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Wisconsin advocacy group sues on behalf of family seeking school choice scholarship

Patrick R. Gibbons
Patrick R. Gibbons

Katrina Olguin, pictured with her husband and sons, is fighting the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to secure private school scholarships.

When Katrina Olguin applied for private school scholarships for her sons, she probably never imagined she would be disqualified for being over the income threshold – by less than $50.

Unfortunately for Olguin, of West Allis, Wisconsin, her state’s Department of Public Instruction rules prohibit parents from reapplying in the same year, even if they amend their application.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty believes that rule is illegal and has filed suit on behalf of Olguin and her sons.

According to the institute, Olquin reapplied for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program after making legal contributions to her IRA so her family was again income eligible. The state denied the application, citing the rule prohibiting same-year reapplication.

Wisconsin’s scholarship program provides scholarships to low-income and working-class students. Household income must be at or below 220 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $66,000 for a family of five.

“We were just $47 over and I did everything to adjust it legally,” Olguin wrote in a blog post that was published on Medium. “And then they were just like, no, sorry.”

According to the article, Olguin wants three of her sons to attend Heritage Christian Schools, a high-performing school her two older sons attend and where she is a teacher. The school attempted to appeal on Olguin’s behalf, but the Department of Public Instruction still would not consider the application.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty claims the rule is illegal because the Department of Public Instruction was “required to proceed through a rulemaking process outlined in state law,” including allowing public review and comment, but failed to do so.

“DPI’s job is to facilitate education in Wisconsin,” wrote Lucas Vebber, a lawyer for the institute. “But too often DPI finds ways to work against families and schools in the parental choice program.”

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AnalysisEducation ChoiceFamily Empowerment ScholarshipFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipGardiner ScholarshipMcKay ScholarshipParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsSchool Choice

The proof is in the numbers: participation in education choice is soaring

Patrick R. Gibbons
Patrick R. Gibbons

While Covid-19 likely will be responsible for the single largest increase in virtual education in Florida’s history, enrollment growth over time in another program that offers education choice, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, is nevertheless impressive. From academic year 2015-16 to 2016-17, the program grew by 20,000 students.

Meanwhile, the Family Empowerment Scholarship, in its first year, ramped up to 18,000 students in a matter of months. The previous first-year enrollment record holder, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, launched in 2002 with 15,585 students.

By comparison, the McKay Scholarship program for students with disabilities began in 2000 with 970 students. The Opportunity Scholarship program, created in 1999 and offered to students attending low-performing public schools, served just 57 students in its first year. (The Florida Supreme Court in 2006 declared that program unconstitutional after an epic legal battle.)

Enrollment in the Gardiner Scholarship program, created in 2014 for students with unique abilities, has shown steady, if less rapid growth, although that’s likely to change. The Florida Legislature appropriated an additional $23 million in funding for the program in 2019, pushing Gardiner funding to $147.9 million and allowing it to serve at least 2,000 more students. This year, the Legislature approved an additional $42 million increase for the program, which will make it available to still more families.

(Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, administers the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, Family Empowerment Scholarship and Gardiner Scholarship programs.)

Data indicate that while the percentage of students diagnosed with autism participating in the program has grown, the number of students with other diagnoses has declined as a percentage of the total population amid an expansion in the list of eligibilities.

The percentage of minority students participating in the Florida Tax Credit program has remained remarkably stable. In 2010, non-white students made up 75 percent of the program and today comprise 73 percent. While the percentage of black students dropped from 36 percent to 30 percent, the number of Hispanic students increased from 27 percent to 38 percent. The percentage of white students participating increased from 25 percent to 27 percent.

The Florida Tax Credit program’s income eligibility requirements also have changed over time. Today, students can remain in the program if their household income does not exceed 260 percent of poverty. That threshold has increased from 185 percent, the eligibility requirement for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.

The average student lives in a household earning $27,298 a year, just 13 percent above the poverty level.

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Commentary and OpinionEducation ChoiceEducation EquityEducation PoliticsEducation Savings AccountsFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipMcKay ScholarshipParent EmpowermentPrivate School ScholarshipsSchool ChoiceSpecial Needs Education

Proposed funding cap in Arizona would deprive thousands

Matthew Ladner
Matthew Ladner

Katie Swingle, mother of a child with autism, spoke before the Florida Senate Education Appropriations Committee in March 2015, imploring lawmakers to expand education choice options for children with special needs.

