Colleen Conklin is Back—and Sounding the Alarm on Florida’s Voucher Grift
“Yes, K-12 needs real fixes—curriculum, support staff, teacher pay, facilities—but don’t be blinded by that truth: siphoning public dollars into an unaccountable shadow system is not reform, it’s sabotage.”
Colleen Conklin, who served on the Flagler County School Board from 2000 to 2024, is one of the great ones. I’m proud to call her my friend.
After a well-deserved break for rest and family, she’s back—and as sharp as ever. Yesterday, she published a must-read op-ed at FlaglerLive titled:
“Stop the Grift: Florida’s School Vouchers Are Scamming Taxpayers and Sabotaging Democracy.”
In it, she lays out how Florida’s universal voucher scheme is not only draining public funds with little accountability, but also undermining the very foundation of our democracy—public education. Every sentence is spot on.
Read it in full here, then share it.
Below are just a few highlights:
1. On the role of public schools in democracy:
“Our public schools are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. … That’s democracy in motion.”
2. On the voucher program’s threats:
“Built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight … it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.”
3. On expanding voucher costs and lack of transparency:
“Projected to cost taxpayers about $3.9 to 4 billion just this year … Step Up For Students … is legally allowed to keep up to 3 percent of that ($120 million) for ‘administrative expenses.’ Meanwhile, districts must publish audited financials … Voucher schools … do not.”
4. On who benefits from universal eligibility:
“When Florida went to a universal voucher system in 2023 … 122,895 new students signed up. Only 13 percent had been in public schools. 69 percent were already in private schools. Another 18 percent were brand-new kindergarteners.”
5. On local financial impact in Flagler County:
“Of that, over 87 percent of those students receiving vouchers never attended Flagler schools. They are children who had always attended private schools or were being homeschooled.”
6. On accountability risks:
“Public schools are audited, follow Sunshine laws, report test data, employ certified teachers … Voucher schools receiving public dollars don’t have to do most of that. … How do we measure return on investment (ROI) without data?”
7. On democracy and civic cohesion:
“Public schools are the great equalizer … They are also the civic glue where kids from different backgrounds learn to live in a pluralistic society. Undermining that common space … weakens the fabric of our democracy.”
8. On the broader stakes:
“Throwing money blindly is wasteful. Throwing public money into a black box is worse. Public education is the thread that stitches a diverse nation together … We should strengthen it, not siphon it off to a system that won’t even show us the receipts.”
Thanks Colleen. Welcome back. You have been missed.