Florida K-12 students benefit from school choice

As the superintendent of the Catholic schools in the Parish of St. Petersburg, I would like to provide some important context in a recent guest column by Laura Hein, a member of the Pinellas School Board. I would like to start by thanking Hein for her service to our country in the US Navy and for her continued work as a member of the School Board. Despite our different perspectives, we share a common foundation at one essential point. All Florida families deserve access to quality education for their children.

The principles behind educational choices are simple. Parents are the primary educators of their children and are great for determining which educational environment meets their needs. As a result, in Florida, educational dollars chase students rather than being trapped in a single system or based on a child’s zip code.

Is this a healthy investment? You decide.

According to its latest annual financial report, Pinellas County Schools spent $1.455 billion to educate 91,315 students. This averages $15,938 per student. Meanwhile, the average state scholarship used by Pinellas County families that year was $7,763. Catholic schools alone save Florida $467 million a year. In short, taxpayers will cost significantly less money to fund students attending a school of their choice.

The academic results are equally impressive. Students in our Catholic schools are consistently above the national average at all levels of the Terra Nova test, a nationally recognized standardized assessment. By the time students are in the eighth grade, they averaged about three years above their grade level in English art and mathematics.

According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), students in Catholic schools outperform their peers in almost all measured categories. If a Catholic school is considered a state, they are ranked first in mathematics and read scores for 4th and 8th grade. These results also apply to low-income students, who often do far better in Catholic schools than in assigned public schools.

There is 20 years of evidence in Florida that the benefits of giving family options to children’s education extend beyond Catholic schools. Students enrolled in private schools with Florida tax credit scholarships are more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than their public school peers than attending a four-year university, according to the Urban Institute.

Even district schools have raised the game in this age of educational choice. A 2023 survey found that as Florida’s tax credit scholarship program grew, test scores rose, suspension declined, and absences in public schools decreased. The state’s high school graduation rate rose from 52% in 1998 to an all-time high of 89.7% in 2023-24. Florida ranks second in the proportion of seniors who pass the AP exam, despite having a higher proportion of lower-income students than all but one of the top 10 states.

Florida passed House Bill 1 in 2023, giving families more flexibility in how they use their children’s education funds to qualify for scholarships and turn the program into educational savings accounts. In addition to paying tuition fees for private schools, they can purchase individualized tuition, educational materials, curricula, and even classes and services from schools in the district that they have chosen to share with their educational savings accounts.

This ability to customize children’s education from a variety of options (public, private, hybrid approaches) indicates that it is not even in student education. All of the above is increasing and increasing.

Educational choices allow all families to respect their beliefs and have access to education that meets their children’s needs. The Florida Scholarship Program has enabled the Parish of St. Petersburg to serve many of our community. For example, they not only made quality private schooling affordable for more families, but the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Uniquely abilities helped establish a Morning Star program at Bishop of Larkin Catholic School in Port Richie. We currently serve first- to third-year students with different learning needs and hope to expand our programme in the future.

Ultimately, this is a philosophical argument. Do you continue to fund a single geographically linked system and limit your families to schools within your zone? Or will you be able to help parents choose the best learning environment for their children’s needs? Do we advocate a model of all sizes or embrace the vision of education that is as diverse and dynamic as the students we serve?

Every child deserves a chance to thrive. Make sure every Florida family has the opportunity to find the right path for their children’s success.

Christopher Pasra is the superintendent of the Catholic School and Central in the Parish of St. Petersburg, serving more than 13,000 students in Pinellas, Hillsboro, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.