A bill that would accelerate the growth of Florida’s tax-credit scholarship program could be headed for a vote on the House floor.
The House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee approved the measure on a party-line vote Tuesday, after approving changes that would raise limits on the program’s growth and voting down a proposal to require that scholarship students take the same standardized tests as their public school peers.
After the changes approved Tuesday, the program could grow to about $401 million next school year, raising the cap for that year by about $43.6 million. That would allow as many as 76,680 students to receive scholarships. (The program is administered by Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.)
The hearing was packed with parents, teachers, students, political activists and clergy members on both sides of the school choice debate. Students weighed in on both sides, including Artayia Wesley, an eighth-grader who said she has used a scholarship to attend St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando since she was in fourth grade.
“Before, I was academically challenged,” she said. “I wasn’t the best student in the class, grade-wise. But as I went to St. Andrew, now I’m an A-B student and working to be on the honor roll.”
Democrats on the committee, who opposed the bill, said they wanted the state to measure for scholarship students’s academic progress with the same standardized tests taken by public-school students. Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, introduced an amendment to create that requirement. It failed on a party-line vote after setting off a debate about how schools should be held accountable.
Representatives of the Florida Education Association and Florida PTA said they supported Jones’ proposal.
“We believe that public dollars, if they’re given to private schools, should be accountable,” said Eileen Segal, the PTA’s president.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, said applying the state tests to tax credit scholarship students could force private schools to “change the curriculum for 500 students because of two or three” who are on scholarship.
The schools already have “a higher level of parental accountability” because parents can remove their children from the program, he said, and scholarship students are required to take state-approved, norm-referenced tests to measure their performance.
“Accountability is critical and it’s important,” Bileca said. “I just think there’s different routes to get there.”
The testing issue could resurface in the Senate. Senate President Don Gaetz has said private-school students receiving scholarships should take the state tests. The Department of Education announced this week it is entering a contract with the American Institutes for Research for tests that are set to replace the FCAT.
This post is a work in progress. Please check back for updates.
The meeting was very interesting and I am encouraged to support parents and children more now than I did before. I support expansion and I have seen a great difference in my children academically and they enjoy going to school since they’re transitioning from public to private school.
Hi Pastor Gladys. Thanks so much for taking time out to read the blog and post a comment. I’m glad so many parents were at the meeting to let lawmakers what they think of the program, and what they think of school choice. I’m glad, too, that you and your children have found a school that is working for them. That’s what it’s all about!