Tax Credit Scholarships

Desire for equity drives district school board member’s passion for education choice

Lisa Buie February 25, 2021

Lisa Buie

For Jon Arguello, there should be no “us” versus “them” when it comes to education choice.

The Central Florida entrepreneur made no secret of his support for choice during his successful campaign for a seat on the Osceola County School Board in 2020. Earlier this month, during a hearing on a Florida Senate bill that would streamline state K-12 scholarship programs and convert them to flexible spending accounts, he delivered an impassioned speech in support of the measure and defended his stance under direct questioning from Sen. Perry E. Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale.

“I’ve been in the education world for a good amount of time,” the father of five said a couple of weeks later. “I’ve been involved in Catholic schools and public schools. I’ve learned what a useful program (education choice) is. I think opponents make it out to be this bogeyman, and it’s just not the case.”

The son of immigrants from Nicaragua, Arguello, 45, moved to the Orlando area from San Francisco with his family when he was 8 and grew up attending district schools and Catholic schools. An Army veteran, he earned his law degree from Barry University. When he and his wife were young parents, they sent their three oldest children, who are now in college, to district elementary schools without giving it much thought.

“We didn’t know about school choice,” he said. “But it became important to my wife and me as we got a little older and wiser.”

As their family grew, the Arguellos wanted to find an environment that blended academics with the Catholic Church’s world view and offered formal religious training. Catholic schools provided the ideal fit for that.

His children benefited from the income-based Florida Tax Credit Scholarship to help supplement tuition at one point, but as his businesses became more successful, they no longer qualified. Many family members and friends currently benefit from the scholarships.

“We continued to send our kids to private school and make that sacrifice,” he said, adding that he wished the program could be universal, with funding going directly to families so parents could control their children’s education.

Arguello, who had volunteered on various community boards but never held elected office, said he decided to run for the Osceola County School Board after reviewing the 25 duties of school board members listed in Florida Statutes.

“Those duties and responsibilities speak to my heart as a businessperson,” he said. “Education is very important to me.”

He said he wanted to use that business expertise to make sure the district is being a good steward of the public’s tax dollars and to provide oversight so that the schools he represents are equipped to successfully compete with other forms of education.

Arguello’s constituency, District 3, is an extremely diverse area in the Central Florida county’s southwest corner. It includes Poinciana, which is 53% Latino, 21.3% African American and 22.6% white, according to Census figures. The county experienced an influx of immigrants from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devasted the island in 2017.

“It’s a district that has been neglected and where people have been parked,” he said. “Things are not happening the way they should be in an active community. People are not clamoring to go to the schools in District 3.”

Arguello said many of the families lack the ability to exercise school choice the traditional way: buying a home in a desirable neighborhood or paying private school tuition. Opportunities in his region are limited, primarily due to a lack of high-paying jobs and transportation barriers.

“They can either take a service job in Osceola or drive an hour back and forth to Orlando,” he said.

The desire for equity is what drives him to champion education choice, which his opponent opposed. A lot of people urged him as he was getting into the race not to bring up choice, calling the issue “a political loser.”

Arguello disagreed.

“Nobody should be able to tell a parent they can’t be the primary decider of where they kids go to school. That’s a winning thing. There’s really no downside to school choice. It’s all an upside.”

So, when friends from Americans For Prosperity and the LIBRE Initiative invited him to travel to Tallahassee and speak in support of SB 48, he didn’t have to think twice. (The two groups recently launched a six-figure joint campaign in support of the bill.) Afterward, his remarks drew some criticism from his district colleagues who questioned whether they were appropriate for someone representing a county school board.

Arguello said he represents the voters who elected him.

“We have a great communications team that speaks on behalf of the district,” he said. “I speak on behalf of the community, and I know that the community enjoys, participates in and takes advantage of school choice.”

February 25, 2021 0 comment

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LGBTQ students benefiting from school choice shouldn’t be ignored

Ron Matus February 5, 2021

Ron Matus

Kasey Drayer, left, and Quinn Krapes work on a project in physical science class at the Albert Einstein Academy in Lakewood, Ohio.

Editor’s note: The Orlando Sentinel published a commentary today that accused the nonprofit scholarship organization, Step Up For Students, of “rainbow washing” by telling the stories of LGBTQ students who have used educational choice programs to find private schools that work better for them. Over the past three years, the newspaper has published nearly 130 news or opinion pieces critical of Florida’s K-12 scholarship programs, including 21 by today’s columnist. Step Up’s director of policy and public affairs, Ron Matus, has researched and written about LGBTQ students who choose private and charter schools. This is his response.

