Jacob Ogles
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” could expand school choice vouchers nationwide. But Florida public education advocates say that would be a disaster, and the state’s funding struggles prove it.
Families for Strong Public Schools held a press conference ahead of a potential vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” That legislation would make permanent tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s first term, but would also direct $4 billion annually in public funds to private schools.
Sue Woltanski, a Monroe County School Board member, said the legislation creates a tax giveaway to wealthy investors by incentivizing funding private school vouchers, which will tear at the safety net of public education.
“When you have a program that offers 100% tax credit, financial advisors are going to advise the wealthy people to use that,” she said. “Vouchers are not a new idea, and they’re not a good idea. In fact, they’re a failed idea.”
The plan wouldn’t significantly impact Florida funding, as Florida already has universal school choice, and deductions at the state level could count against tax credit levels included in the bill.
But that means Florida already feels the impact of making vouchers available to all students. Norín Dollard, a Florida Policy Institute analyst, said the Sunshine State’s experimentation with widely available vouchers should serve as a “cautionary tale,” not a national model.
“In Florida, the way things started with vouchers is the camel’s nose under the tent,” she said. “It started as a very small, circumscribed population, and over time, it has grown. Even before the expansion to universal vouchers, it covered families earning up to $120,000 a year for a family of four. It was pretty generous already, and has exploded since then. So we expect that this will be just the beginning.”
Indeed, Gov. Ron DeSantis in January announced that more than 500,000 students were using one of Florida’s school choice scholarship programs.
“I am proud that we have enabled over 500,000 students to access a high-quality education that fits their individual needs,” DeSantis said at the start of the year.
But public school officials said that ended up creating enormous challenges in funding public education this year, as demonstrated by changes in per student funding by the state. With scholarship funding rising by $900 million, school districts paid the price, even in areas where few students take advantage of school choice programs, Woltanski said.
“Voucher supporters like to say that the money follows the child,” she said, “but the truth is, the money only follows the child if the money was placed in a funding formula in the first place. New voucher students who never attended public school are draining, are being funded, are sucking up a large portion of the funding increases in Florida.”
State Rep. Michele Rayner, a St. Petersburg Democrat, said there’s also little accountability about the quality of education being delivered at private schools accepting voucher funding.
“Anytime that I find in the Legislature, where we want real answers, we want actually changeable things that we can point to, where this money is going, how it’s being used, so forth and so on, it’s always a song and a dance. It’s always a shell game,” she said.
Parent Shauntel Smith, a member of Families for Strong Public Schools, pointed at evidence that standards for education professionals are in fact lower in private schools nationwide.
“For example, 65% of public school teachers have taken courses that have helped them learn how to serve students from diverse economic backgrounds. That’s compared to 48% of private schools,” she said.
“Additionally, 70% of public school teachers report having training in courses that help them in serving special needs students. That’s versus 49% of teachers in private schools. These efforts aim to create an environment where all students succeed. Yes, there are shortcomings, but still, somehow the public schools find a way to meet our children’s needs.”
