Skylar Zander: Educational freedom is thriving in Florida. Don’t reverse course now.

Desks in empty dark high, middle, or elementary school classroom with light coming through windows.

When it comes to educational freedom, Florida truly leads the nation. Thanks to the Legislature’s bold actions and the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, more than 500,000 Florida students are now empowered to pursue an education that fits their unique needs rather than rigidly adhering to a one-size-fits-all model.

This success should be celebrated and protected. Yet despite the overwhelming demand for educational choice, some Florida lawmakers are now floating the idea of capping a portion of the state’s universal Education Savings Account (ESA) program and putting more requirements on parents. That would be a mistake and a disservice to the families who rely on those scholarships for their children.

ESAs are scholarship accounts that allow parents to customize their child’s education. Instead of assigning a student to a school based on their ZIP code, ESAs give families the flexibility to pay for approved educational expenses like private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, or specialized services for children with unique abilities. In short, they put parents in the driver’s seat and ensure that students can access the tools they need to help them succeed.

Capping the program or limiting eligibility would mean turning our backs on hundreds of thousands of Florida families, reversing years of progress and sending the wrong message to parents. Educational freedom has opened doors for students across the state, and imposing limits on access would take us in the wrong direction.

One such plan, part of the Legislature’s budget process, would put the Florida Education Estimating Conference in charge of determining how many students would be eligible to receive certain scholarships.

This plan would also require a greater amount of paperwork and other requirements for families, which could cause confusion and create more bureaucratic processes, limiting participation. While lawmakers pushing for this idea might say that the public shouldn’t worry because they will be generous in their estimation, these ideas themselves are a solution in search of a problem.

The numbers speak for themselves. More than half a million students are currently benefiting from Florida’s school choice scholarships. That includes 107,000 students using scholarships for personalized education plans, 295,000 using scholarships for various educational options and nearly 122,000 using scholarships for students with unique abilities. These are not just numbers; these are real families who are finally able to make the best decisions for their children’s education.

Most importantly, this program works exactly as intended. Parents are seeking out options, and the growing demand proves the need. Florida should expand access to this program, not make it more difficult to participate or limit it.

Families deserve more choices, not fewer.

Florida was not named No. 1 in educational freedom by the American Legislative Exchange Council, EdChoice and The Heritage Foundation by limiting opportunity. We earned that reputation by trusting parents, empowering students, and focusing on results. Lawmakers should reject any effort to weaken or cap Florida’s ESA program. Let’s keep it strong, allow it to grow, and make sure every student in Florida can continue to learn in the way that works best for them.

___

Skylar Zander is the state director of Americans for Prosperity-Florida.