Florida’s new universal school choice law stipulates that when it comes to education funding, “the money follows the child.”
But that promise is being eyed with caution by some, including those advocating for religious schools and homeschoolers—groups broadly seen as the bill’s greatest beneficiaries.
And many have celebrated the new law.
The details of Florida’s new law haven’t been officially announced. But the general premise is this: public schools in Florida receive about $8,100 of funding per child per year from the state. Universal school choice will allow a family to move a child to a private school, and the money would move with the child to pay tuition.
Unwanted Complications
But government funding can come with unwanted complications, panel speakers warned during an April 13 video conference to discuss the legislation called “How will school choice impact your family?”It was presented by the America Project, Florida Citizens Alliance, Partners For Family Values from Palm Beach County, and Florida Moms For America. Between 50 and 100 people participated.
When a government spends taxpayer money, it must provide “accountability” for how those funds are spent, speakers noted. That could lead to private schools or homeschoolers who accept the money being told by the government what to teach, the speakers warned.
And that could involve directives to teach the same concepts that parents sought to escape when they pulled their children out of public school, wary of “indoctrination,” they said.
Under the new law, private school students and homeschool students who take state funds will have to take standardized tests every year, such as the Iowa Standard Achievement Test or the SAT-10, said panel member Rebekah Ricks in an interview with The Epoch Times.
Standardized tests have always been optional for homeschoolers in the state. That’s likely to be a deal-breaker for many.
All Florida families are eligible for the money this coming school year, with one exception, said Ricks, president of Florida Moms for America. Homeschooling recipients will be limited to 20,000 families the first year, and half of those will be low-income.
An additional 40,000 homeschooling families will be phased in each year after that. There were almost 105,000 families homeschooling in Florida during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).
Why Homeschoolers May Say, ‘No, Thanks’
Alex Newman—an education expert and Epoch Times contributor—told the group that he understands that some families need to take the money.He and his wife, he said, send their five children to a school that accepts no government funding. But taking advantage of the bill’s offering would be tempting at $8,000 per child, he said. As Florida residents, they'd qualify for $40,000.
The homeschool community in Florida “really fought back hard against this bill,“ he said. ”They do not want government money. They don’t want any semblance of government money.”
But not all homeschooling parents see things the same way, Ricks told The Epoch Times after the conference.
Ricks taught in public and private schools and ran a business associated with homeschooling, until having her own children and becoming a homeschooling parent. She closely tracked and studied the legislation as it made its journey into law.
In the past, most who chose to homeschool were spurred by a desire to give their children something better, and did it without government funding, she said. They made peace with the financial sacrifice.
Many longtime homeschoolers will suspect government interference will come with the money, she predicted.
A more recent wave of homeschoolers—often younger parents—pulled their children out of school systems they saw as failing, Rick said. Many of those seem ready to welcome the government money, something they see as their right because they pay taxes, she said.
The Florida Legislature made some accommodations for people who don’t want the cash because of possible strings attached.
Homeschoolers who don’t accept the money will be in their own category and won’t have any new level of regulation, Ricks told The Epoch Times.
The law provides for “choice navigators” to act as consultants for families accepting the funding. In the bill’s original language, working with them would have been required. Now, it’s optional.
Private-School Dependence on Public Money
Florida already has been providing scholarships for some low-income students seeking to go to private schools. Those have been administered through a program called Step Up for Students.The program accepted “a big grant from one of the radical LGBT groups in our state, Equality Florida,“ Newman said. The group has been trying “to leverage that to try to impose some of this on our Christian schools and on our private schools,” he said.
“Right now, they can’t do that. But as more and more private schools, as more and more Christian schools, become dependent on government money, I think it’s going to be harder to resist these kinds of things.”
Step Up for Students spokesman Scott Kent wrote in an email to The Epoch Times that his organization no longer has any connection with Equality Florida.
Several private schools—including some Christian schools—had asked Step Up for Students for training on how to work with students struggling with sexual preference or gender identity, he wrote. The organization obtained a grant from an individual not associated with Equality Florida, and used it to pay Equality Florida trainers to help three schools.
The voluntary program ended when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-school education, he wrote.
“I should point out that school choice scholarships have been around for 20 years in Florida, with over 70 percent of students eligible, and these terrible things the panel fears haven’t happened,” Kent wrote.
Headmasters of two Christian schools in Gainesville, Florida, spoke with The Epoch Times in March, when the school choice bill passed. State scholarships already were a significant factor in their enrollment, both said.
One said 40 percent of his school’s students paid their tuition using the state money. The other said 75 percent of his students did.
The media have questioned Christian schools’ acceptance of the aid, saying the schools are “discriminating in their hiring” because “they’re not willing to hire a guy in makeup and a dress to teach their kindergarten children,” Newman said.
Ricks, during the panel discussion, agreed private schools are becoming dependent on state aid.
“On the private school side, we’ve almost programmed our parents in Florida to expect to get Step Up [for Students scholarships]. So our whole private-school system is financially dependent on this.
