Step Up for Students, the nonprofit organization that manages Florida’s Educational Choice Scholarship Program, is highlighting the 25th anniversary of Florida’s groundbreaking Educational Choice Scholarship Program.
The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) went into effect on July 1, 2001, after it was passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Governor Jeb Bush. The program credited companies with directing state tax obligations to help low-income families send their children to the private schools of their choice.
In its first year, FTC provided scholarships to 15,585 students. Today, Florida is a national leader in educational choice, with more than 540,000 students receiving one of four K-12 selective scholarships administered by Step Up for Students, the nation’s largest nonprofit scholarship funding organization. Since its founding in 2002, Step Up has managed more than 3 million scholarships.
This year, 164 Step Up donors contributed more than $656 million to FTC programs. All told, 750 donors have given away $9.2 billion over the past quarter century.
“It was the honor of a lifetime to work with the thousands of dedicated people who helped Florida transition to a new definition of public education: low-income parents, educators, civil rights leaders, and legislators. They all played a critical role,” said John Kirtley, founder and president of Step Up for Students. “Under this new definition, we will empower Florida families to choose and even create the educational experiences that give their children the best chance of success.”
Starting in 2023, all programs operate as Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), giving families flexibility in how they spend their child’s funds. In addition to paying private school tuition and fees, you can also use it to pay for textbooks, curriculum, digital materials, tutoring, therapy, and other eligible educational expenses for home education and other learning environments.
As a result, more than 150,000 students who receive Step Up scholarships are not enrolled full-time in private or public schools, but choose an “a la carte” study option. This has created a burgeoning education market with providers and innovators meeting the needs of families. Step Up’s MyScholarShop online platform has more than 160 product vendors, offering more than 80,000 education products, 7,500 businesses (not including private schools), and 19,000 individual service providers.
“We are excited to be setting the national standard for providing a variety of family-appropriate learning options,” said Gretchen Schoenhaar, CEO of Step Up for Students. “We will continue to innovate in technology, refine the processes that define the customer experience, and encourage more providers to enter the market and transform education.”
More than half of the state’s K-12 students (approximately 1.9 million) have an education option chosen by their parents or guardians outside of their assigned school district. This includes magnet schools and career academies, charter schools, private schools, home education, and hybrid options such as part-time microschools and co-ops. Additionally, 52 of Florida’s 67 school districts have partnered with Step Up to provide paid tuition and services to home-educated students through Choice Scholarships, the only state in the state to offer scholarships.
Starting in 2027, the Step Up Step More Scholarship Fund will administer the new federal education freedom tax credit program. Individual taxpayers can receive a tax credit of up to $1,700 when they donate to the Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) of their choice. This scholarship provides additional resources for tuition, tutoring, technology, and educational resources to eligible K-12 families in public and private schools.
