The Florida Board of Education approved two non-profit organizations on Wednesday under new requirements for groups that administer two of the state’s school choice programs.
A law change last year added a layer of scrutiny for organizations that fund Florida tax credit scholarships for low-income students and Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts for students with significant special needs. The organizations now have to submit detailed financial and organizational information to state officials, and get approval from the state board.
The board gave the nod to Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog and employs the author of this post, and the AAA Scholarship Foundation, to oversee the programs programs during the 2015-16 school year.
For the past few years, Step Up has been the state’s only active scholarship funding organization. It has issued all of the nearly 70,000 tax credit scholarships this school year, as well as more than 1,400 scholarship accounts. AAA is a new to Florida but has been active in four other states, and many of its employees have experience in Florida working for Step Up. It has funded more than 40 personal learning accounts so far this school year.
Several board members welcomed having two organizations involved in the state’s privately run parental choice programs.
“This is choice squared,” board member John Padget quipped.
