Gabrielle Russon
During remarks in Winter Haven, Gov. Ron DeSantis called himself a school choice champion, saying, “No one’s done more for school choice as Governor than I have, and I am proud of that.”
“Parents, regardless of income, should be able to pick the best school, and that may be their local public school,” DeSantis said. “But other people may not want to do that. Maybe they go to a different school in the school district, maybe they go to charter school, maybe they go to private school. All of that I think is great, and the money should follow the student.”
Republican Governors have tried to make Florida a leader on school choice for decades, dating back to the Jeb Bush administration.
The Legislature in 2023 passed a law to expand private school scholarships, or vouchers, costing more than $3 billion in public money. School choice advocates celebrated the expansion, while critics called it a subsidy for wealthy families to send their kids to private schools that hurts public school districts financially.
But DeSantis argued Wednesday that he still supports public schools even as he backs school choice.
“I’m going to support school choice, but I’m also going to support the school districts,” DeSantis said. “I want to have good teachers in the school districts. I want to have good programs there. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. So I’m working on it. I know we got a lot of support in the Senate initially on their budget requests, and I think we’re going to be able to get it done.”
DeSantis spoke about education during Wednesday’s press conference in Winter Haven where he continued to attack Hope Florida critics. He also signed several bills, including HB 1099, which will allow law enforcement officers greater say in whether to immediately arrest individuals with a “significant medical condition.”
DeSantis also took shots at lawmakers for not yet passing the budget.
“Maybe even one day, the Legislature will produce a budget,” DeSantis quipped.
6 comments
ScienceBLVR
May 21, 2025 at 5:57 pm
Oh Ron, Tell the truth..
The Peas know ..
You say your trust’s gettin’ weaker
Probably ’cause my lies just started gettin’ deeper
And the reason for my confession is that I learned my lesson
And I really think you ought to know the truth
Because I lied and I cheated and I lied a little more
But after I did it, I don’t know what I did it for..
Michael K
May 21, 2025 at 6:13 pm
Gov. DeSantis says ‘no one’s done more to destroy public schools as Governor’ than him.
Fixed the headline for you. You’re welcome.
PeterH
May 21, 2025 at 6:37 pm
School choice is ONLY available for students whose parents can afford private schools…… if they can find a private school to take their child! Why should my tax money pay for Florida’s wealthy parents to send their child to a private school?
Curious PeterH
May 22, 2025 at 2:31 pm
There are 60,000 of us on the PEP scholarship doing homeschooling, microschooling, and taking multiple differnet classes in different places including public schools. What does it feel like to wake up and tell lies like this on the internet? Does it feel good to want to hurt families like mine? Or pretend like we dont exist?
LexT
May 22, 2025 at 8:20 am
The point of charter schools is to make public schools compete and to fill small voids that the public schools don’t fill. When charter schools really are great schools, I don’t see real complaints from the Public School System. Our current system does protect bad charter schools that don’t perform, so we may need a little reform. I do think we aught to consider consolidating some of our school boards, so that we can reduce administrative costs and get the money back to the teachers who are teaching.
Michael K
May 22, 2025 at 12:49 pm
Charter schools have a spectacular failure rate in Florida – the 2nd highest in the nation. One in four charters close within five years. More than 40% have closed.
Florida also ranks 50th in the nation for teacher pay. Our governor’s hostility toward teachers has created a serious shortage of teachers. Politicizing school boards, banning books, whitewashing history – none of that helps good teachers.
Comments are closed.