This year, Governor Ron DeSantis celebrated the success of school choice in Florida. He announced that nearly 1.4 million students use a school choice option in the state, and more than half a million scholarships were awarded. Florida’s universal school voucher program allows all K-12 students to receive taxpayer- funded scholarships for private education. In 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill removing income requirements to qualify.
There are several scholarships available including the Florida Tax Credit and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options that give on average $8,000 a year for tuition and fees for students who want to attend private schools. The Unique Ability Scholarship for students with disabilities offers $10,000 annually to cover expenses including tuition, fees, and physical and speech therapy. The Personalized Education Program puts money into an education savings account to fund the needs of homeschool students.
The program is meant to give families choices about how and where they’re being educated. Most of these vouchers are primarily paid for by state aid that usually would have gone to public schools, but some of the funding comes from tax credits that are donated by private businesses and companies.
Choice at the expense of public schools?
Critics of the school vouchers program said the expansion comes at the expense of public schools.
“This attack on public education is now being felt here in Orange County. The rapid expansion of vouchers is designed to hurt public education,” says Orange County Classroom Teachers Association President Clinton McCracken.
This year, 811 Orange County teachers received a non-reappointment letter indicating their contracts are not being renewed. This is a normal process that is done each year to adapt to enrollment numbers. This year, the district projects a loss of around 3,100 students. McCracken says the lower student enrollment and the cuts in teacher positions are a direct consequence of the state’s expansion of school vouchers.
“Teachers who have years of experience are now seeking jobs elsewhere or seeking jobs outside of the field of education altogether,” he says. “If you have experienced teachers who are leaving the field, all of this is going to affect how our students are learning in those classrooms.”
OCPS has a virtual job fair for teachers on May 14, 2025.
Fewer students means less money
The projected drop in public school enrollment in Orange County could result in a loss of state funding. The district is given the money based on the number of students. Staffing levels could be impacted by the decrease in enrollment.
“If we lose 3,100 students that could be between $27 and $28 million for the next year,” explained Scott Howat, Orange County Public Schools Chief Communications Officer. “We would make adjustments on personnel in order to address that decline.”
Howat said there is also a plan for next year to reduce spending at the district level at “non-school sites” to address the decline in enrollment and a decline in state and federal dollars.
He agreed that school choice expansion takes away resources from public schools, and one of the reasons that enrollment is down is the Legislature’s move toward universal school choice that eliminated income limits for families in Florida to qualify for vouchers.
“We have a very robust choice offering within our school district. We have a number of charter schools that are options for parents. We know that parents choose their schools based on what their children need, and what we're saying is that parents should have choice, but that choice should not cause money to be pulled away from the public school system. It should be in addition to, so we should continue to fund our public school system at a high level,” Howat said.
Support for school choice expansion
The nonprofit Step Up For Students administers most of the state-backed vouchers in Florida. More than 120,000 families applied for K-12 scholarships through the portal in the first two days it was open earlier this year.
“You're seeing families able to do lots of different things with their scholarship dollars,” said Lauren May, Senior Director of Advocacy. “One way that we describe it is they're able to unbundle their education and find the best things that meet their needs.”
May does not agree with critics who say the program uses public dollars to pay for kids to attend private schools who don’t have a financial need. She said the money follows the child.
“If a child is in a public school, the public school gets the dollars. If a child is in a private school, the private school gets the dollars,” May explains.
May doesn’t think education should be about a physical school building anymore and would like to see school choice continue to expand.
She said, “My hope and dream is that every child in America would have the choice to go to the learning educational option that best meets their needs.”