If you need to make a choice between reading this post or watching the video featuring the mom pictured above, please watch the video. Katie Swingle explains why families with children with special needs require and deserve access to education choice. Her story demonstrates why depriving them of choice is a terrible thing.

Sadly, there is an effort underway in Arizona to do exactly that.

Arizona’s Save Our Schools group has proposed a statewide ballot initiative that would create an overall participation cap on Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Program of 1 percent of the total student enrollment of the public school system. Once that cap is reached, students other than those with disabilities, including Native American children, those who have been in the foster care system, are zoned for D- or F-rated public schools, orphans and dependents of active duty military service members among others, would be purged from participating.

Upon completion of this purge, the program would lack the ability to serve additional special needs students. Last week, I noted that 1.7 percent of the total public school enrollment in Florida makes use of private choice programs for children with disabilities. I should further have noted that Florida has a waitlist of students with disabilities for the ESA program.

Historical program data allows us to assess the length of time it would take for the proposed cap to deny access to disadvantaged students if something like it were to be applied in Florida. As a thought experiment, imagine Florida’s multiple-choice programs debuting as a state-funded program in the same year that the McKay Scholarship program debuted.

This next part will require you to suspend your disbelief. Imagine a group of advantaged urban Floridians who exercise choice in their own families managing, from the outset of choice, to implement a cap in Florida for disadvantaged students. Floridians, of course, would find it nearly impossible to live with such a level of moral hypocrisy.

In Florida’s actual experience, lawmakers created a voucher program for students with disabilities and one for children in failing schools, followed by a tax-credit scholarship program for low-income students. Our thought experiment involves envisioning Florida following closer to the Arizona ESA experience: a single program starting with students with disabilities. A few years into the program, the Florida lawmakers of our thought experiment add low-income students into the eligibility pool for the state-funded program. Okay. So, how long would it have taken for the SOS cap to have purged disadvantaged students in Florida?

Let’s look first at the McKay Scholarship program for students with disabilities.

If the McKay Scholarship program had been the only choice program created, it would have exceeded the 1 percent cap by itself in 2013. After 2013, additional special needs children would have been denied access. Of course, it wasn’t the only program; Florida lawmakers also made low-income students eligible to participate in choice.

The combination of McKay and the tax credit program would have exceeded the SOS cap around 2004. “Let them eat cake,” the cap supporters would tell the tens of thousands of low-income families piling onto waitlists.

This isn’t the end of the story, however. Florida also created a special needs ESA program in 2015. This is the program used by the all-too-real mom in the video.

Every single one of these families, including the Swingle family, would have been denied choice under an SOS cap. Arizona’s ESA program is only a few years of growth away from reaching the proposed cap.

Supporters claim the cap will not impact current beneficiaries, but it clearly will. Moreover, there are thousands of Arizona students with disabilities today, and many more yet unborn, who would be denied access through the proposed cap.

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Education and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation LegislationFamily Empowerment ScholarshipFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipSchool ChoiceVouchers

House amends K-12 scholarship expansion bill to track Senate version

Lisa Buie
Lisa Buie

The Florida House approved changes to a bill that would bolster and align two state scholarship programs that provide education choice to economically disadvantaged students.

The changes, approved on a voice vote, line up HB 7067 to nearly match a Senate version, SB 1220, that won approval in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday and now awaits action on the Senate floor. The House version awaits a final reading and floor vote before being sent to the Senate.

The House and Senate bills include provisions aimed at aligning policies between the new Family Empowerment Scholarship, adopted last year and serving 18,000 students, and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, created in 2001 and serving 108,000 students. Both scholarship programs serve students from lower-income and working-class families. The primary difference is that the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship is funded by corporations that receive a 100 percent tax credit, and the Family Empowerment Scholarship is funded directly from the state education budget.

Both bills would increase the allowed enrollment growth in the Family Empowerment Scholarship. Under current law, the program can grow by up to 0.25 of total public school enrollment each year, which is roughly 7,000 students. SB 1220 and HB 7067 both increase that growth to 1 percent, or roughly 28,000.