Over the past two and a half years, I’ve interviewed more than a dozen LGBTQ students who benefitted from education choice. In most of those cases, the students told me they are probably alive because of education choice. Some were charter school students. Some were scholarship students.

One had attended a little private school in the boonies of North Florida. He never got a choice scholarship; his parents made too much money. But had it not been for choice scholarships, he said, that little school never would have existed – and instead of being in college, he’d be strung out and homeless. With most of these students, I talked with their parents, too.

In every case, I was up front with the students and parents about private schools in Florida. I told them there were some private schools that were not welcoming of LGBTQ students, and either would not enroll them or would expel them if they knew about their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Not surprisingly, many of them already knew this. Not surprisingly, they were not fans of those policies. I’m not either. But I find this issue far more complicated than how it’s portrayed by opponents of education choice.

For what it’s worth, I take this issue personally. I have friends, family, colleagues, co-workers and neighbors who are members of the LGBTQ community. I wouldn’t stay at Step Up if we were doing anything to hurt them. One of my close friends in college was gay, and he tried to kill himself while I lived with him. One of my girlfriends in college was bisexual, and during the years we hung out, she tried to kill herself. One of my best friends at the student newspaper was gay. He frequently invited me over for dinner, and it was during one of those dinners that I met a drag queen for the first time.

I’m sorry to say I can’t remember her name, but I do remember she liked steak and malt liquor more than I did. My friend was frequently depressed, and while we were both still working for the newspaper, he died in his home under mysterious circumstances. To this day, I fear his death was connected to the inner turmoil he endured, for no good reason, because he was gay. I could go on with the stories, but I’m hoping this is enough to make my point.

One of the things that shocked me as I learned from LGBTQ students in choice schools was the extent to which anti-LGBTQ sentiment is still so prevalent in our schools. Knowing how much progress we’ve made as a society towards LGBTQ acceptance and equality, I had assumed LGBTQ students were in a much better place than they were a generation ago. I assumed wrong.

For far too many LGBTQ kids, school is still an absolute nightmare. The survey data from GLSEN is depressing and infuriating. So are all the stats about LGBTQ youth suicides, and attempted suicides, and substance abuse, and self-harm. I have to wonder: How is this not a bigger story? How can this much pain in plain sight be so overlooked? How many suicides does it take before somebody finally does a “deep dive”?

The survey data is also revealing. All school sectors are falling tragically short in providing safe learning environments for LGBTQ students, but the truth is, district schools are among the worst offenders. I don’t bring this up to point fingers at district schools; we try hard at Step Up not to do that. We know district schools are doing often heroic work for tens of millions of students, including many LGBTQ students. But the survey data can’t be shrugged off.

That backdrop of widespread abuse in district schools is crucial context for why learning options are so important for LGBTQ students, as they are for so many other vulnerable students. The LGBTQ students I met in charter schools and private schools are the faces behind those data points. They told me that unrelenting harassment in district schools is why they left, and why they were so grateful to have options.

I don’t dismiss the issues with private schools that are not LGBTQ welcoming. They’re there. The best evidence I’ve seen shows those schools are a small percentage of private schools. But still, they’re there. I wrestle with it constantly. I try my best to understand it from every angle. I wish there was an easy answer. But … there isn’t one. That’s another piece of vital context missing from this “debate.” Those schools have a right under the First Amendment to participate in government programs.

You can’t just pass a law to bar them from accepting students on scholarship and think it’s over. The law would be challenged and overturned. These constitutional clashes between liberty and equality must grind through the courts, and when it comes to emerging LGBTQ rights, that’s exactly what’s happening. Look at Bostock. Watch what happens with Fulton v. The City of Philadelphia.

I know folks on “both sides” (as if there are only two sides) don’t want to hear that. Nobody wants to be told to be patient when it comes to liberty or equality. But this is complicated. Why do you think there was an exemption specifically for religious schools in the bill to create the Florida Competitive Workplace Act — the bill that was meant to protect LGBTQ citizens in employment and housing, and that drew a ton of Democratic co-sponsors? Drawing that line between liberty and equality takes time.

