Senator Thurston and The Death Knell of Public Education

Yesterday (2/3/21), the Senate Education Committee heard SB48, this year’s voucher expansion bill designed to combine Florida’s five current vouchers into two, directly tax-payer funded, Education Savings Accounts or ESAs, providing qualified students with publicly funded edu-debit cards, which can be spent on an array of education services, including (but not restricted to) private school tuition. This is the privatizer’s end game – the dismantling and unbundling of public schools.

The Senate Education Committee was the first stop for SB48. Democratic senators asked some great questions and the bill’s sponsor evaded answering many of them. The Republicans on the committee remained silent, with the exception of the bill’s sponsor, Senator Diaz (who had to answer the democrats questions and explain why their good amendments were “unfriendly”) and Senator Broxson, who called for a vote to limit debate on the bill (the motion failed because the Republicans only have a 6-4 advantage in this committee and they need a full 2/3rd advantage to stop debate).  

(Interesting note: When the vote to limit testimony did not pass, Chair Gruters explained to the democrats that they could debate as long as they wanted but the bill was going to pass anyway.)

There was the expected parade of parent’s of voucher recipients who introduced themselves by telling which democrat’s district they resided in and how many other tax credit scholarship recipients lived in their district.

During his debate, Senator Perry Thurston (D-33, Broward) addressed his constituents who had testified in favor of expanding vouchers. He welcomed them to meet with him and discuss their concerns and then went on to explain why he would be voting against SB48, what he referred to as the “death knell of public education.”

Here is his excellent debate (you can watch it here at 1:36:30):

“There’s been a lot of testimony from a lot of people about the benefits of the bill. I’m going to start my debate from the Constitution. The Florida Constitution requires a well funded public education. When the young lady testifies and says she’s a product of public schools, so am I, so is my family, so are my kids and certainly I could have took advantage of any of the opportunities to educate them elsewhere. 

I want to indicate that when these scholarships were started back in 1999, the McKay scholarship was for individuals who had special educational needs and unique abilities. So when I hear the parents talk about unique abilities and special needs, I don’t want to be mistaken, I’m for that. I think that we should do that, but that’s not what we’ve been doing. That’s not what we’ve been doing as a legislature. As a legislature we’ve just been running rampant over what the Constitution requires, to fund these other scholarships (and, yes, that’s the FES, the FTC and the Hope scholarship that we thought was a dire need to get funded) and to withdraw that money from public education. 

You see when the parents say they’re in Senator Thurston’s district, I welcome you to Tallahassee, I welcome you to call me office, I welcome you to come see me anytime, because I’m working for the 95% of the students who are in the public school system, who will be there when we divert money from the public school system. 

You see, I want your child to strive and be successful, but I want all the children in my district to strive and be successful. Had we pumped the type of money we’ve been putting in to these programs into the public school system, I can tell you, I would have a better outcome from the students in my district. I know that.

When the school board member from Osceola County stands up and says he doesn’t think he can deliver, I think Robert Runcie down in the Broward County School District would take issue with that because he thinks he can deliver for the students of Broward County. I would have a really, really difficult conversation with members of my school board district and my superintendent if they weren’t striving to make the public school system such that we want our children to go there, such that his children would go there, such that they were getting the exact same thing that you’re getting at the private school. I want that for all students. I want that for your student, for your child. I want that for you. But, I want that for every child, and the way to do that is the way the Constitution says, by having a well funded public education system. That’s all it says.  So, yes, you combine McKay-Gardiner, I’m gonna support that 200%. 200%. If their are special education needs and abilities can’t be met, but when you say “well, oh, if you’re a certain income level well that automatically (qualifies) you” regardless if whether your public school can meet that need. When you say, “oh… something happened at my school and I want to go and I want you to fund that.” Well, when you also say you don’t even have to be in the public schools, you just want to take advantage of this scholarship, and the lady said “it’s not a scholarship, it’s a voucher,” and she’s only school, well that’s what we started talking about in 1999. 

So the death knell, the death knell to public education, is by including this in the FEFP. That’s what we’re getting ready to do today. History will show that that was the downfall of public education. I hate that I’m a part of the Legislature that’s going to do that, but I’m going to go on the record as voting against it. And I want that to be known that I’m 110% against this bill and converting these scholarships to come out of the FEFP.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator Perry Thurston https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/2-3-21-senate-committee-on-education/

Thank you Senator Thurston. We agree. The Legislature should be focused on its constitutional responsibility, its “paramount duty” no less, to adequately fund its public schools. We agree this bill will be a death knell to public education, but not just because it moves the voucher funding to the same “pot of money” that funds our public schools (the FEFP) but, also, by the disruptive nature of the transformation from tuition vouchers to ESAs.

To be clear, the new “vouchers” or ESAs have NO requirement for the recipients to attend a school, face to face or virtual. Families may choose to take no standardized assessments confirming learning gains, if they like. The funds can be spent on summer camps, uncertified tutors, unvetted curriculum and, even, College 529 Savings Accounts. In a recent podcast, voucher aficionado and Step Up For Students CEO, Doug Tuthill, celebrated that rather than pay for “in school learning,” parents could choose to use their child’s publicly funded edu-debit card to pay to participate in community sports activities, saying this would give low income kids the kinds of opportunities that more affluent families have outside of school.

Let that sink in.

While the state continues to insist on spring assessments and school grades despite the risks of the Covid pandemic and public schools must adhere to strict curricular requirements and conform to mountains of regulations and accountability measures, the CEO of Step Up is encouraging spending edu-debit ESAs on golf and tennis lessons. Because, somehow, that will “level the playing field” for low income children.

Do not be fooled. SB48 is not the simple streamlining of Florida’s array of voucher programs, it is the disruption, unbundling and dismantling of our public school system – the one which our legislators have the paramount duty to maintain. It is, as Senator Thurston pointed out, the death knell of public education.