Understanding the 100-Page Law
The 100-page bill had more than 30 amendments, and keeping track of the revisions and loopholes was difficult, Ricks said.“I really did a huge push to make sure that we had religious exemptions put into there, to make sure that was really protected. And it isn’t in some cases. Of course, in every bill, there’s a loophole.”
She was satisfied with the bill’s final language when it passed, she said. Legislators addressed all of her expressed concerns.
But in examining the law after it passed and the more than 100 education laws tied to it, she discovered one saying the online portal parents use to buy curriculum will only allow the purchase of secular school programs. Many homeschooling families prefer faith-based curricula. In the past, only two religious choices have been on the portal’s list of options.
“It was a goof,” Ricks said. “It was not intentional. I think we can fix it.”
Many of the details of signing up for state money still need to be settled, she said.
“Right now, we just don’t know.”
And she doesn’t feel it’s safe to assume the money for school choice always will be available.
The Florida bill passed partly because the state had a $15 billion budget surplus last year, Ricks said. But extra money in the budget might not always be there, she cautioned.
And even though Gov. DeSantis is an outspoken proponent of school choice, he won’t always reside in the governor’s mansion.
Funding for the school choice program is “protected now,” Ricks said. “But somebody’s going to come in” eventually as leader of the state who might not feel the same.
Problem of Mandatory Testing
Florida now has “a halfway-decent legislature,” Newman said.But federal courts have established a pattern of ruling that the government has not just the authority but the duty to regulate uses of public money.
Any mandatory testing is a problem, Newman said.
“Testing drives the curriculum” in every kind of school, he said. “You don’t want your kid to look like a dummy when he or she goes and takes the test.”
Many standardized tests align with Common Core. And that forces the use of curricula aligned with Common Core.
Originally the brainchild of several Republican governors, Common Core was meant to bring American classrooms up to the level of foreign ones, and then outpace them, Ricks said. It was meant to be adopted by the states to establish more consistency.
But it changed the way of teaching math and literature, using methods unfamiliar to American parents and teachers, Ricks said.
Common Core was rushed into practice too quickly, with most states adopting its use in 2010, she said. Parents and teachers didn’t understand it, and pushed back, Ricks said.
Textbook publishers loved it, because everyone had to buy new textbooks, she said. But in the upheaval, those with a political agenda—such as proponents of critical race theory (CRT)—were able to sneak those ideas into the hastily produced textbooks.
“The big thing was, it was top down and teachers weren’t consulted,” Ricks said. “It looked good on paper but it didn’t pan out.”
‘Cheese In a Mousetrap’
Newman has tracked school choice initiatives in other countries, including Sweden, where he has lived, he said. A universal school choice program like Florida’s was widely hailed in that country about 10 years ago.“It was like cheese in a mousetrap, right? For a while, the mice could come and approach the cheese, and it was no big deal.
“But then, when the trap shut, it shut absolutely ruthlessly. Every single private school in Sweden that took the money was forced to teach the government curriculum, which was monstrous, even at the time.”
“They were demanding that 1st graders learn that gender is a social construct and you can [pick] your gender.”
Sweden then banned homeschooling, he said.
The school choice initiative ended up wrecking what had been a vibrant private school market.
And in the Canadian province of Alberta, homeschoolers were offered a $500 optional voucher, Newman said. A year later, it developed into a program with many strings attached.
Private schools and homeschooling families who accept money from the school choice program should be aware of potential requirements attached to that money, Newman warned. And more may arise in the future.
“With the shekels come the shackles,“ he said. ”Just be aware you’re going to lose a lot of your independence.”
Chaos is Coming
The start of the next school year is likely to be more chaotic than usual, Ricks said.Parents will have only four weeks between the program’s July 1 start date and the start of school in early August to change their children’s school plans.
Private schools facing a sudden influx of students probably won’t have enough teachers or classroom space ready, Ricks said. That planning usually takes place the previous winter.
And public schools won’t find out until the last minute that students have pulled out, leaving them with half-empty classrooms, she predicted.
Charter schools may lose students to private schools just before school begins, Ricks said. Then, they may start accepting students from their own waiting lists. And then those students will withdraw from the public schools where they'd been enrolled.
Prices to Jump
Ricks is somewhat cynical about the effects of imposing school choice.Private schools, she predicted, will raise their tuition, similar to the inflationary effect college loans have had on college tuition.
Parents now paying $10,000 a year without assistance may see that school’s tuition rise to $15,000. Because they‘ll get $8,000 through the voucher system, the amount they pay will drop to $7,000. So they’ll be happy.
More private schools will spring up, now that government money will be available, she predicted. Most are likely to be legitimate, she said. But not all of them.
“The bill will help people in the short term,” Ricks said. “It‘ll be a problem in 10 years, and they’ll have to fix it. But for the next five years, it'll be good.”
For many reasons, Newman said he'd recommend that families “avoid getting entangled in” accepting state money offered in the school choice program.
“Unless you absolutely need the money and there’s no other possible way for you to be able to give your child the education he or she deserves,” Newman said.
“I say that with a heavy heart.”