Both bills now give clear priority to renewal students in both programs and provide for a gradual increase in household income eligibility over time. That provision allows the eligible income level in the Family Empowerment Scholarship, currently 300 percent of federal poverty, to increase by 25 percentage points in the next year if more than 5 percent of the available scholarships remain unawarded.

The income limit for Tax Credit Scholarships would remain at 260 percent of poverty.

Other parts of the bill approved today included:

  • Allowing Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students to continue receiving the scholarship until they graduate from high school or turn 21, aligning it with the Family Empowerment Scholarship provision. Now, Florida Tax Credit students must reapply each year.
  • Allowing Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students whose scholarships were not renewed due to a lack of funding to transfer to the Family Empowerment Scholarship.
  • Allowing students in the Family Empowerment Scholarship program to take up to two state-supported virtual courses each year without cost. That provision already applies to Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students.
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Extra! Extra! More good news about Florida schools

Ron Matus
Ron Matus

When it comes to Florida’s public education system, good news does not travel fast.

The latest examples: Two encouraging reports that got zero traction in mainstream media circles.

The first is a rigorous study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. It found that as America’s largest private school choice program grew, so did positive impacts on Florida’s public schools.

The second is the latest College Board report on Advanced Placement. Florida again ranks No. 3 in the percentage of graduating seniors who’ve passed college-caliber AP exams, even though it has a higher percentage of low-income students of any Top 10 state but one.

To date, neither report has received any coverage from any of the scores of mainstream media outlets in Florida, including the dozens that report state education news. (The choice report did get a thorough write up in Education Week.) Nor, as far as I can tell, has either report gotten even a perfunctory attaboy from the mainstream organizations that represent Florida parents, teachers and school boards.

This is not a surprise (see here, here and here) but it’s still a shame. Florida public schools haven’t reached the promised land. But they’ve come a long ways since the 1990s – when barely half of Florida students graduated from high school – and shouldn’t be denied accolades from those who claim to be their biggest supporters. One sad reason why is because acknowledging their progress would mean conceding that the expansion of education choice has not hurt Florida’s public education system – and probably helped it.

The new NBER paper shows exactly that.

As the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship expanded – it now serves more than 100,000 low-income students – students in Florida public schools most impacted by the competition saw higher test scores, fewer absences and fewer suspensions. In other words, Florida public schools didn’t get decimated when more parents got more power to choose. They got better. (The scholarship is administered by nonprofits such as Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.)

How dissonant to hear, in the report’s wake, nothing but crickets. Especially now. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship has never faced more media scrutiny.

Ditto for Florida’s other private school choice options. Last year, the state’s leading newspaper editorialized that creation of the state’s newest K-12 voucher, the Family Empowerment Scholarship, was “the death sentence for Florida’s public schools.” A sham “analysis” that followed warned of dire financial consequences for districts – and managed to spawn at least 10 news stories statewide.

This year’s coverage of a proposed expansion for the new scholarship (also administered in part by Step Up) is hardly more grounded. This week, it spurred a five-alarm op-ed from a school board member whose district has the state’s biggest black-white achievement gap. “Vouchers hurt all,” read the headline. “Time is running out,” the board member wrote, “to save traditional public schools from the steady march to privatization by the Florida Legislature.”

The shrug at Florida’s Advanced Placement success is even more curious. I’m a broken record about this (see here, see here, see … 😊), so I won’t belabor the point. And I’ll continue to agree with thoughtful critiques. But the outcomes here are yet another sign that Florida public schools continue to get better at serving the low-income students who are now a solid majority.

Of the 53,543 graduates in the Florida Class of 2019 who passed an AP exam, 40.3 percent got an exam fee reduction available to low-income students. Of the Top 10 states, only California had a higher rate, at 42.2 percent. The two states ahead of Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut, had fee reduction rates of 18.6 percent and 14.9 percent, respectively.

Given that it’s low-income parents who are most apt to seek school choice options, shouldn’t traditional public school supporters be the first to shout these results from the rooftops? Maybe if media coverage didn’t suggest the sky was falling, they’d venture up there – and see the big picture of a public education system that really is getting better.

 

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Education ChoiceEducation EquityEducation LegislationFamily Empowerment ScholarshipFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipSchool Choice

Senate moves closer to expanding income-based scholarship programs

Lisa Buie
Lisa Buie

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted along party lines today to bolster and align two state scholarship programs that provide education choice to economically disadvantaged students.

