The Florida Senate voted on Wednesday to overhaul Florida’s school voucher system, which diverts billions of public education dollars every year to students’ private schooling and homeschooling.
Senators pushed the legislation, SB 318, during the committee weeks preceding session. Its approval on the chamber floor on the session’s second day signifies it as a priority for the Senate, but its fate in the House is up in the air.
“The auditor general's report was tough medicine,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, who sponsored the bill. “To disregard the auditor general's findings and warnings and recommendations and just let things roll on as they are would be legislative malpractice.”
It comes after a state audit found last school year saw a “myriad of accountability challenges that left a statewide funding shortfall and a system where funding did not follow the child.”
Voucher money goes into education savings accounts, or ESAs, that parents can use for expenses like private school tuition, homeschooling materials and tutoring. The money is mainly administered by the nonprofit organization, Step Up for Students.
The organization declined to comment on the legislation.
The sprawling measure, which is nearly 150 pages, addresses what senators said are multiple weaknesses in the system.
Gaetz is the sponsor of the school voucher bill. Simon is the sponsor of Albritton's priority "rural renaissance" legislation, that gives rural counties funding and support. It also passed on Wednesday.
Some of what it does
It creates stricter student tracking standards, including by giving each student a unique ID, and requires more documentation for applications. The state Department of Education would have to cross-check applicants against public school enrollment data, and the legislation additionally mandates annual audits of voucher programs
It also requires the state Department of Education to craft a recommendation by December on “ways to improve the efficient and effective implementation of the scholarship programs for implementation beginning with the 2028–2029 school year.”
“On any given day of the week, the Department of Education can't find 30,000 students we're paying for. That's $270 million we're paying for students we can’t locate,” Gaetz said, listing issues with the system.
“Public schools were shortchanged by $100 million for students they served,” he added.
He also said the state found evidence fraudsters were taking advantage of the voucher programs. More than a million dollars had been taken, he clarified when asked at a Wednesday evening press conference after the vote.
Democratic lawmakers have been loudly against Florida’s expansion of its voucher programs. The declining enrollment is leading to declining funding, and they said it’s harming public schools.
But this bill passed unanimously.
Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis of Jacksonville pointed out it addressed some of the concerns her party’s members had brought up over the years.
“We had these comments and suggestions and foresight, some of my colleagues and I, when we sat here, when we heard about the voucher plan, when we were doing this,” she said. “A $4 billion plan that we asked to slow down.”
When asked about his expectation for how the House will respond, Gaetz said, “I have faith that the House will help solve this problem, because to not solve it is just a terrible thing to do.”
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This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
