By Rob Lorei
On Radioactivity Thursday our guest was Doug Tuthill, President of Step up for Students, a state-approved nonprofit scholarship funding organization that helps administer two scholarships for Florida schoolchildren: the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) for low-income families and the Gardiner Scholarship (PLSA) for children with certain special needs. Step Up For Students had $495,000,000 million dollars in annual revenue in the most recent reporting period. Tuthill explains how the tax deductible scholarships work to help low-income families have greater choice in where their children attend school and addresses criticism from education leaders, like teachers’ union leader Joanne McCall, that voucher and choice programs diverts money from struggling neighborhood schools.
One Response to “President of education non profit says school choice help the state’s most vulnerable students”
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Why are Florida voucher schools and legislators afraid to have the
voucher students take the same tests they force on public school
students? Voucher students don’t even have to take science and social
studies test. I think they are afraid it would show they are failing to
give a free and appropriate education to students. Results for a school are only published if there are 30 students–public schools only need 10.
Step Up for Students
wrote off money due from 28 voucher schools. That means at least 28
kids had to find a new school when the voucher school called it quits. SUFS continues to pay voucher schools even though they owe money — $1.2M is sitting in account receivables. Why isn’t SUFS using their admin. fee to sue these schools to return the money.
It was found that 114 students receiving Gardiner vouchers were enrolled in public schools — that is a no-no. $137K could not be returned because it had already been spent. Why isn’t SUFS using their admin. fee to sue these parents to return the money.