In the meantime, LGBTQ students desperately need options. Options that for many of them would be life changing, if not lifesaving, because the learning environments they’re in now are that toxic. How can that part of “the debate” be so utterly ignored?

That student from North Florida now lives in a desert town out West. He told me even when it’s scorching hot, he wears long sleeves – because he doesn’t want anybody to see the scars on his arms from where he cut himself. Just like Marquavis, and Elijah, and Kiwie, and the other LGBTQ students I’ve written about, he said the bullying in his district school was horrific.

Initially, he shared the details with me, and told me I could write about it. But the next day he called to say that just talking about what happened to him in high school returned him to a dark place. It would hurt too much to share the story publicly, he said. I told him I understood. He told me to keep telling these stories.

So I’ll tell you one last one: In 2018, I visited a charter school for LGBTQ students near Cleveland. After I toured the school and sat in a couple classrooms, I got to chat in a conference room for a couple of hours with five or six students. They were … the best. They were patient with me, and so kind, and wise, and unbelievably brave. Towards the end of the conversation, we talked about the private schools in Florida that weren’t LGBTQ welcoming.

At the time, by coincidence, there had been some scrutiny about Florida’s Hope scholarship. Again, they weren’t surprised. Again, they weren’t fans. But their views were far more thoughtful and nuanced than some of the folks who think they’re speaking for them.

I mentioned I knew of two cases where those schools took in and saved non-LGBTQ scholarship students who were bullied to the brink of suicide in public schools. “Are you okay with those schools saving other kids,” I asked, “even if they wouldn’t save you?”

Maybe it’s because they knew what it was like to be on the brink with no options and no hope. But every one of them said yes.

February 5, 2021 0 comment

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If you’re going to evade a court ruling, why not do it with some style?

Patrick R. Gibbons February 4, 2021

Patrick R. Gibbons

“Jeb!” Doc screams, leaping from the time machine. “You’ve got to come back with me!”

“Where?!”

“Back to the Future!” Doc replies as he scrambles through Jeb’s trash. “It’s the kids Jeb, something has got to be done about the kids!”

After completing a hovercar retrofit to his DeLorean in 2015, Doc travels back to 2006 for what he thought would be a relaxing Florida vacation. Instead, he discovers a surprise Florida Supreme Court decision that overturned his friend’s 1999 voucher program, the Opportunity Scholarship.

Having explained the future to Jeb, they would travel to 2001 to create a new scholarship program to evade the flawed but inevitable 2006 ruling.

Of course, this is nonsense, but many school choice opponents make a very similar argument.

But the ruling didn’t kill vouchers,” Frank Cerabino wrote of the 2006 Supreme Court cases in a Palm Beach Post column. “It just made voucher entrepreneurs more crafty and meant that the public dollars being siphoned to private — and often religious — schools would have to be managed with the same bit of clever opacity that drug dealers employ when laundering their riches.”

Somehow, a 2006 Florida Supreme Court ruling caused “voucher entrepreneurs” to get “more crafty” when they created the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship back in 2001.

Florida’s collective memory on Bush v. Holmes apparently has been lost. Here’s what actually happened.

Bush v. Holmes, a widely panned ruling, was decided on Jan. 5, 2006. The ruling struck down the Opportunity Scholarship, a private school voucher that served 734 students, 86% of whom were Black or Hispanic.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, which was known as the Florida Corporate Income Tax Scholarship at the time, was pre-filed by the Florida House of Representatives on Nov. 11, 2000. Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law on June 13, 2001.

Not only was the program created years before the Florida Supreme Court ruling, but the program was debated and passed at a time when it was 100% constitutional!

In fact, school choice opponents actually were losing in court.

On Oct. 3, 2000 (more than a month before the scholarship was pre-filed with the House), the Florida Court of Appeal overturned Judge Smith’s lower court ruling. In a unanimous decision, the justices declared, “Article IX does not unalterably hitch the requirement to make adequate provision for education to a single, specified engine, that being the public school system.”

This was a rejection of the future Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling that the state’s paramount duty to public education meant the Legislature could provide no alternatives.

Best of all, the Florida Supreme Court actually agreed.

On April 24, 2001, by a 4-1 decision, it declined to hear the case and allowed the Court of Appeal ruling to stand. That was 13 days before the Florida Legislature passed the bill and 48 days before Jeb Bush signed it into law.

