Choice alters Florida education landscape

National Catholic Reporter, March 21, 2003 by Judy Gross

During his gubernatorial campaign, Jeb Bush declared himself the "education governor." True to his word, under his tenure the educational landscape in Florida has changed.

At first glance, his A Plus Plan and School Choice Program seems nothing but good. Tuition vouchers for kids from failing schools, scholarships for disabled students, big business paying the way to private schools for kids from poor families and parents choosing the schools they want their children to attend. With only a 52 percent high school graduation rate, there is lots of room for improvement.

Following the lead of his younger brother, President George Bush modeled his "No Child Left Behind Act," on Florida's program, promising to erase the achievement gap between rich and poor students.

However, a chorus of protests suggests that all is not rosy in Florida's education scene. In fact, state courts have declared parts of the school choice program unconstitutional.

In 1999, Florida became first to institute a statewide school voucher, or "Opportunity Scholarship" program. Immediately it provoked court challenges from a teachers' union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other opponents. The Florida Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that the program complies with a state constitutional provision for a system of free public schools. Other issues, including whether vouchers violate the principle of church-state separation, are pending at the appellate court level.

Until Bush Changed the rules, Florida's parents had little choice in where their kids went to school. A controlled open enrollment plan allows parents to enroll their children in any district public school that has room for them. Currently, 18 local school districts are implementing the plan, backed by significant tax money for transportation and administration. Parents may send their children to schools that perform better on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or to schools closer to child care or to parents' workplaces.

Before signing the Bush/Brogan (Frank Brogan was lieutenant governor, at the time) A Plus Plan and School Choice Program into law, the only choice parents had was to buy a house in a particular school zone or send a child to a private school. The A Plus Plan gives parents of students in failing public schools tuition vouchers for private schools. The plan was built upon two principles: Each student should gain a year's worth of knowledge in a year's time in a public school; and no student will be left behind.

Reaction to an old story

Florida Catholic Conference Education Associate Larry Keough characterizes the choice program as a 21st-century reaction to a 19th-century congressional amendment never signed into law. The Blaine Amendment contained strong anti-Catholic sentiment and precluded federal aid to religious schools. At the time Catholic schools educated large numbers of immigrant children. States began writing Blaine-type language into their constitutions. Florida's Choice Plan skirts the restrictions by allocating dollars to parents who then decide which schools their children will attend.

Parent Jill Rowan works in rural Gadsden County, west of Tallahassee, one site of poorly performing public schools. She makes the daily 50-mile commute from Tallahassee to her job in the poverty-stricken county so her three children could have a better education. "I only moved here for the schools," she said.

Another feature of the program, the Corporate Tax Scholarship program pays tuition to private schools for needy children, while giving a dollar-for-dollar tax deduction to businesses. Critics say the tax break, which the Florida Catholic Conference is asking the state legislature to increase, actually reduces the tax base in a state with severe budget shortfalls.

A Jan. 5 Palm Beach Post editorial asserts, "Florida is spending $50 million on an experimental education program that hasn't been evaluated. Without any proof that the program works, advocates will be asking the state legislature to spend even more on it. The experimental voucher program at issue allows companies to donate as much as $5 million to a voucher fund and deduct the full amount from taxes owed to the state."

Adding to Florida's budget woes is a constitutional amendment reducing class sizes. Opposed by Bush, who in a meeting with a delegation of constituents, promised a plan to derail it, Amendment Nine was nevertheless overwhelmingly passed by voters. Florida Catholic schools accreditation standards cap class size at 35 students. The new amendment lowers public school class size to 18 in pre-kindergarten through third grade, 22 in grades four through eight and 25 in high school.

Accountability is the issue

The most visible part of Florida's school choice plan is the tuition voucher program. Leon County Director of Planning and Policy James Croteau, a Catholic, says: "The issue is not accreditation, but accountability. There is no quality control in private schools, except for the parents' option to take their child out."