By Lynn Hatter
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Tallahassee, FL – Governor Rick Scott has approved several education bills expanding school options. Lynn Hatter reports the move has school choice advocates smiling and public school supporters worried that one of those new laws could pose serious problems for the state's school system.
The new laws expand eligibility for the McKay scholarship program for students with disabilities, changes the definition of a "failing school" from an "F" to a "D", allows children in failing schools to go across district lines, and eliminates the cap on the amount of money businesses can put into the state's program that supports school vouchers. Doug Tuthill is the president for Step up for Students, a school choice group that administers the state's corporate tax scholarship program.
"But most of the schools that serve Step up for Students parents also serve McKay parents. And expanding options for parents with kids with special needs benefits everybody."
The McKay Scholarship program gives corporate tax scholarships or vouchers, to students with mental and physical disabilities, allowing them to attend private schools. But opponents to the expansion say the new definitions for "disabled" are too broad. Dr. Wayne Blanton heads the Florida Association of School Boards. He says expanding eligibility to students who may not have severe disabilities could lead to abuse and fraud in the program.
"I believe they've expanded the definition by including 504 students, which is a type of student who may have a minor problem, and these students can go and receive a voucher just like the like other McKay scholarship students could do. I believe this is going to set up a cottage industry of psychologists and psychiatrists and people like that who will sign off on anybody."
Blanton says the vague language around who qualifies for the scholarships could lead to diagnoses of learning disabilities where none exist. The Florida Education Association, a teacher's union, has warned that the expansion puts the program in jeopardy of a constitutional challenge. Meanwhile, Step-up-for Students' president Doug Tuthill is looking ahead to next year. The group expects between 15-20-thousand people to be placed on a waiting list for school vouchers, and he'd like to see the caps on the program lifted.
"We're capped on the amount of the scholarship itself, this year it was $4,022. We're also capped on the amount of money we can give away overall. This school year it was capped at $140 million. Next year is $175 million."
That money is coming in the form of corporate taxes, which public school supporters say should be put into the state's general revenue fund and made available to public schools.