Misleading, Confusing, Inequitable, Disingenuous and UnDemocratic: The Case Against SB48

Marie-Claire Leman is a parents of 3 Leon County public school children and a fierce advocate for public education. I am also proud to call her my friend.

Marie-Claire testified before today’s Senate Education committee, saying she opposed Senate Bill 48 because she supports Public Education. New Covid protocols require public comments to be delivered virtually from the nearby Civic Center. Chair Gruters limited public testimony today to 2 minutes per speaker, after which the video and audio feeds would be cut. Marie-Claire’s comments were cut off.

Here are her planned remarks:

“SB48 is misleading in so many ways –  the name alone of this “trust fund” you are calling “K-12 Education funding” is very misleading. I think it will lead taxpayers to believe that they are contributing to K-12 public schools. But the funding will be earmarked for the scholarships, not for our public schools. 

SB 48 is disingenuous – in fact the whole process that got us here has been disingenuous. We were sold the idea that this was to help low income families, but the cap of 300% of the Federal poverty line makes families above the median household income eligible. The claim that this is current law is misleading as well; the FTC which is being subsumed in the FES has a cap of 260%, so for those scholarships, this is an increase in the cap. We were also told the Hope Scholarship was to give bullied students in public schools other options. A mere two years later, apparently we no longer need that scholarship and students don’t even have to have attended a public school prior to applying for a scholarship.  

SB48 is inequitable: For those who are not fooled by the narrative around choice and empowering parents, it is clear that the privatization of public education can only lead to deeper inequities. With the edu-debit card that this bill will provide parents (in some cases with far less $$ than is currently spent on their child in public school), many families will only be able to afford the barebones tuition with no guarantee of quality, while others will be able to supplement with summer camps, after school activities and private tutoring. Things will continue to be as inequitable as they are now, minus the promise of high quality education. 

SB 48 will be so confusing: again this is disingenuously being sold as easier to understand and simpler to navigate, but actually, parents are taking on all the burden of managing, budgeting, evaluating their children’s unbundled educational services and they are taking on the risk that providers won’t be qualified, that services won’t be approved, and soon, you can imagine, the Education Savings account will become a source of debt for these families.

There are many questions left unanswered:

• How will it work to pay for a class in a public school? Will “privately paying” students be required to be on campus for lock down drills? Will their FSA score count in the school grade? Teacher evaluation?
• What is a “designated student fund” which comes up a few times in this bill? Are we earmarking funds for specific students?
• How can we have such a robust accountability system in public schools on the one hand and then leave it up to parents to determine the evaluation of their child on the sole Homeschooling criteria of “educational progress at a level commensurate with their ability”? Don’t we owe it to the taxpayers in both cases to ensure that learning is happening?
• During the pandemic we insisted that schools remain open and now the proponents of this bill want us to believe they are not needed?

Finally, SB48 is Undemocratic: It unbundles and dismantles public schools, leading to the demise of a common good that has been part of our history and a pillar of our democracy, without even putting the question to the voters. I wish we could be here to discuss how we can improve our public schools so that they can meet the needs of all students, but that conversation never happens.”

 -Marie-Claire Leman, public comments, Senate Education, 2/3/21

Thank you Marie-Claire, and to the other pro-public school commenters who testified today. As Senator Thurston (who is “110% against this bill”) noted, Senate Bill 48 is the death knell for public education in Florida.

If we want to save public education in Florida, we need everyone to be paying attention and speaking out in defense of our public schools. Now, more than ever, public schools need advocates like Marie-Claire.