Voucher Swamp Devours Florida Education Dollars
Florida has one of the nation's most expansive school voucher schemes - and it's costing the state (and students)
Florida has long been at the forefront of the “school choice” movement. Since the days when Jeb Bush was governor and appeared destined to be a future President, Florida embraced sending taxpayer dollars to fund unaccountable private schools.
There are lots of “choice” options - multiple voucher schemes, charter schools, homeschooling - all with state handouts available.
The latest evidence that all is not well in the Wild West of Florida school choice comes from an audit of state voucher funds. The findings suggest lots of double-dipping - kids drawing voucher dollars even though they end up in public schools.
Here’s more from Accountabaloney:
But last week, the Auditor General’s report — 2024-25 School Year Funding Accountability Challenges — confirmed what many suspected: massive, systemic failures at both Step Up For Students (SUFS), the state’s primary “nonprofit” Scholarship Funding Organization, and the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). The mismanagement produced a $47 million deficit in the 2024–25 K–12 education budget.
More on how Florida got here -
This year, even before the 2025 October count, another 22,000 students have been identified as both receiving a voucher and attending a public school. Most of these students are sitting in classrooms daily, yet districts aren’t being funded for them because their names are on a scholarship lost. The FLDOE has asked school districts to help perform the critical cross-checking process — a time-consuming, unfunded task.
Both public and private schools suffer under the Florida scheme:
Scott Ward, chief financial officer for Lake County schools, said that in the middle of the school year the district had to reduce its budget by $16 million “without any real notification.” That amount, he said, “would probably be a 3.5% raise to our teachers that we wouldn’t be allowed to give because we had to cut our budget.”
Private schools that accept students using vouchers also face challenges:
Keva Hampton, head of Inner City Christian School in Jacksonville, stood before the subcommittee to describe her school’s and other private schools’ experiences, including “chronic payment delays, fluctuating scholarship amounts, technical failures, lack of consistent communication, and we can go on.”