DeSantis signs bill expanding private school voucher programs

By GRAY ROHRER and LESLIE POSTAL
ORLANDO SENTINEL |
MAY 11, 2021 AT 4:04 PM

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Tuesday greatly expanding the state’s K-12 school vouchers programs, limiting eligibility requirements and chipping away at oversight of the programs providing taxpayer-funded scholarships for low-income and disabled students to attend private schools.

DeSantis signed the bill, HB 7045, at the St. John the Apostle Catholic School in Hialeah, a school that relies heavily on state scholarships to cover student tuition. He repeated the motto of Florida GOP governors dating back to Jeb Bush, who signed the first voucher program into law in 1999: parents should decide where their child goes to school.

“By signing this bill we will be doubling down on our commitment to supporting our working families and making sure they have the ability to get their kids into the school of their choices,” DeSantis said.

The bill uses $200 million to allow about 61,000 more students to receive vouchers and expands eligibility so that families of four earning nearly $100,000 could qualify for the income-based scholarships once touted as a way to help children living in poverty. Those scholarships are now worth about 95% of public school per-student costs but under the new law will be worth the full amount, set at 7,795 per pupil in the budget passed by the Legislature.

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Teachers unions and most Democrats have slammed the expansion of programs they’ve long criticized, saying they come at the expense of investment in public schools.

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