars spent on education are getting to the students they are meant to serve.
“Taxpayers, parents, teachers, and school administrators expect and deserve a swift and accurate accounting of taxpayer dollars spent on education to ensure schools have the funds they need for the students they serve,” Gaetz said. “Likewise, we need better processes for our families receiving funding for the personalized education program and those who have children with unique abilities to receive timely distributions and reimbursements.”
Gaetz also said there needed to be a better way to keep track of funding to ensure it reaches the student.
“Over the last few years, we have learned that for the money to truly follow the student, we need better ways to track where students are at key points throughout the school year,” Gaetz said. “We also need to ensure money appropriately follows the student to the family’s provider of choice, including when they move back and forth between providers. With input from stakeholders across the spectrum of school choice, this bill creates reasonable timeframes and mechanisms to improve both transparency and efficiency in education funding.”
During the bill’s passage through the Senate, Gaetz offered an amendment that would rename the Family Empowerment Scholarships for Students with Unique Abilities to the McKay-Gardiner Scholarships.
The scholarships are named after Republican Sen. John McKay, who served as Senate President from 2000 to 2002, and Republican Sen. Andy Gardiner, who served as Senate President from 2014 to 2016.
Simon noted that Florida continues to lead the nation on school choice, giving parents the opportunity to do what works for them when educating their children.
“Our robust, universal school choice programs provide every parent in our state the opportunity to select the educational environment that works best for his or her children, whether that’s traditional public, private, charter, virtual, or home school,” Simon said. “This legislation will improve efficiency and increase transparency for families and schools as our choice programs continue to expand.”
