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The Wheels on the Bus… Are Underfunded

ByAccountabaloney

Florida lawmakers scrapped school start time reforms rather than Address underfunded Student transportation—will they now divert those same dollars to private school vouchers?

In 2023, Florida passed HB 733, a law aimed at improving adolescent health and academic performance by delaying school start times. Beginning in the 2026–27 school year, middle schools would be required to start no earlier than 8:00 a.m., and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The bill, a priority of then-House Speaker Paul Renner, was backed by strong scientific consensus.

As bill sponsor Rep. John Temple explained, “The science is very clear.” Research shows that later start times improve student mental health, academic outcomes, attendance rates, and even reduce teen car accidents. Experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the National Sleep Foundation all agree: high schools shouldn’t start before 8:30 a.m.

All that was needed to make the policy work was the funding to implement it. And that—funding—was at the heart of Florida’s school start-time problem.

As the implementation deadline approached, school districts warned of serious logistical challenges: widespread bus driver shortages, increased transportation costs, and the need to completely overhaul routing systems.

Rather than address those issues with adequate funding, lawmakers instead repealed the mandate. In 2025, both chambers of the Legislature unanimously passed SB 296, rolling back the start-time requirement and restoring local control—leaving the original problem, and the funding shortfall, unresolved.

Last week, I wrote about “Going With Plan B,” a recent report published by Step Up For Students, the politically connected nonprofit that manages the state’s $5 billion-per-year voucher programs. The report surveyed some of the 40,000+ Florida students who were awarded school choice scholarships for the 2024–25 school year but never used them.

Their findings echoed what voucher skeptics have said all along:

  • Many families can not access or afford their preferred private school.
  • Private schools can select or reject applicants, and 28% still don’t accept vouchers.
  • Even though Florida’s vouchers match public per-pupil funding, tuition and fees are often still unaffordable.
  • Transportation remains a significant barrier to access.

Step Up is using their findings to push for additional public funding—including access to federal Title I dollars—with the hope that a future Trump administration will convert Title I into unrestricted block grants, further diverting public money to unaccountable private voucher schemes.

Publicly Funding Private School Transportation?

This post focuses on Step Up’s proposal to expand public funding to cover transportation for private school students.

Their “Plan B” report concluded with a set of policy recommendations, presented as “Meaningful Measures Policymakers Can Take to Further Invigorate Supply” of private education options.

Among their ideas:

  • Create a state-funded grant program to support alternative transportation options for choice families.
  • Expand the current $750 transportation stipend (currently available to K–8 students attending a public school other than their zoned school) to include private school students.

Let’s Talk About Transportation Funding in Florida’s Public Schools

Spoiler Alert: It’s inadequate.

Florida’s Student Transportation funding is distributed via a categorical fund in the FEFP (Florida Education Finance Program), as outlined in s. 1011.68, F.S. The goal is to equitably support safe and efficient transportation in all 67 districts.

The state allocates student transportation funding based on:

  1. Higher rates for students with special transportation needs
  2. A district’s share of eligible students
  3. Adjustments for bus efficiency, rural density, and local cost of living.

The Under Funding Of Student Transportation

  • In 2005–06, Florida funded transportation at $451 million for 2.64 million students—about $171 per student, covering 54% of total costs.
  • In 2025–26, with 3.23 million students (including 446,000 voucher recipients), the state is allocating $566 million—just $175 per student, covering only 45.3% of total costs.

When adjusted for inflation, the $171 per student in 2005–06 would be $282 in today’s dollars. If the state had maintained that inflation-adjusted level, the categorical would cover 77% of total costs today.

Districts are left to pick up the slack—with wild variation from just 21% state coverage in Monroe County to 69.2% in Baker and Volusia.

Imagine what adequate funding could do: improved bus service, better routes, competitive pay for drivers... perhaps, even, healthier school start times for students.

Voucher Recipients Already Get a Cut of Transportation Funding

Florida’s current universal voucher program diverts per-pupil transportation funding to voucher recipients—even though the state doesn’t provide or require transportation to private schools.

Now, Step Up wants to take it a step further.

About That Transportation Stipend…

Step Up also wants voucher students to qualify for Florida’s $750 transportation stipend, which was designed to support public school choice.

The stipend helps K–8 students access schools outside their zone or district under Controlled Open Enrollment (F.S. 1002.31).

To make matters worse: the Florida Legislature slashed funding for the program from $14 million in 2024–25 to just $3 million in the current budget year. Step Up is already warning current recipents that not everyone who qualified last year will get the stipend in 2025–26.

Conclusion: A Shrinking Pie, and Private Hands in the Bowl

Florida’s public school transportation system is chronically underfunded. Districts are struggling to provide even the most basic services with declining support from the state. Yet rather than invest in fixing these systemic shortfalls, voucher advocates are lobbying to expand their access to the same limited transportation funds—at the direct expense of the students the system was created to serve.

Rest assured, Step Up For Students is already knocking on lawmakers’ doors, promoting their Plan B report and pushing for new grants, stipends, and policy changes to benefit voucher recipients. Meanwhile, high school students are waiting at bus stops painfully early while public schools wrestle with shrinking budgets and driver shortages.

This isn’t about access. It’s about priorities.

The same Legislature that repealed a science-backed school start time law because it lacked the funding to implement it will now being asked to carve out even more money—for private school transportation. If Florida couldn’t fund healthier school start times for public school students, why should anyone believe it can afford to subsidize rides to private ones?

Before lawmakers consider expanding stipends or creating new grants for private school students, they must answer one simple question:
Why are we shortchanging the public system to subsidize its alternatives?

Want to do your own research before meeting with your lawmakers?

Here are some good resources for exploring Florida’s student transportation issues:

Most of the data highlighted in this blog comes from FLDOE’s Annual Financial Report (AFR). The AFR contains unaudited data submitted to the Department by Florida school districts. It includes revenue detailed by federal, state, and local sources, and expenditures detailed by function (the purpose of an expenditure) and object (what was purchased or the service obtained). https://www.fldoe.org/finance/fl-edu-finance-program-fefp/school-dis-annual-financial-reports-af.stml

School District Transportation Profiles are a comprehensive document containing demographic, statistical, and financial information on each Florida school district transportation program. It also includes statewide summary reports. https://www.fldoe.org/file/7585/SchDistTrans2324.pdf

An overview of school district funding can be found here: https://www.fldoe.org/file/7507/Fefpdist.pdf

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