The school year has started for many Florida kids.
As more students use vouchers, the education system is quickly changing. All Florida parents are eligible for public funds to help pay for nonpublic education since lawmakers have dramatically expanded access to the scholarships in recent years.
Palm Bay mom Darcy Delia has used voucher money for a while, even before Gov. Ron DeSantis made expansion a priority.
Because of the money, she can send her son, who has autism, to a private school she says best suits him.
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"He is supported there, and he feels supported there," Delia said. "He's happy to go every day. These people become like his family."
A lot of the state's money goes to private school tuition, with scholarships no longer being capped by a family's income. But, in Florida, some programs also let families use it for tutoring, supplies and more — including for homeschooled children.
"Florida has been a leader, and really in many ways," said William Mattox, senior director of the J. Stanley Marshall Center for Education Freedom at The James Madison Institute, which advocates for vouchers. "No one comes close in terms of the number of students that we reach and the kind of breadth and acceptance of the programs."
The debate continues
In January, DeSantis announced there were more than half a million students taking advantage. Updated numbers are expected this fall.
DeSantis has pushed for these changes.
"The debate about school choice, I think, is over," he said. "Clearly, you're better offering choice than not offering choice."
There are also options like charter schools, which are publicly funded and free for students but independently run by nonprofits, companies and even universities.
The debate continues, though. Some people even challenge the term "school choice."
"If you look at our highest performing private schools, the voucher doesn't even touch tuition," said Damaris Allen, who leads Families for Strong Public Schools, a public education advocacy organization.
She said there's no school choice if you can't afford private school. The most-used Florida Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options only covers around $8,000 per student.
"The vast majority of the expansion has not been new kids leaving public schools. It's kids that were never in public schools," Allen said.
Students once had to attend a public school before qualifying for a voucher, but a 2023 law removed that requirement.
The state now spends billions of dollars every year on vouchers.
Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, says public schools are losing the money.
"We know right now $4 billion is being drained away from public schools, money that should be helping improve the ranking of where Florida is, making sure that we have enough teachers in our classrooms, that they're being paid appropriately, that we have enough staff in our schools," he said, citing a report from the Florida Policy Institute.
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For example, vouchers are siphoning $45 million away from Sarasota County public schools this academic year.
Spar also said there's not enough accountability and oversight over private schools that take vouchers — or how they spend the money.
"This is taxpayer money that's going to private entities who are in the business of profiting off of supposed education," Spar said.
''Every child is different"
Expanded voucher programs make sense to others, like Mattox from The James Madison Institute.
"Every child is different, and what works well for one child may not be what works well for another," he said. "And I think it's really unfair and unrealistic to expect a local district zoned school to meet the needs of every single child in their zone."
But even Delia, the Palm Bay parent, has reservations about the expanded voucher programs.
"I think there are problems with not supporting public schools, and I think that it can be exploited by private vendors who are just in it to make money and only see it as a profit margin," she said.
But her son's school offers specialized education. Her son went to a public school when he was younger. He didn't thrive there. For Delia, it's not really a choice.
"We do have disabled people, and they do need to be supported," Delia said. "For me, I'm not even sure where I would be without [the voucher]."
Step Up for Students, which administers Florida's vouchers, says private schools have a different form of accountability: if they're not good, parents will pull their kids.
But the group says Florida funds students, not systems. And it maintains the voucher programs allow parents to choose where and how their children are educated.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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