Private school choice legislation received bipartisan backing this afternoon from a Florida House panel.
As approved by the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee, HB 15 would increase the funding each student receives through the state’s tax credit scholarship program. Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer the program.
The committee removed from the bill provisions that would have expanded the conditions that would allow students to qualify for Gardiner scholarships and tripled funding for the program, which provides education savings accounts for children with special needs. (Step Up also helps administer Gardiner scholarships.)
Legislators also removed a provision that would have allowed students to receive McKay scholarships — vouchers for special needs students — without attending public schools for an entire school year.
Bill sponsor Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora, said the provisions had to be removed to maneuver through the state budget process. She said she hoped to revive them as lawmakers revise their spending plans.
A draft budget released today in the Senate would increase funding for Gardiner scholarships by $34 million, or roughly 46 percent. The House’s initial budget proposal would keep the program’s funding level, at just above $73 million.
It’s a tight budget year, and Sullivan said expanded eligibility for Gardiner scholarships was tied to increased funding for the program.
“I will be working tirelessly to make sure that what we’ve amended out gets back in,” she said.
Several parents backed the bill, saying school choice options helped their families.
Tiffani Hinds is a mother of eight children, some of whom she adopted through foster care, and three of whom have special needs. She told the committee she sends three children to public schools and four to private schools with the help of tax credit and McKay scholarships.
Recently, she said, three of them matriculated from St. John Catholic School in Panama City to a local public high school, where they were prepared to succeed.
“I know very well that every child learns differently,” she said. “We’re grateful for the Florida educational choice programs that allow us to meet the needs of each of our children in order for them to be successful.”
