Two years ago, Florida dramatically expanded its school choice programs by removing income as a qualification. According to Governor Ron DeSantis, the state now has about one-third of all the school choice scholarships in the country. The growing conflict between choice advocates and public school backers was recently on display in Leon County.
“Right now in the state of Florida, we have over 500,000 students on our scholarship programs, and that is more than anywhere else.” [applause]
That’s DeSantis, speaking earlier this month at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, a private school.
“I think school choice is here to stay -- especially here in Florida,” Bill Mattox of the James Madison Institute recently told Leon County school board members.
“As the bar chart that’s coming around will show you, there is extraordinary gain, especially here in the last several years in the number of students that are taking advantage of school choice scholarships," Mattox said. "We’re seeing similar gains in the number of students taking advantage of things like charter schools. And I don’t think there is any sign that that is going to recede.”
Families use those scholarships to pay tuition at private schools. But some worry they come at a cost to public schools. That’s because public school funding formulas are largely based on the number of kids attending school in each district. Mattox says the Leon County School Board should embrace competition and not worry about students who leave Leon’s public schools for a school choice option.
“When someone leaves Tallahassee and moves to Sarasota, I don’t hear hand-wringing about, ‘Oh, we are losing dollars to some student who has left us,’" Mattox said. "You no longer need those dollars because that student is no longer being educated by you. They’re now being educated in Sarasota.”
But school board member Marcus Nicolas worries about how to hold schools accountable if the dollars don’t fluctuate but the testing and other measures do.
“Or are you saying that the different schools should, the private schools should create their own accountability metrics while still getting the same money from these vouchers? What exactly are you saying?,” Nicolas asked.
Mattox says that’s a good question. Private schools that receive scholarship money aren’t held to the same state learning and testing standards as traditional public schools.
“We’re going to expect those who are being educated in our state to demonstrate results based on the curriculum that they are using,” said Mattox.
Leon School Superintendent Rocky Hanna is an outspoken supporter of traditional public schools.
“I’m all for competition, Mr. Mattox, but as long as the competition and the playing field is level. And it’s not," Hanna said. "And the answer is not deregulating public schools to meet the lower standard of vouchers and private schools.”
It’s an argument that’s been going back and forth in Florida for nearly 20 years now, since the first school choice programs emerged. Laurie Cox, who became the Leon school board’s chair in November, invited Mattox to speak knowing he’d encounter some push-back. She supports school choice.
“We’re in this state in Florida, and it’s not going away," she said. "So, how can we be better board members and navigate the waters in which we find ourselves? Obviously, we care about our community. All of us are out in the community. And I feel like every student in Leon County is part of our community.”
On the other hand, Cox continued, the public school system teaches every child who comes to them.
Public schools have found themselves having to compete for students in a way they haven’t before, leaving districts like Leon grappling with the question of how to respond.
