Will The Senate Ignore the Cost of SB202 on Public Education?

It is 24 hours before the Senate Education Appropriations Committee meets to discuss SB202, a massive expansion and transformation of Florida’s vouchers which will divert public funds to unaccountable private schools and homeschoolers, and the fiscal analysis was just released. SPOILER ALERT: “the cost is indeterminate at this time.”

Well… at least they didn’t release an absurdly low fiscal, like the Florida House did for the companion bill, HB1. For what its worth, the Florida Policy Institute, working with the Education Law Center, estimates the cost to be $4 billion annually. (You can read their arguments here and here.)

COMPARING SB202 TO HB1

For the record, HB1 and SB202 are almost identical when it comes to voucher expansion:

• Both make the vouchers universally available regardless of a child’s income or circumstance. These vouchers were originally sold as being necessary to allow low income children to escape their struggling neighborhood schools. They now will be available to even our wealthiest families and prior attendance at public school is not necessary.
• Both allow full per-pupil funding to homeschool students and families current spending upwards to $40-50K/year for their children attending elite private schools. Neither bill provides enough funding to cover the cost of tuition at the average private school in Florida nor does it promise that a voucher recipient will even be accepted at a private school. Both bill expect families to make up the difference between the voucher and the full cost of attending a private school (which could be tens of thousands of dollars).
• Both bills transform Florida’s current tuition vouchers into Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), which basically use public dollars to fund a bank account, from which parents can choose what they purchase for their child’s education. The can use the account to pay for tuition, but they don’t have to. ESAs are historically fraught with waste, fraud and abuse (see Arizona where they were used to purchase kayaks, cowboy roping lessons and tickets to. SeaWorld, or Florida’s current ESA, the FES-UA, where parents purchase Legos, bicycles and gaming devices).
• Neither bill has guardrails in place to prevent billions of dollars from being diverted to private entities. Indeed, that is the goal.
• Both bills’ sponsors insist there will be minimal to no effect on public school, parroting “the money follows the child.” Such rhetoric is only true if the students are appropriately funded in the state funding formula (FEFP) and there is enough funding in the state budget to fully fund two competing sets of schools. The rhetoric, also, completely ignores the fixed costs associated with maintaining public schools. There are no requirements that new ESA recipients apply in time to be included in the initial FEFP count, from which budgets are created.

The main difference between SB202 and HB1 is that SB202 includes a few additional deregulations for public schools, an a promise of more in the future, in an effort they describe as “leveling the playing field.” You can read what I think about that here:  An Open Letter to the Senate Education PreK-12 Committee re. SB202

FLORIDA’S VOUCHERS ALREADY IMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOL BUDGETS:

The Florida Policy Institute highlighted the disruptive impact of voucher funding on school district budgets in another report titled “Florida’s Hidden Voucher Expansion:”

• In 2022-23, an estimated $1.3 billion in funding will be redirected from public school districts to private education, representing 10% of state K-12 education funds allocated through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP), the state’s school funding formula;

• This sum is in addition to a potential $1.1 billion taken from general revenue that would otherwise be used to support state services, including education, as a result of tax credits claimed by businesses that donate to voucher programs;
• Deductions to local school districts’ budgets to account for students receiving vouchers occur after annual school budgets have been finalized. This poor timing is even more challenging because of mid-year increases in voucher costs and district fixed costs;

• The impact of vouchers on districts’ budgets ranges up to 9% of the total FEFP budget (state and local dollars) as of the start of the 2022-23 school year.

FOR 15 YEARS FLORIDA HAS PRIORITIZED VOUCHER EXPANSION AT THE EXPENSE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

A recent report highlighted the fiscal consequences of Florida’s voucher programs between 2008 and 2019. It clearly showed the negative impact on public school funding – during the same time funding for vouchers was escalating, Florida’s efforts to fund its public schools – which serve the vast majority of its students – has declined.

Florida increased its spending on its voucher programs by 313% from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2019. During that same time period, Florida decreased its per-pupil funding for public education by 12%, from $9799 in fiscal 2008 to $8,628 in fiscal 2019. The other 49 states, on average, increased per-pupil spending during the same time period by 9.6%. During the same time, Florida experienced a 3.4% annual growth in GDP, outpacing the 3.1% mean annual growth for the other 49 states.

IDAHO REPUBLICANS UNDERSTAND THIS IS NOT CONSERVATIVE:

Do you want to know what the Idaho State Senate did when they were presented with a nonsensical fiscal for bill expanding their ESA/voucher program by removing income limits and the requirements to previously attend public school? (While the bill’s sponsors estimated a $45 million price tag for the first year, other estimates suggested that the program would quickly balloon to over $360 million.)

THEY VOTED IT DOWN.

Many Idaho Republicans opposed the bill, saying they supported ESAs but believed the legislation has too many uncertainties, including how much it would cost. Republican Senator C. Scott Grow said “I have absolutely no clue what the dollar amount on this is.”

Republican Senator Dave Lent said: “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.” .

These Republican senators (who also have a supermajority) stood up for their conservative principals and refused to take part in an unaccountable give-away of tax dollars.

Florida’s Legislators should do the same. They should learn from the mistakes in Arizona and New Hampshire where the costs of Universal ESAs were VASTLY underestimated. Unless they place significant guardrails to prevent it, Florida should be prepared to fund ALL students currently attending private  schools. Rent and Insurance have skyrocketed. Gas and groceries are expensive. When families are offered “free money,” you should assume they they will take it. Florida’s public schools should not have to bear the brunt, once gain, of your budgeting error in your desperate attempt to privatize our schools.

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If you got this far, and you want to take action, please call or email the Senators on the Education Appropriations committee. The committee starts at 11 am TOMORROW (3/8/23).

Tell them it is ridiculous for an APPROPRIATIONS committee to vote on a massive expansion of vouchers without knowing the cost. $4 billion dollars a year would be a good start on making Florida’s public school whole following the devastating cuts during the recession. Remind them that the vast majority of Florida’s families choose public school and their failure to consider the fiscal ramifications of SB202 should not further defund our schools.

You can find their contact information here:

Chair:

Senator Keith Perry (R)

Vice Chair:

Senator Shevrin D. “Shev” Jones (D)

• Senator Bryan Avila (R)
• Senator Lauren Book (D)
• Senator Doug Broxson (R)
• Senator Colleen Burton (R)
• Senator Alexis Calatayud (R)
• Senator Jay Collins (R)
• Senator Tracie Davis (D)
• Senator Gayle Harrell (R)
• Senator Travis Hutson (R)
• Senator Corey Simon (R)
• Senator Geraldine F. “Geri” Thompson (D)

Thank you.