Florida is “where woke goes to die,” at least, that’s what Gov. Ron DeSantis says. This week, a massive school voucher bill was signed into law, a decision that has both liberals and conservatives worried for the future of public schools.
The law, signed on Monday, does away with the state’s previous financial eligibility restrictions, subsidizing the cost of families wanting to enroll their children in private schools and other alternatives to public school. According to the Miami Herald, all students will be eligible for an estimated $8,700 voucher.
This new initiative comes on the heels of several K12 transformations enacted by the DeSantis administration, including restricting discussion of critical race theory, sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools, all of which have played an instrumental role in the removal of thousands of books from school libraries across the state and frustration among educators.
According to DeSantis, expanding school vouchers is a win for advocates of parental rights and school choice. Now, competition between public and private schools is at a new level.
“They either offer a product that parents want or they don’t,” said DeSantis, USA Today reports.
However, Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, told Insider that its impact is much greater, and consequences will soon follow.
While private schools operate with a significant degree of freedom, public schools “must follow 1,300 pages of laws and a ton of regulations on top of that,” Spar told Insider. “This is not competition. This is an attempt to create a divide, to create an advantage.”
In years past, private schools haven’t been able to bring in revenue the way leaders anticipated, Spar added. Since Republican Gov. Jeb Bush set forth the state’s school voucher program 20 years ago, public school enrollment has declined less than three percentage points from 89.6% to 87.2%.
Under DeSantis’ law, public school funding may take a substantial hit.
“Florida public schools are woefully underfunded,” Spar told Insider. In fact, according to the Education Data Initiative, Florida has one of the lowest spending per pupil numbers in the country at $9,983, despite receiving the third-largest amount in federal funds for K12 education in the nation, Insider reports.
According to Spar, there is concern over whether the money is there to fund this program. The senate appropriations committee proposed $1.2 million to cover its expansion, while experts estimate the initiative will cost anywhere from $209 million to $4 billion.
Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz tweeted that school vouchers will “hand out tax dollars to millionaires to subsidize their kids’ private school education, leaving our public schools and teachers to struggle even harder for basic funding.”
Florida Republicans will now hand our tax dollars to millionaires to subsidize their kids' private school education, leaving our public schools and teachers to struggle even harder for basic funding. Repulsive and shameful.https://t.co/ZC0r3fC1ZJ
— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) March 28, 2023
Conservative commentator Richard Hanania also made a tweet predicting that the law would “bankrupt the entire corrupt system.”
“We’re watching the liberation of childhood,” he added.
Don’t like public schools? Republican states are now just giving the money directly to families and they can do what they want with it. This can bankrupt the entire corrupt system.
Not many people understand how historic this is. We’re watching the liberation of childhood. https://t.co/kGjiOzct3b
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) March 28, 2023
On the other hand, Republican House Speaker Paul Renner spoke highly of the new law and how it gives more families access to an education that’s right for their children.
“We don’t want your child to go to a school where your values are mocked and held up in derision,” he said.
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