HB1 and SB202 Allow “Double Dipping.” That Should Be Fixed
HB1 and SB202 expand Florida’s voucher program to every child in the state, regardless of income. What was initially sold as tuition vouchers for children of families with limited financial resources to provide “educational options to achieve success in their education” (f.s.1002.394(1)) will be converted into Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) that function like a bank account from which families direct funds to pay for tuition and fees for a private school, homeschooling options, therapies, tutoring and more. ESAs are “all the rage” in red states this year. They are being celebrated as a way of “customizing” education but they are actually the long term goal of those intent on privatizing not just public education but the responsibility for a child’s education, placing that burden solely on the parents’ shoulders.
While current private school students can use the ESA to receive a tuition discount at their current private school, the ESA accounts are also being offered to Florida’s 152,109 current homeschoolers, at an estimated tax payer expense of about $1.2 Billion annually, if all homeschoolers apply for the “free money.” Experience shows that 80% of the ESAs will be used by students who either already attend private school or homeschool. The Florida Policy Institute estimates the total cost to ultimately be approximately $4 billion/year.
I have written about how the sponsors of HB1 (Tuck) and SB202 (Simon) appear to be ignoring the experience of Arizona and New Hampshire and underestimating the cost of their Universal Voucher expansion. Our public schools will pay the price for their budgeting errors: “It is nonsensical to believe that half of the families currently paying to send their children to these private schools will NOT apply to get free money. Of course they will.”
Just last week, the Idaho legislature rejected a similar Universal ESA bill with GOP lawmakers concerned they had “absolutely no clue what the dollar amount on this is” and saying “It’s actually against my conservative, Republican perspective to hand this money out with no accountability that these precious tax dollars are being used wisely.”
Florida’s lawmakers should take notice.
Retired teacher and edu-blogger, Peter Greene, has written about the “Six Big Problems With Education Savings Accounts” such as the loss of funding to public schools, their lack of oversight and accountability, and the lack of protections in place for students whose parents fail to choose wisely in an education marketplace. He suggests “the speed with which these bills are being pushed suggests a desire to specifically avoid any… discussion” of the fundamental changes these bill would bring to our nation’s education system.
MSU professor, Josh Cowen, who has spent his career studying the impact of vouchers, now concludes “There is No Upside.” Read the evidence, but he summarizes by saying:
“So there you have it: catastrophic academic harm. A revolving door of private school failures. High turnover rates among at-risk children. Avoiding oversight and transparency. Overt, systematic discrimination against vulnerable kids and families. Deep and sustained ties to anti-democratic forces working in the United States today.
That’s school vouchers in 2023.
That’s the evidence, it’s all right there, and the only question remaining is what to do about it.“
THIS BLOG, however, is about how HB1 and SB202, appears to allow double dipping by ESA recipients when they enroll part-time in Florida’s traditional public, magnet or charter schools. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. Taxpayers should not be paying a student to leave public school and then funding their part-time attendance there with additional funds.
Currently part-time students (mostly homeschoolers) are funded through the states funding formula, the FEFP. It works like this:
While Florida law does not expressly authorize or prohibit part-time enrollment in public schools, Florida’s homeschoolers often enroll in public schools on a part-time basis. In my district, the band programs are particularly popular with homeschool families. Their part-time enrollment is funded through the FEFP funding formula at a rate proportional to the amount of instructional time they are in attendance. For example, if a homeschool student attends 2 periods out of a 6 period day, the school is funded for 1/3 of a FTE (full time equivalent). Homeschoolers are also eligible to participate in any interscholastic extracurricular activity at their local public school (public schools are not reimbursed for this).
Effect of Proposed Changes:
HB1/SB202 transform Florida’s vouchers into to ESAs which can be used for educational expenses beyond private school tuition. With the lifting of the income requirements, all school aged children are eligible as long as they are not enrolled in a public (or charter) school. These students will be funded at 100% of the school districts funding per student, including all categorical funds except for the exceptional student education (ESE) guaranteed allocation.
