FL, AZ already turn public school money over to parents. Other states ready to do so. Choice is [View all]

[madfloridian]

what they are calling it.

This is one of the ideas coming from Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education.

It's a surefire way to destroy public schools. Giving the taxpayer money to charter schools and to private schools through vouchers must not be working fast enough.

States weigh turning education funds over to parents

A radical new concept in school choice will come up for vote in at least a half-dozen states from Virginia to Oklahoma in the coming months, as lawmakers consider giving hundreds of thousands of parents the freedom to design a custom education for their children — at taxpayer expense.

Twenty-one states already subsidize tuition at private schools through vouchers or tax credits. The new programs promise far more flexibility, but critics fear they could also lead to waste or abuse as taxpayers underwrite do-it-yourself educations with few quality controls.

Called Education Savings Accounts, the programs work like this: The state deposits the funds it would have spent educating a given child in public schools into a bank account controlled by his parents. The parents can use those funds — the amount ranges from $5,000 to more than $30,000 a year — to pay for personal tutors, homeschooling workbooks, online classes, sports team fees and many types of therapy, including horseback riding lessons for children with disabilities. They can also spend the money on private school tuition or save some of it for college.

ESAs so far exist only in Arizona and Florida, where one family recently sought to use their child’s funds on an “educational vacation” to Europe. (Program administrators, who must approve all expenditures, said no.) But the idea is catching fire. Bills to create the accounts cleared panels last week in the Virginia and Mississippi legislatures. They’re likely to be on the table as well this session in Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and possibly Rhode Island and Tennessee.

The Foundation for Excellence in Education, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, published a report this week touting ESAs as a promising way to shake up public education. “We need our policymakers to be much more daring,” the report urged.

So if that one item had been approved Florida taxpayers would be paying for a Euopean vacation. True that would be educational for sure.

I have looked for other situations like that in Florida, but it is really hard to find anything at all about it.

I expect many parents are thinking Hey what a great idea. But if they do a poor job there may be no public schools in the wings to rescue them and educate their children.

The steamroller keeps on rolling.

On Edit: Found a little more at the AJC. Not reassuring.

One choice bill for education reform

Obviously this was written by an avid education reformer, so consider the favorable view.

While some people have wrongly likened an ESA to a voucher, it’s more akin to a Health Savings Account. Hamilton calls it “a parent-driven, consumer-driven education pathway.”

The precise amount of funding would vary by child and school district, as the bill would use the QBE funding formula to calculate exactly what the state would have spent on that particular student, between $3,500 and $5,000 per child per year.

To allay concerns of a “huge exodus” from public schools, HB 243 would cap usage to 0.5 percent of the total student population (about 8,500 kids) in the first year and 1 percent (about 17,000 kids) thereafter. Experience in other states with ESAs, Arizona and Florida, suggests the number will likely be closer to 1,000, Hamilton says.

In any event, because the accounts would be limited to kids enrolled in public school or entering kindergarten or the first grade, Hamilton says the effect on the state budget should be neutral, and the effect on local school budgets ought to be positive.

“We’re only taking the state portion,” he says. “So (districts) still get their local property-tax portion that they receive, even though that student’s not there, and then they also continue to receive federal dollars.”

Oh, yes, those "caps" are only temporary. Don't trust them, sorry.

To have the nerve to say they are only taking the "state portion"? In FL that will be devastating quickly with Rick Scott's tax cutting policies at play in so many districts.