Ironically, Justices Pariente, Wells, Anstead and Lewis were the majority in 2001. Five years later, they’d make a surprise reversal by declaring the program unconstitutional on the very same constitutional issues they rejected years before.

Yes, you read that right.

The very constitutional issues that overturned the Opportunity Scholarship in 2006 were not even in play when the new scholarship was created because the courts had tossed those arguments out.

Maybe Jeb knew this would happen because the Doc’s mindreading machine actually worked.

But that’s a conspiracy for another day.

February 4, 2021 0 comment

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A school choice scholarship changed this LGBTQ student’s life – and may have saved it

Ron Matus January 18, 2021

Ron Matus

Marquavis Wilson, right, attends West Park Prep in Hollywood, Florida. A Florida Tax Credit Scholarship allowed his mom, Lamisha Stephens, to send him to the LGBTQ-affirming faith-based private school after he was bulled at his district school for his sexual identity. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Editor’s note: To hear Lamisha Stephens and her son, Marquavis Wilson, tell the story in their own words, watch the video at the end of this post.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – In fourth and fifth grades, Marquavis Wilson was tormented because of his sexual identity. In public schools, he was taunted with repeated slurs, teased for how he walked and talked, told he was going to hell. His life was a blur of fights and suspensions. “I am not the type of gay boy who takes stuff,” Marquavis said. “I stuck up for myself.”

But the bullying and battling took a toll. Marquavis no longer wanted to go to school. His grades fell to D’s and F’s. He told his mom, Lamisha Stephens, he wanted to kill himself.

Stephens knew she had to make a change. First, she secured a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, a school choice scholarship for lower-income students. Then she enrolled Marquavis in West Park Preparatory School, a tiny, faith-based private school she concluded would be the safe haven he needed.

It was. Now 16 and in tenth grade, Marquavis is no longer fighting. His grades have improved to B’s and C’s. He’s thinking about college and careers.

He said the scholarship and the school changed his life.

His mom said they saved his life.

Lamisha Stephens. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

“If Marquavis hadn’t come to this school,” said Stephens, a part-time supervisor at a delivery company, “he would probably be a dropout. Maybe in jail. Or he wouldn’t be here with us.”

“He would probably have taken his life,” she continued, “because he was tired of the bullying.”

Marquavis’s story reflects the tragic reality of hostility and intolerance for far too many LGBTQ students. At the same time, it offers a strong counterpoint to misleading narratives pushed by opponents of education choice. In Florida and other states, some religious schools have come under fire for policies adhering to their faith. But LGBTQ students themselves tell a more complicated story.

The most recent survey from the LGBTQ advocacy group GLSEN shows LGBTQ students in public district schools experience bullying, harassment and assault at higher rates than LGBTQ students in private religious schools. (For the details, go to survey page 119.) Given that backdrop, it’s no surprise that schools of choice aimed at LGBTQ students are springing up (see here, here and here), and that LGBTQ students are among those using – and in some cases, being saved by – education choice scholarships.

In Marquavis’s prior public schools, Stephens said she was having conferences with school officials every other week. Students weren’t the only problem.

At one point, a school security guard asked Marquavis if he had been molested, suggesting a link between molestation and sexual identity. “No,” Marquavis responded, “God made me this way.” Stephens complained to the principal. Eventually, she said, the guard was disciplined for inappropriate remarks.

Marquavis is athletic, confident, reflective, honest. His words sometimes roll out in torrents before he punctuates them with a “so” … or a “you know” … or, sometimes, a quick smile.

He said he was nervous when his mom told him he would be going to West Park Prep. The K-12 school is predominantly Black, with 110 students, nearly all of them on choice scholarships. He wondered if he’d have to fight there, too.

But his new classmates embraced him.

“On the first day,” Marquavis said, “all the kids were coming up to me. They were talking to me, asking what school I was from. They were friendly. All of them. It was unexpected.”

The school feels like a family, Marquavis said. The founder and principal, Jovan Rembert, encouraged him to be himself. He said no bullying or disrespect would be tolerated, ever.

“He was like, ‘Don’t let people get in your head,’ ” Marquavis said. “I told him about my past, and he said that’s not going to happen here. He kept his word.”

Marquavis found a safe space at West Park Prep that has allowed him to focus on being a student again.

