Sparking the evolution of education choice
As the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program has grown, so has the value of the scholarships, the number of participating schools, parental satisfaction, and the number of years students remain in the program. Tall tales told by the program’s critics have grown, too. Among other errors, those critics continue to[Read More…]
Editor’s note: This piece from Step Up For Students’ public affairs manager Patrick Gibbons appeared today on the Daytona News Journal. In a column last month, a local member of the League of Women Voters argues it is hypocritical to spend $1 billion on private schools without knowing how well[Read More…]
Editor’s note: This guest editorial written by Florida Sen. Joe Gruters, who represents District 32 and serves as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, first appeared in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. In her Nov. 1 column, (Herald Tribune opinions editor) Barbara Peters Smith wrote that she welcomes a debate[Read More…]
Seventeen years ago, a group of business and community leaders in Tampa Bay decided to renovate rather than raze an old, abandoned public school. The spooky building with stately red brick once served generations of Cuban and Italian kids in Tampa’s historic Ybor City neighborhood. The group wanted to restore[Read More…]
As Florida senators get their first look today at a new private school scholarship for economically disadvantaged students, some familiar taunts about academic results for the existing Tax Credit Scholarship have resurfaced. Be wary of rhetorical flourish. Yes, the low-income scholarship students are not required to take the Florida Standard[Read More…]
A new study from the Urban Institute on college enrollment/completion rates of Florida Tax Credit Scholarship students represents both a triumph and a call for additional action. Let’s touch upon the triumph part first. The analysis shows statistically significant benefits for students participating in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship in[Read More…]
The largest private school choice program in America got more solid evidence of its effectiveness Monday. The lower-income, mostly minority students using the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship to attend private schools are up to 43 percent more likely to enroll in four-year colleges than like students in public schools, and[Read More…]
School vouchers and tax credit scholarships may not always improve participants’ standardized test performance, but a growing crop of studies suggest they are cost-effective when it comes to encouraging economically disadvantaged students to pursue a college education. Two recent Urban Institute studies, one on Milwaukee and the other on Washington,[Read More…]