SB 1220, a bill that spells out rules for teacher training and qualifications, also includes provisions aimed at aligning policies between the new Family Empowerment Scholarship, adopted last year and serving 18,000 students, and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, created in 2001 and serving 108,000 students.

Both scholarship programs serve students from lower-income and working-class families. The primary difference is that the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship is funded by corporations that receive a 100 percent tax credit, and the Family Empowerment Scholarship is funded directly from the state education budget.

The final vote was 13-8, with all Republicans supporting the bill. The bill now heads to the Senate floor. A similar bill in the House, HB 7067, is awaiting action on the floor there.

Several parents whose children receive scholarships attended the hearing in support of the bill, including Natalie Gillespie, a mother of nine from Tallahassee. She called the scholarships “life changing” and said her youngest three daughters, who are adopted, “can be nurtured in a smaller environment that is not as overwhelming to them.” Her son, now a successful employee at an insurance company, was able to attend a faith-based school that provided spiritual training and a “moral compass.”

The bill would increase the allowed enrollment growth in the Family Empowerment Scholarship. Under current law, the program can grow by up to 0.25 of total public school enrollment each year, which is roughly 7,000 students. SB 1220 and HB 7067 both increase that growth to 1 percent, or roughly 28,000.

A strike-all amendment proposed by Education Committee Chairman Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, was intended to give clear priority to renewal students in both programs and also provided for a gradual increase in household income eligibility over time. That provision allows the eligible income level in the Family Empowerment Scholarship, currently 300 percent of federal poverty, to increase by 25 percentage points in the next year if more than 5 percent of the available scholarships remain unawarded.

The provision is also in the House bill. The income limit for Tax Credit Scholarships would remain at 260 percent of poverty.

Other parts of the bill approved today included:

  • Allowing Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students to continue receiving the scholarship until they graduate from high school or turn 21, aligning it with the Family Empowerment Scholarship provision. Now, Florida Tax Credit students must reapply each year.
  • Allowing Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students whose scholarships were not renewed due to a lack of funding to transfer to the Family Empowerment Scholarship.
  • Allowing students in the Family Empowerment Scholarship program to take up to two state-supported virtual courses each year without cost. That provision already applies to Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students.
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Florida Tax Credit Scholarship eased journey for college-bound high school senior

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

Carlos Escobar noticed a difference in his attitude and academic performance almost as soon as he transferred to Classical Christian School for the Arts.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. – Carlos Escobar, a popular and successful senior at Classical Christian School For The Arts, will be graduating in May. But his walk across the stage won’t begin to describe the twisting road he traveled to get there.

Carlos was born in Puerto Rico and entered the U.S. as an infant in foster care. He was moved from home to home with his little brother and recalls feeling hopeless.

The two were finally adopted when Carlos was 4 years old and his brother just a year younger. But not long after, his parents dropped a bombshell on him: The family was moving to Florida, uprooting him from friends in Massachusetts. “I didn’t like it at all,” he says.

School didn’t help either. He entered a public middle school where he says the classes were too big and too rowdy. He was unable to focus and do his work. He felt like the teachers didn’t really care about him. The result was academic failure.

“It was horrible,” says Carlos. “I was failing every class. I didn’t want to be in Florida.”

Classical Christian School for the Arts provides instruction in all subjects from a Christian world-view.

When the time for high school came around, Carlos and his mother were afraid things were only going to get worse. They knew he needed something new and different. So the family took a chance and scheduled a tour of the school at Classical Christian School For The Arts in Pinellas Park.

Kim Merrigan is the school’s executive director and remembers the meeting well.

“They were concerned about the public school system and really wanted a private school education for their boys,” says Merrigan.

The family knew they would need some kind of financial aid to make attendance possible, so they were pleased to learn about Step Up For Students and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for families with limited financial means. They anxiously applied and learned that both of their boys were eligible.

Carlos noticed a difference immediately. Even as a freshman, he started to improve his grades and his outlook on the future. But he was way behind in his subjects, and his challenge was enormous.

School director Merrigan was impressed with Carlos’ ability to focus through his adversity, including some struggles at home.

