The Florida Senate passes changes to school funding, including vouchers

School classroom by diane39 via iStock for WMNF News.

Amid problems tracking students as Florida has dramatically expanded school choice, the Florida Senate on Wednesday passed a plan that would make funding changes for public schools and voucher programs. The Senate voted 35-2 to approve the measure (SB 7030), with opposition from Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, and Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. Florida in recent years has had a massive expansion of voucher programs, with money supposed to follow students to public schools, private schools or homeschooling. But Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Wednesday that has been complicated by students moving between schools and trying to make sure money tracks with them. The bill, among other things, would create what is known as a “categorical” budget fund for the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, a major voucher program. Categorical funds are earmarked for specific programs. Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County superintendent of schools who is helping spearhead the bill, said the idea is to make sure voucher money isn’t “mixed in with the funding for traditional public schools.” Also, for example, the bill would expand an “educational enrollment stabilization” program to provide supplemental money to address enrollment changes during the academic year in public schools.

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