Marquavis said there was only one incident involving his sexual identity at West Park. A new student called him a slur and was quickly suspended. The student apologized to Marquavis when he returned – and the two have been friends ever since.

Tragically, Rembert died in March, struck by a car when he went to check on an accident involving some of his students. But the warm, welcoming culture he established lives on, said teacher Billy Williams.

Last December, Williams said, Marquavis and other members of the dance team were set to rehearse for the holiday show when they veered into a little free-styling. Marquavis, comfortable among friends, poured his personality into a few new moves. “His body language and freedom of expression was so different,” said Williams, who worked in public schools 13 years before joining West Park full time. “But what was so magical was all the students embraced it. They hyped him up.”

The safe space allowed Marquavis to focus on being a student again. “He has more confidence in participating in group activities,” Williams said. “He’s more vocal. He speaks up. He asks questions.”

He’s thinking about the future, too. A diploma. Then college maybe. Then, maybe, a career in fashion.

Marquavis said without the scholarship and the new school, the fighting would have continued until he got expelled or dropped out. But West Park Prep won’t let him fail, he said.

“It’s like all love here,” he said. “It’s really all love.”

January 18, 2021 1 comment

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Courts, facts, logic refute false claims of education choice critics

redefinED staff December 23, 2020

redefinED staff

Editor’s note: Our critics often assert that giving lower-income families access to more learning options hurts district schools. Below we have assembled evidence showing that these claims are false. Empowering Florida’s lower-income families to access the best education options for their children does no harm.

COURT CASES

June 2015 Second Circuit Court decision in McCall v. Scott (Florida Education Association lawsuit against Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) program for low-income students)

Conclusion: Court determines that FEA’s allegations of FTC program causing harm to traditional district schools were insufficient to establish standing. Court offers an opportunity to amend complaint to include additional factional allegations to support their claim of harm. FEA declined the offer. Circuit Judge George Reynolds dismisses case with prejudice.

“… Whether any diminution of public school resources resulting from the Tax Credit program will actually take place is speculative, as is any claim that any such diminution would result in reduced per-pupil spending or in any adverse impact on the quality of education. The purported injury asserted here – the loss of money to local school districts – is necessarily speculative…(and) requires speculation about whether a decrease in students will reduce public school costs and about how the legislature will respond to the decrease in students attending public schools… Hence, any claim of special injury to any Plaintiff is speculative and conclusory.”

Link to decision: Second Circuit Court – McCall v. Scott

August 2016 Appellate Court decision in McCall v. Scott

Conclusion: The First District Court of Appeal upholds the lower court decision ruling that the Appellant’s claim that the FTC program creates “special injury” or harm to district schools is without merit.

“… The trial court correctly determined that Appellants lacked special injury standing because they failed to allege that they suffered a harm distinct from that suffered by the general public. Indeed, Appellants failed to allege any concrete harm whatsoever.”

“Appellants’ diversion theory is incorrect as a matter of law. A close examination of the statutory provisions authorizing the (FTC program) exposes the flaws under Appellants’ argument.”

“Further, even assuming that Appellants’ diversion theory was legally sufficient, Appellants’ allegations that the (FTC program) has harmed them are conclusory and speculative.”

Link to decision: First District Court of Appeal – McCall v. Scott

January 2017 Florida Supreme Court decision in McCall v. Scott

Conclusion: Court declines to hear the case, reaffirming First District Court of Appeal that there is no evidence showing that the FTC program harms district schools.

Link to decision: Florida Supreme Court – McCall v. Scott

FISCAL STUDIES

Collins Center for Public Policy 2007 Fiscal Analysis

Conclusion: The FTC program did not have a negative impact upon K-12 General Fund Revenues for public education for the three years studied (2002-2004).

“In fact, K-12 General Fund revenues increased over $2 billion during a three-year period while the state accrued $139.8 million in actual revenues by saving the difference between the value of the $3,500 scholarship and the value of K-12 per pupil revenue. These savings would allow the state to increase per pupil spending by an average of $17.92 per year for the 2.6 million children in the public schools during this period.”

Link: Collins Center for Public Policy Updated Fiscal Analysis

OPPAGA December 2008 and March 2010 studies examined the fiscal impact of FTC scholarships

Conclusion: No evidence that the FTC program adversely impacts the state budget or school district budgets.

