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DeSantis Signs Bill Expanding Florida School Choice Program
March 28, 2023
In Miami Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 1, which expands available school choice options for all students in Florida by eliminating financial eligibility restrictions and the current enrollment cap.
“Florida is number one when it comes to education freedom and education choice, and today’s bill signing represents the largest expansion of education choice in the history of these United States. When you combine private scholarships, charter schools, and district choice programs, Florida already has 1.3 million students attending a school of their choosing,” said DeSantis. “These programs have been instrumental in elevating student achievement over the past twenty years. I am grateful to the Florida Legislature, Speaker Renner, and President Passidomo for prioritizing this legislation and presenting it to me at the beginning of this year’s legislative session.”
HB 1 eliminates the current financial eligibility restrictions and allows any student who is eligible to enroll in K-12 to participate in available school choice options. The bill also continues to prioritize awards to students with household incomes that do not exceed 185 percent of the federal poverty level while incorporating a second priority to award scholarships to students who live in households with incomes between 185 percent of the federal poverty level and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. HB 1 also increases the annual scholarship adjustment for the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities from one percent to three percent to address high demand and wait lists.
“This is a monumental day in Florida history,” said Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. “Thanks to Governor DeSantis and the legislature, we continue to be the undisputed leader in school choice. Florida will always make good on our promise to ensure every single child has access to a world- class education.”
The bill also eliminates the current enrollment cap and the exemptions to the maximum number of students who can participate in FES-EO. For students who are not full-time enrolled in public or private school or who are not Home Education Program students, there will be a cap of 20,000 new scholarships for the 2023-2024 school year and a cap of 40,000 new scholarships for every year after that.
Additionally, this legislation requires the Office of K-12 School Choice to develop an online portal that enables parents to choose the best educational options for their student. The bill also eliminates the restrictive requirement that students must complete at least one credit through a virtual course to graduate.
The bill also allows the general education requirement to be waived for teachers who have had three years in the classroom if they have been rated ‘effective’ or ‘highly effective’ for three consecutive years. The bill also expands the length of a temporary teaching certificate from three years to five years.
Images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
13 Responses to “DeSantis Signs Bill Expanding Florida School Choice Program”
“Give me a break”. Please explain to me your logic. That family of 3 would cost FL approx. $9645 per year if they went to public school. They have no right, despite paying taxes, to redirect that money to a school of their choosing. Why? Indoctrination has been going on for years in the public schools, so don’t give me your lie about indoctrination.
Great, now the taxpayers will be forced to subsidize a child being indoctrinated with a private school religion, with no oversight. Completely against the U.S. Constitution as DeSantis always does. Another failure, on his, and the state legislature’s part.
@BobbyC – Do you know what a teacher in this district makes????
I can see this deal being as corrupted as the COVID Paycheck Protection Plan.
The goal is to privatize 70-80% of Public Schools into uber religious for profit christian schools and leave the rest understaffed and underfunded, while costing Floridians 2 to 3 Billion more than we pay now.
Public schools fare no better than health care in DeSantis’s Florida. Not only did Florida rank 49th in the country for average teacher pay in 2020, but the Education Law Center, a non-profit advocacy group based in New Jersey, found in a 2021 report that the state had the seventh-lowest per-pupil funding in the country.
Education Week, which ranks states public school annually, looking beyond mere test scores, placed Florida 23rd in its 2021 report, a lackluster showing for a large and wealthy state.
I have a real problem with charter schools that are set up based on profit alone for the following reasons:
Their teachers are not certified by the state
Their curriculum is not unified with state standards
Once the tuition is paid in full what is to prevent them from closing their schools and sending those students back to public schools?
@Give me a break $92,100 annually is barely a survivable income in this Democratic driven economy. I doubt that your taxes have gone up any either. Desantis has done more for education and the state of Florida than any of his predecessors.
So teachers do not need to be literate. Why is lowering standards a part of “freedom??”
At this point, principals are giving effective ratings to anyone who doesn’t quit.
I’m so glad that most Americans are not falling for all the unnecessary things being done by DeSantis. They see him for just what he is. He does nothing about the real issues that Floridians are facing. I am certain that America will never elect him as President of these United States. He only gets praise from the people who voted for him, no one else is buying what he’s selling. With all the laws and bills that he is enacting, it will take years for Florida to recover from his Governorship, if it ever does.
“Education Freedom” is pretty ironic considering he’s really driving education in this state off the rails. No wonder there’s a teacher shortage. His answer? Lower the qualifications. Yeah, he’s a real Einstein.
@Give me a break.
I feel your pain. Took a second job to put all 3 of my kids in private schools.
In other words, a family of 3 can make up to $92,100/annually and they can still siphon off my tax dollars to put Jenny in a private school.
“Free Florida” ain’t so free after all…
This guy just keeps on winning, it’s going to suck for Florida to lose him when he becomes President of the United States of America. Maybe he will pick a qualified successor to follow in his footsteps to be Governor. Hard to believe he was in a close race with a cross dressing crackhead for his first Governorship.