No One Was Blaming Parents

Today I had a column published in The Orlando Sentinel. It was a response to Nathan Hoffman’s August 30, 2026 “School choice isn’t to blame for teacher pay. Bureaucracy is,” which was a response to Andrew Spar’s “From vacancies to vouchers, Florida’s public schools face crisis.” Andrew Spar had raised serious concerns about public-school funding, fairness and accountability. Nathan Hoffman accused him of villainizing school-choice parents.

This is my published response:

Commentary: Look at the whole picture of school choice

Nathan Hoffman’s response (“School choice isn’t to blame for teacher pay. Bureaucracy is.”) to Andrew Spar’s Aug. 30 commentary is notable for what it leaves out.

Hoffman accuses Spar and the teachers’ union of ignoring reality in favor of “a more politically convenient argument” about school choice. Yet Hoffman largely ignores the solutions Spar actually proposed: increase public-school funding by at least $1,000 per student, eliminate laws that disadvantage public-school students and educators, and establish consistent standards across schools so parents can make informed choices.

Instead, Hoffman reframes the argument as an attack on parents, claiming that Spar’s narrative “paints parents choosing the best school for their kids as villains.”

But who is blaming parents?

Parents should choose the educational setting they believe is best for their children. Spar’s argument was about the policies Florida has created around those choices—not the parents making them.

That distinction is particularly relevant because Hoffman is Senior Legislative Director for the Foundation for Florida’s Future, an organization that advocates for expanding school choice. The report Hoffman cites to support his claim that “the money is there” was published by his own organization.

There is nothing wrong with advocating for school choice. But Hoffman criticizes Spar for choosing a politically convenient argument while responding to Spar’s substantive concerns with the all-too-familiar rhetoric of the movement he represents.

Hoffman celebrates choice because it allows parents to find the school that best meets their child’s needs, while sidestepping Spar’s call for the consistent information and standards parents need to evaluate those choices.

Hoffman also attempts to settle the funding question with his organization’s report showing that inflation-adjusted public-school spending per student increased 11.9% between 2019-20 and 2024-25. From that, he concludes, “The data show the money is there.”

The report demonstrates no such thing.

An increase from a chosen baseline does not establish that funding is adequate. Look back to 2007-08, Florida’s pre-Great Recession funding high-water mark, and the picture changes considerably. Adjusted for inflation using the same methodology employed in the Foundation’s report, current expenditures per student in 2024-25 were only about 6% higher than in 2007-08. Meanwhile, the average 2024-25 Florida teacher salary was about 15% lower in inflation-adjusted dollars—roughly $10,000 less in purchasing power.

There is certainly a legitimate question to ask about where education dollars go. School districts should answer it. Their budgets, expenditures, salaries, staffing and academic outcomes are public precisely so taxpayers can ask those questions.

But if “Where did the money go?” is the standard for public schools, it should also be the standard for the billions of public dollars Florida spends on vouchers. And if rigorous academic accountability helps parents choose schools, comparable information should be available for all publicly funded schools.

Hoffman is free to disagree with Spar’s proposals. But celebrating school choice does not answer them, and asking those questions does not make parents “villains.”

The real question isn’t whether parents should have choices. It is whether Florida will adequately fund its public schools and hold all publicly funded educational choices to meaningful, comparable standards.

That is not an attack on school choice. It is a call for accountability—and for parents to have the information they need to make those choices wisely.