From December 2008 report: – “…in Fiscal Year 2007-08, taxpayers saved $1.49 in state education funding or every dollar loss in corporate tax revenue due to credits for scholarship contributions. Expanding the cap on tax credit would produce additional savings if there is sufficient demand for the scholarship.”

From March 2010 report: “For Fiscal Year 2008-2009, OPPAGA estimates that the scholarship program saved (a net of) $36.2 million.”

Links: OPPAGA December 2008 Report; OPPAGA March 2010 Report.

Florida Revenue Estimating Conference 2012 Analysis of FTC scholarship tax credit cap increase

Conclusion: Fiscal impact created by increasing scholarship cap is offset by the savings of the cost of the scholarship vs. per-pupil FEFP dollar amount.

Line 55 of the analysis shows net FEFP savings for 2012-13 as $57.9 million, $57 million for 2013-14, $48.8 million for ’14-15, and $36.1 million for ’15-16.

Link: 2012 Florida Revenue Estimating Conference Analysis

EdChoice 2016 Tax-Credit Scholarship Audit (Martin Lueken)

Conclusion: FTC program saved taxpayers between $372 million and $550 million since its inception in 2003 (as of 2014), or $1,100 to $1,700 per scholarship recipient.

Link: 2016 EdChoice Tax-Credit Scholarship Audit (Florida pg. 39)

ACADEMIC OUTCOMES

Urban Institute 2019 report by Matt Chingos on effects of private school choice on college enrollment and graduation.

Conclusion: Several findings in the study. Chingos compared college enrollment and graduation outcomes of scholarship students with a group of similarly disadvantaged students in public schools.

Scholarship students up to 45 percent more likely to get college degree.

FTC students were 11-20 percent more likely than similarly disadvantaged students in public schools to earn a bachelor’s degree. Those who were on the scholarship for at least four years were 45 percent more likely to earn a degree.

FTC students were 16 to 43 percent more likely than similarly disadvantaged students in public schools to attend a four-year college. Those who were on the scholarship for at least four years were 99 percent more likely to attend college.

FTC students were 12 to 19 percent more likely than similarly disadvantaged students in public schools to attend either a two OR four-year college. Those who were on the scholarship for at least four years were 38 percent more likely.

“The available evidence indicates that FTC enrolls students who are triply disadvantaged. They have low family incomes, they are enrolled at low-performing public schools (as measured by test scores), and they have poorer initial test performance compared with their peers.”

Link to study: The Effects of the FTC program on College Enrollment and Graduation – An Update

Original 2017 study: The Effects of Statewide Private School Choice on College Enrollment and Graduation

David Figlio (Northwestern) and Cassandra Hart (UC-Davis) June 2010 academic study examined the competitive impact of FTC on district school achievement.

Conclusion: Found that the academic achievement in district schools most impacted by tax credit scholarships increased.

“Our results indicate that the increased competitive pressure faced by public schools associated with the introduction if Florida’s FTC Scholarship Program led to general improvements in public school performance.”

Link to study: Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers

In 2006, the Florida Legislature required that every scholarship student in grades 3-10 take a nationally norm-referenced test approved by the Department of Education every year. Those test scores are reported to a research team under contract with DOE to write an annual evaluation. Evaluations are currently done by researchers at the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University.

Conclusion: FTC students make roughly the same annual learning gains as students from all income levels nationally. This is despite the reality that the FTC students are typically the lowest-performing students from the lowest-performing public schools in their area, with an annual household income of $26,578 for a family of four. Fifty-three percent of all scholarship students are from single-parent households. (NOTE: Cassandra Hart October 2011 study examining characteristics of scholarship participating students can be found HERE.)

From the 2011-12 report: “There exists compelling causal evidence indicating that the FTC Scholarship Program has led to modest and statistically significant improvements in public school performance across the state. Therefore, a cautious read of the weight of the available evidence suggests that the FTC Scholarship Program has boosted student performance in public schools statewide, that the program draws disproportionately low-income, poorly-performing students from the public schools into the private schools, and that the students who moved perform as well or better once they move to the private schools.”

Links to Learning Systems Institute’s annual assessments: 2008 (baseline report), 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

In May 2014, former state Senator Nan Rich claimed $3 billion over the subsequent five years “…will be taken out of our public schools and be put into vouchers.”

Conclusion: The statement was analyzed by Politfact in June 2014. They rated the claim Mostly False.