So, ESA recipients will get the full per pupil funding (minus the ESE categorical) and can spend those funds on more than just private school tuition.
For example, in Section 3, Line 195 of HB1 (SB202 language is identical on these issues), the ESA can be used to pay for tuition or fees for full or part-time enrollment in a home education program, an eligible post-secondary institution, an approved pre-apprentice program… or enrollment in the Florida Virtual School (FLVS) as a private paying student.
Line 212 says the ESA can be used to purchase contracted services provided by a public school or school district, including classes, and makes it clear that part-time enrollment is not considered public school enrollment. No mention is made regarding the determination of costs for these contracted services.
In Section 8, Line 1945, a new section of law, f.s. 1002.44, is created. It expressly authorizes any public school in the state, including charter schools, to enroll a student on a part-time basis, subject to space and availability. It codifies into law that students attending public school part-time generate the FTE student membership consistent with the definition of “part-time student” currently in law f.s. 1011.61(1)(b) (the current practice, as described above). The bill once again clarifies that students enrolled in public school part-time are not considered to be in regular attendance at a public school.
Translating the legalese:
- The bill says that ESAs can be spent for contracted services, including taking classes on a part-time basis at a public school or school district.
- Later the bill says that part-time attendance at a public school is reimbursed via the FEFP, the state funding formula.
Which is it? Do school districts negotiate contracts for services with ESA recipients or do they continue to get funded for part-time attendance via the FEFP? When my question was asked to House Appropriations staff, I was told the intention was to pay public schools via the FEFP, which would mean taxpayers would be paying double for ESA recipients to attend public schools part-time – once via the ESA and again via the district’s FEFP.
This should be fixed before these bills are passed by Florida’s GOP super-majority.
This conundrum emphasizes how little our lawmakers, and possibly their staff, appear to grasp the impacts of the transformation from tuition vouchers to ESAs. In committee meetings, the questions revolve around whether private schools are allowed to discriminate (they are), whether there is any guarantee that an ESA recipient will be admitted to the private school of their choice (there isn’t) and whether ESA-accepting private schools are required to be accredited or have certified teachers (they are not). But, with the transition to ESAs in HB1/SB202, these discussions regarding schools and teachers are essentially moot – neither is required at all.
Jeb Bush used to refer to this as the “post-brick-and-mortar era of public education.” ESAs have been the ultimate goal of the privatizers for decades. With ESAs, the privatizer’s goal is to unbundle public education and allow individuals to piece back the parts of an education they desire – to make education a private good. The privatizers celebrate the ability to “customize,” imagining a market place of “excellent education opportunities.” Of course that marketplace doesn’t exist right now but I can guarantee you grifters and con men are ready to set up shop and profit from the billions of tax payer dollars soon to be spent in it annually.
When Arizona went to Universal ESAs last year, they discover public funds were being spent on kayaks and trampolines, and cowboy roping lessons. When Florida first launched ESAs for children with disabilities in 2014, families were rumored to have remodeled their kitchens with the funds, before some guardrails were established. Today, they can use the funds to buy bicycles, Legos and PlayStations. ESAs are ripe for waste, fraud and abuse.
Real discussions should be happening in our legislature before we go down this path which will further defund our public schools. Tax payers need assurances that their precious tax dollars will be used wisely. At the very least, the bill should be fixed to avoid taxpayers’ funding double dipping by part-time public school ESA recipients.
SB202 will be heard in the Senate Education Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, March 8 at 11am. If you can be in Tallahassee, consider standing up to oppose the bill. Alternatively, email or call the committee members. You can find the committee members here. Tell them the bill is fiscally irresponsible and public schools will bear the brunt of their budgeting errors. Ask them why the bill allows double dipping for part-time public school ESA recipients and encourage them to oppose SB202.
At the time of this writing, the Staff Analysis for SB202 containing a fiscal impact statement has not yet been published. We should see that sometime this week.
March 8 is Wednesday. I will try to attend. Thanks for the heads up and the info. Very helpful.
I think it’s line 1325 not line 1945