Florida Needs More Transparency and Accountability Around School Vouchers

During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed a measure (HB 1) making school vouchers available to all students eligible for K-12 public schools through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options Program (FES-EO). Vouchers are now also available[1] for up to 20,000 home-schooled students through the FTC this school year, called the Personalized Education Program. For students with disabilities, vouchers remain available through the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities Program (FES-UA), though for these students, there is an enrollment cap, which was a focus of last fall’s special session.

The state’s expansion of the existing voucher program through HB 1 was massively ambitious and issues with implementation quickly became evident. Floridians called into question expenditures of education savings accounts when it was revealed that funds were being used for theme park tickets, paddleboards, and large screen TVs; additionally, some private schools stated that they were not receiving tuition payments in a timely manner. Florida Policy Institute and its partners called on the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) to share data on the number and characteristics of students receiving vouchers, including the income levels of students receiving vouchers and whether students had previously been in public schools. The groups also called for transparency in the amount of funding and the sources being used to fund the universal voucher program. Under HB 1, FLDOE is required to collect data on vouchers and fund an evaluation.

This session, legislation — HB 1403 — was proposed to bring greater transparency and accountability to voucher expenditures; to increase the numeric cap for students with disabilities from 3 percent to 5 percent of exceptional education students; and to shore up processes to ensure timely payments to schools and parents. The original bill restricted voucher purchases to the expenses directly related to core curriculum areas of reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. However, in the eleventh hour, after the bill passed with these restrictions in all of its House committees and in two Senate committees, the bill was amended and the restriction was removed.