“Based on the program’s size, it’s possible that it could fund a voucher program in the ballpark of $3 billion over the next five years. But there’s no guarantee that money would otherwise have gone to public schools. And, private school vouchers tend to cost less than what it costs to educate a child in public schools, which complicates how much money taxpayers would pay if the children in private schools instead went to public schools.”

Link to Politifact analysis: Politifact on Sen. Rich’s voucher claim

December 23, 2020 0 comment

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In her own words: A Step Up Scholar on the most important thing she learned in high school

Special to redefinED December 17, 2020

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: Isabella Garcia, a senior at La Progresiva Presbyterian School in South Florida, wrote this essay as part of her college application. Located in a working-class section of Miami, La Progresiva serves 622 students who qualify for Florida Tax Credit Scholarships. Isabella’s essay came to redefinED unsolicited and is being published with her permission. You can hear more from La Progresiva students here.

The most valuable lesson I have learned while in high school is to be charitable. I have attended La Progresiva Presbyterian School (LPPS) for nearly thirteen years. Yes, this is a private school, and no— my single mother is not rich. I have been fortunate enough to attend this school because of charity – the kindness of others.

I, along with many others, attend this school on the Step Up For Students low–income scholarship. Were it not for this act of charity, I might not have the aspirations I do now. Being the child of immigrants heavily affected my academics; my mother pushed me to do my best in school because she wanted me to have the future that was out of reach for her.

This scholarship that I was awarded and was able to use at LPPS was a ray of hope for my family. Although I may have been too young to realize the opportunity I was provided, it has propelled me to never take anything for granted. This form of charity has given my family and me this educational opportunity, opening the possibilities of a better life.

These multi-million dollar companies, through a charitable tax credit, may have provided what seemed to them an insignificant donation, but through their charity have provided me with opportunities that otherwise would not have been available. Throughout my thirteen years at LPPS, I realized that it was imperative for me to be a part of the ripple effect.

Different missions projects and community service opportunities at LPPS opened my eyes to the impact that charity has on a community. When one of the students was diagnosed with cancer, the entire school came together to fundraise and assist her family, even after her passing. I have learned that being part of something bigger than myself will produce an impact that will resonate.

In every aspect of my life, I have gained the understanding that you must love your fellow man as yourself. Through the giving of my time, just like the giving of the donations to produce these scholarships, I have learned how essential charity is to produce a society, in which kindness can abound.

The charity I have received has inspired me to participate in acts of goodwill, such as the Susan G. Komen “More than Pink Walk”, which cemented my desire to dedicate my life to paying it forward. Personally, escorting the last participant in the walk – who was currently battling cancer herself and required a walker – was one of the greatest honors of my life.

This event played a pivotal role in my choice of career; seeing the impact doctors have on the lives of these women has motivated me to pursue a career as a doctor. Science has always been an interest of mine and a career in which it can be used to help others will fulfill the thirteen-year lesson of charity I have been given.

December 17, 2020 0 comment

Education Choice Education Equity Family Empowerment Scholarship Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Gardiner Scholarship Hope Scholarship News Parental Choice Private School Scholarships Reading Scholarship School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships

Step Up For Students ranks 21st on Forbes’ list of top charities

Patrick R. Gibbons December 11, 2020

Patrick R. Gibbons

All students at each of three Academy Prep campuses — St. Petersburg, Tampa and Lakeland, Florida — attend on state scholarships administered by Step Up For Students.

Americans donated more than $450 billion to charities last year. Of that amount, $49.5 billion went to the top 100 charities, according to Forbes Magazine’s America’s Top Charities rankings.

Step Up for Students, a scholarship granting nonprofit that administers five school choice scholarship programs in Florida, ranked as the 21^st largest nonprofit in America. Step Up, which raised $618 million in private donations last year and hosts this blog.

Step Up’s scholarship programs include the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income and working-class students, the Gardiner Scholarship for students with unique abilities, the Hope Scholarship for victims of bullying and harassment, the Reading Scholarship for public school students struggling with reading and literacy, and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for lower- and middle-class students.

Step Up’s goal for the fiscal year 2021 is to raise $700 million to fund the Florida Tax Credit and Hope Scholarship programs. The Gardiner Scholarship, Reading Scholarship and Family Empowerment Scholarship programs are funded by the Florida legislature, though Step Up advertises these scholarships, processes applications and helps manage accounts for Gardiner and Reading scholarship families.

