DeSantis asks for $100 million so low-income students don’t have to wait for aid

Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t have much more to add on his second stop plugging his idea of “equal opportunity scholarships,” his fix for a waiting list of 14,000 low-income students for voucher-like scholarships to private schools.

After announcing the idea at a Christian school in Orlando early Friday, DeSantis visited Greater Miami Adventist Academy, a PreK through 12th grade Seventh Day Adventist school near Tamiami, to promote the idea, which would operate similarly to the current Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program in order to relieve the wait list.

He was joined on stage by state Rep. James Bush III, Opa-locka City Manager Newall J. Daughtrey and Urban League President T. Willard Fair. Absent was Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, who was present in Orlando.

“I ask the Legislature, step up, step up for students,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis told the Miami Herald he would commit $100 million out of state general funds, a more “direct” way of funding the scholarships as opposed to tax credit scholarships. Those are “indirectly” funded by companies that give donations to the program in lieu of paying taxes. He said in Orlando he would be open to using other funding sources.

“If it’s public dollars, it’s public education,” DeSantis said. “In Florida, public education is going to have a meaning directed by the parents.”

The Legislature created the tax credit scholarship program in 2001 and it has grown to become the nation’s largest private school choice program. The statewide teacher’s union, the Florida Education Association, has unsuccessfully tried to sue the state over the scholarships. A judge threw out the lawsuit, saying the scholarship monies weren’t public dollars because they didn’t go through state coffers.

In a statement, FEA President Fedrick C. Ingram called the scholarships “exclusionary.”

“Let us be clear,” Ingram said. “Vouchers do not create choice for parents, but rather choice for private schools — they can reject students based on economic status, academic achievement, disabilities, English proficiency, immigration status, sexual orientation or even gender.”

Asked about accountability measures since the “equal opportunity scholarships” would be used with public money, DeSantis referenced to his recent move to scrap the Common Core curriculum and called for testing to be “streamlined.” He also pointed to a recent Urban Institute study that found that scholarship recipients were more likely to enroll in Florida colleges and were slightly more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree than students who did not receive a tax credit scholarship.

“No one’s forced to take a scholarship,” he said. “No one’s forced to go to any of these places, and I think that that’s the best way to know whether something is doing well to have parents look at their options and determine what school is best.”

DeSantis also spoke to the appeal of school uniforms, “character development” and “culture” at schools that accept tax credit scholarships. Test score gains for scholarship recipients at some participating schools can be found here.

Step Up for Students, the largest scholarship funding organization in the state, reported collecting $674 million for 100,000 scholarship students this year. According to the Tampa Bay Times which reported DeSantis’ Orlando stop, Step Up For Students has received more than 80,000 applications for 2019-20 scholarships, outpacing the applicant pace from the past year.

Janeris Marte said her 5-year-old daughter, Aleyna, has been on the wait list for a scholarship to attend Beacon Hill School in Miami Gardens since last summer. Marte said she’s at least one month behind trying to make payments for tuition, which is about $9,000 a year for kindergarten, according to the school’s website.

Marte was laid off and is trying to start a business. Her husband is a mechanic and they also have a younger daughter, Alisha, 3. She said she hasn’t visited her daughter’s zoned school, Crest View Elementary, but saw that the school had a rating online of two out of 10.

“I see the kids that are walking by but wouldn’t want my daughter to be doing the same,” she said, adding that most of her neighbors send their children to charter or private schools.

Marte said Aleyna came to Beacon Hill behind in progress. She said she hopes to send her younger child there, too.

This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 2:17 PM.