The future of education is happening now. In Florida. And public school districts are pushing into new frontiers by making it possible for all students, including those on education choice scholarships, to access the best they have to offer on a part-time basis.
That was the message Keith Jacobs, director of provider development at Step Up For Students, delivered on Excel in Education’s “Policy Changes Lives” podcast A former public school teacher and administrator, Jacobs has spent the past year helping school districts expand learning options for students who receive funding through education savings accounts. These accounts allow parents to use funds for tuition, curriculum, therapies, and other pre-approved educational expenses. That includes services by approved district and charter schools.
“So, what makes Florida so unique is that we have done something that five, 10, even, you know, further down the line, 20 years ago, you would have never thought would have happened,” Jacobs said during a discussion with podcast host Ben DeGrow.
Jacobs explained how the process works:
“I’m a home education student and I want to be an engineer, and the high school up the street has a remarkable engineering professor. I can contract with the school district and pay out of my education savings account for that engineering course at that school.
“It’s something that was in theory for so long, but now it’s in practice here in Florida.”
It is also becoming more widespread in an environment supercharged by the passage of House Bill 1 in 2023, which made all K-12 students in Florida eligible for education choice scholarships regardless of family income. According to Jacobs, more than 50% of the state’s 67 school districts, including Miami-Dade, Orange, Hillsborough and Duval, are either already approved or have applied to be contracted providers.
That’s a welcome addition in Florida, where more than 500,000 students are using state K-12 scholarship programs and 51% of all students are using some form of choice.
Jacobs said district leaders’ questions have centered on the logistics of participating, such as how the funding process works, how to document attendance and handle grades.
Once the basics are established, Jacobs wants to help districts find ways to remove barriers to part-time students’ participation. Those could include offering courses outside of the traditional school day or setting up classes that serve only those students.
Jacobs said he expects demand for public school services to grow as Florida families look for more ways to customize their children’s education. That will lead to more opportunities for public schools to benefit and change the narrative that education is an adversarial, zero-sum game to one where everyone wins.
“So, basically, the money is following the child and not funding a specific system. So, when you shift that narrative from ‘you're losing public school kids’ to ‘families are empowered to use their money for public school services,’ it really shifts that narrative on what's happening here, specifically in Florida.”
Jacobs expects other states to emulate Florida as their own programs and the newly passed federal tax credit program give families more money to spend on customized learning. He foresees greater freedom for teachers to become entrepreneurs and districts to become even more innovative.
“There is a nationwide appetite for education choice and families right now…We have over 18 states who have adopted some form of education savings accounts in their state. So, the message to states outside of Florida is to listen to what the demands of families are.”
Two sitting school board members in Florida are among the latest batch of applicants vying to be state education commissioner.
Rick Roach (at left), now serving his fourth term on the Orange County School Board, is perhaps best known outside of the Orlando area for his criticism of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the state's main standardized test. Roach revealed on The Answer Sheet blog in December that he did poorly on the math and reading portions of the 10th grade FCAT when he took it last fall. On her blog last month, Diane Ravitch called him a hero. The Orlando Sentinel has more on his bid to be commissioner here.
Andy Tuck (at right) is a school board member in rural Highlands County. In his application, he wrote that Florida's education system "needs to be looked at from a more objective and business approach" and should put more "attention and accountability" on leadership positions. Interestingly, the Highlands school board was among those that did not join a popular resolution last summer critical of Florida's testing regimen. "I don't necessarily agree with high-stakes testing," Tuck told Highlands Today in June, "but I believe until we have a better solution on how we should evaluate learning gains, I don't think we should be passing any resolution."
Roach and Tuck are among 18 people whose applications came in after the Florida Board of Education voted last week to extend the commissioner search through early December. So far, 34 people have applied. As with the first batch, there are no obvious "rock stars" in the mix, which includes a number of school principals and small-district superintendents. One name that stands out: Dane Linn, executive director for state policy at The College Board.
You can see the first 16 applications in this earlier post here. Attached below are the most recent 18. (more…)
It's concerning enough that Florida education reporters are overlooking basic facts about Amendment 8 - the "religious freedom amendment" - and in many cases simply repeating what the teachers unions and school boards say about it (that it's really about vouchers voucher vouchers vouchers ... ). But an Orlando Sentinel reporter took it a step further yesterday, incorporating opposition talking points into a story as if they were true.
This is what the post on the Sentinel's SchoolZone blog said: "The Orange County School Board added their name to the roster of school boards officially opposing Amendment 8, which could lead to the revival of public vouchers to religious and private schools."
As we've respectfully noted, there are debate-worthy reasons why people supporting Amendment 8 want to remove the "no aid" provision in the Florida Constitution. But because of the legal history here, private school choice isn't seriously one of them.
The Sentinel post also mentioned a "recent analysis" by the relatively obscure Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, which was the topic of a separate blog post earlier in the day (and which followed a full story in the Sentinel that morning that, like so many others in recent weeks, did not ask "the other side" if vouchers were really an issue and offered no evidence that it was.) The analysis claims Amendment 8 "would have a huge negative impact on public education" and "would open the way for universal private school vouchers in Florida."
The center - which once issued a report suggesting Education Week's Quality Counts report wasn't about education quality - has direct ties to the Florida Education Association and Florida School Boards Association, but those ties weren't noted in either blog post.
Its claims are way off the mark, but don't take our word for it. Please, take a closer look.