Since offering the first scholarships during the 2002-03 school year, Step Up has awarded scholarships to more than 1 million students. The organization served more than 150,000 students during the 2020-21 school year.

December 11, 2020 0 comment

Catholic Schools Coronavirus / COVID-19 Education Choice Family Empowerment Scholarship Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship News Parental Choice Private School Scholarships Religious Education School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships

Scholarships continue to be a lifeline for Catholic school families

Lisa Buie December 8, 2020

Lisa Buie

Eight-year-old Grace Peters, her sister, Stella, 5, and her brother, Colton, 6, attend San Jose Catholic School in Jacksonville on state scholarships.

While Catholic school enrollment in Florida declined for the second straight year, newly released figures showing an increase in the number of families using state scholarships to send their children to these schools may be the reason the schools escaped the precipitous declines plaguing Catholic schools nationwide.

Overall, scholarship use among Catholic school families increased by 2.1%. Preliminary figures on Catholic school enrollment released by the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops shows the number of students receiving the Family Empowerment Scholarship soaring from 1,787 in 2019 to 5,040 in 2020.

Florida Catholic school enrollment yearly comparison and growth over time

Florida Catholic school state scholarship figures 2018-2020

“Families are looking for more flexibility and access to diverse schooling options to keep their children safe and well educated during this pandemic,” said Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up For Students, Florida’s largest K-12 scholarship organization and host of this blog. “That’s why we are seeing a surge in demand for scholarships, such as the Family Empowerment Scholarship.”

Tuthill added: “Education choice programs will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Families like having access to more learning options for their children.”

A significant amount of the growth in scholarships, Tuthill speculated, is due to parents of kindergarteners seeking a safer environment for their children during the pandemic while trying to maintain a high-quality education. The pandemic’s impact on family finances also may have played a role in scholarship growth, he said.

“I suspect there has been a lot of pressure on families who were private pay,” he said.

Count Joe Peters and his wife, Sarah, among those who felt that pressure. Peters, a 36-year-old father of four children ranging in age from 8 years to 18 months, lost his income when the pandemic wiped out the event planning and management business he co-owns. Though the family was able to make ends meet for a few months with income from events held before pandemic-forced cancellations, the threat of having to take their children out of San Jose Catholic School in Jacksonville, which they knew and loved, caused many sleepless nights.

“That was a trying time,” said Peters, who attended San Jose and graduated from Bishop Kenney Catholic High School in Jacksonville. The situation became so dire that the family considered moving to his father-in-law’s Alabama hometown so the kids could attend district schools there and still be near relatives.

“Just the thought of telling our kids they wouldn’t be able to return to a place they loved so much was heartbreaking,” Sarah Peters said. The idea of her young children having to move to a new town, adjust to new teachers and make new friends while everyone’s faces were covered with masks was “frightening to me,” she said.

Then a family member told the family about the Family Empowerment Scholarship program. They applied, and their children were awarded full scholarships for the 2020-21 school year.

“It brought tears to our eyes,” Joe Peters recalled. “That was such a relief knowing that our kids would not be put through any kind of drastic change during this global pandemic.”

Catholic school leaders such as Michael Barrett, associate for education for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, credit state scholarship programs for allowing Catholic schools to remain open, providing a high-quality, faith-based education for families dealing with pandemic-induced anxiety.

“The Family Empowerment Scholarship is a program true to its name,” Barrett said. “Even pre-pandemic, the rising costs of private school tuition coupled with increased costs of living often made it difficult for middle-income families to provide a Catholic education for multiple children.”

Barrett said his organization hopes state lawmakers will expand the Family Empowerment Scholarship to more students by eliminating the requirement that students in first through 12^th grades first attend a district school to qualify for the program. (Because the Peters’ youngest child was entering kindergarten, the two older children were also eligible for Family Empowerment Scholarships, according to state rules.)

“Parents are the primary educators of their children and should have the opportunity to educate their children as they see fit,” he said.

Joe and Sarah Peters’ said they are relieved that at their three children to continue attending the school the family has always known and loved.

“We like the values that are being taught here,” Joe Peters said. “We know the community, and the community knows us.”

Peters also found his own lifeline at San Jose as a long-term substitute Spanish teacher and cross country/track coach.

“I am talking to you from my desk at school,” he said. “I am beyond grateful.”

December 8, 2020 0 comment