“Because of the resources that were available to him here through the Step Up For Students program, he was able to reach out to the staff and his fellow students here at school, and get back on the right track,” she says.

Francesko Cekrezi, the school’s athletic director and Carlos’ soccer coach and geography teacher, agrees. He saw Carlos push himself in the classroom and become a leader on the basketball court and the soccer field.

“I have seen him grow so much,” says Cekrezi.

Slowly, after all the F’s in middle school, Carlos’ grades began turning to C’s and B’s. As a senior, he is tackling Algebra 2, English 4 and physics in the classroom, as well as pursuing online courses in economics and statistics.

Carlos gives credit to Classical Christian.

“Private school is different,” he says. “The classes are smaller. There’s not one teacher that doesn’t care here, and I’m proud to say I’ll be graduating in 2020.”

Carlos Escobar enjoys the combination of a brick-and-mortar curriculum and online classes.

In turn, Cekrezi gives credit to Carlos.

“His has been a wonderful journey. The journey has not been without road bumps, a lot of road bumps but a lot of joy, because when I see where he was and where he is right now, I feel pride on that because he worked so hard to achieve that.”

After graduation, Carlos plans to stay close to home and go to a local or community college for his first two years. He hopes to continue playing basketball but also plans to study in the one field that he feels helped him most along his way.

He wants to become a teacher.

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Education EquityEducation LegislationFamily Empowerment ScholarshipFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipGardiner ScholarshipNewsParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsSchool ChoiceVouchers

House Committee aligns, expands K-12 scholarship opportunities

Lisa Buie
Lisa Buie

family empowerment scholarship

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted along party lines to give 28,000 more economically disadvantaged students a shot at a K-12 private school option next year.

Under HB 7067, the Family Empowerment Scholarship program, which is serving 18,000 students in its first year, would be allowed to serve as many as 28,000 additional students next year. Under current law, the program could grow by 0.25 percent of the total public-school student enrollment, or roughly 7,000 students. The bill changes that amount to 1 percent.

The bill also would provide for a gradual increase in household income eligibility. Currently, the eligibility is limited to students whose household income does not exceed 300 percent of poverty, which is $78,6000 for a household of four. Under the bill, the eligibility limit would rise by 25 percentage points in any year in which more than 5 percent of the number of available Family Empowerment Scholarships are not awarded. Priority under the law would continue to go to households whose income does not exceed 185 percent of poverty, or $48,470.

The bill also makes changes to the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, allowing students who receive scholarships to remain the program until they enroll in a public school, graduate or turn 21 — aligning that provision with the Family Empowerment Scholarship.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship is administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, and serves 108,000 students from economically disadvantaged families. A similar bill, SB 1220, won approval earlier today from the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

More than 50 people attended the House Committee meeting prepared to speak in favor of the bill, including families who have benefited from the scholarship programs. Among them was Adriana Ortega, mother of a 9-year-old on a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and a 6-year-old who participates in the Gardiner Scholarship program. Both attend Downey Christian School in Orlando.

“The scholarship has been a blessing to us,” Ortega said. “We need to ensure more Florida families can benefit from them.”

Nadia Hionides, principal of The Foundation Academy, a faith-based and LGBTQ-affirming private school in Jacksonville, urged lawmakers to support the bill.

“I hope that whatever you decide to do leads to more options for more parents in the end,” she said.

Elijah Robinson, a senior at The Foundation Academy, told lawmakers the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship transformed his life after he endured two years of constant bullying at his public school.

“Please support this and bill and don’t do anything that will result in fewer scholarships,” he said.

Also included in the bill were changes to the Gardiner Scholarship program for children with unique abilities. Under the new law, eligible students who turn 3 after Sept. 1 would be qualified to receive a scholarship if funds are available instead of having to wait until the following year to apply.

Additionally, the bill would close scholarship accounts that have been inactive for two years instead of the current three years, paving the way for more students to be served.

The Gardiner Scholarship, created in 2014, allows parents of students with unique abilities to create a customized education program for their children and covers expenses beyond tuition including tutoring, therapies and curriculum materials. The program currently serves 13,000 students.

A companion bill that would revise eligibility requirements for the Gardiner Scholarship, sponsored by Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville,  SB 1164, is currently in the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

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