There are many reasons I feel like DeSantis is a disaster and so is the legislature but it is hard for me to believe Miami Dade went for him since he has diverted all these billions of dollars to private schools.
DRAMATIC INCREASE IN FLOW OF DOLLARS FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS FUNDS PRIVATE EDUCATION IN FLORIDA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2022
ORLANDO, Fla. - The flow of state school aid to vouchers for private schooling has reached an estimated $1.3 billion in the wake of the Florida Legislature’s enactment of the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program in 2019, according to a new research report by Education Law Center (ELC) and Florida Policy Institute (FPI).
The report, Florida's Hidden Voucher Expansion: Over $1 Billion From Public Schools to Fund Private Education, finds that the dramatic rise in funding redirected from Florida’s public school districts to vouchers in 2022-23 represents 10% of total state aid for public education. This diversion of public funds to vouchers directly from school districts is in addition to a potential $1.1 billion in public dollars diverted from the state treasury through vouchers financed by corporate tax credits.
The report finds that:
- Between 2019-20 and 2022-23, funding redirected to private education from the Florida Education Financing Program (FEFP), the state’s school funding formula, increased by $1 billion.
- The increase in diverted funds outpaced increases in public school funding.
- As of 2022-23, an estimated 10% of the $13.2 billion in state aid for public schools will be diverted to private education through the FES voucher program, up from 3% in 2019-20.
- The entire cost of private school vouchers, comprising both state and local funding, is diverted from school districts’ state aid; therefore, districts that are more reliant on local funding will see proportionately larger state aid cuts.
By re-routing substantial dollars from public schools to support private education, the educational environment of students throughout the state is being severely eroded,” said Mary McKillip, PhD, ELC Senior Researcher and report author. “The state of Florida is turning its back on public school students at a time when more resources, not less, are needed.”
In Florida, we do not have bus drivers. I get calls there will be no buses to take children to their schools due to lack of drivers.
The Public Schools are nickle and dimeing the parents to just be able to open their door IF they can get their kids to school and pick them up.
This man wants to be president?
Here is a report from last year.
Florida’s Education Funding Fails Across the Board
Providing a quality education to all of Florida’s students is a core constitutional responsibility of state government and critical to economic growth. Yet, school districts in Florida are dealing with a crushing teacher shortage, bus driver shortage, and overall operating cost growth that has outpaced revenue. Florida’s average teacher pay ranked 49th in the nation in 2020. All these issues are directly tied to Florida’s ongoing underinvestment in K-12 public schools.
Education Law Center’s report on state school funding, “Making the Grade,” paints a woeful picture for Florida. It grades each state and D.C. on three metrics: funding level (cost-adjusted, per-pupil revenue from state and local sources), funding distribution (the extent to which additional funds are distributed to districts with high student poverty levels), and funding effort (funding allocated to PreK-12 public education as a percentage of the state’s economic activity). Florida was one of only two states to receive an ‘F’ in all three categories. The Sunshine State ranked 45th for funding level, at $4,484 below the national per-pupil average of $15,487 for school year 2018-19 (the most recent Census data available).
Florida’s Education Funding Fails Across the Board
F Cost Adjusted per pupil from state and local sources
F The extent to which funds are distributed to students with high poverty levels
F Dollars allocated to PreK-12 public education as a percentage of the state’s economic activity.
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School Buses remain Parked
It’s not just teachers. Florida has a critical school bus driver shortage
With the state teacher shortage — of which there are approximately 9,000 vacancies entering the year — garnering most of the national attention, it has fallen mostly on deaf ears that counties like Orange County are short hundreds of drivers compared to the year previous, according to a report by Spectrum News.
“We’ve been dealing with shortages for a while and they continue to get worse,” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said in November. “Part of it has to do with the lack of funding in our schools.”
a group of Florida House Democrats, including Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson of Miami, rose attention to the issue in November, calling for increased spending on schools and educational services in Florida public schools in anticipation of the current state of affairs.
“We need to have a fully staffed transportation system within our schools and districts,” said Robinson. “The shortages are related directly to low salaries for public sector workers in education fields. Respect for the value of experienced workers is eroded by policies like the current salary increase that puts the majority of funding towards the raising of base salaries without providing adequate funding to increase the salaries of experienced teachers.”