Florida school vouchers leave a big hole in your education budget

The current talk in Tallahassee is about tax cuts, but did you know that Florida will soon face a multi-billion dollar budget deficit? I was in the capital recently, and the legislators were reluctant to discuss it. There are no options. Today we are hurting K-12 education and leaving it unchecked to affect criminal justice, public safety, transportation, healthcare and any public service. You need to tackle the problem head-on, but you need to understand it first.

Florida’s Legislative Budget Committee is three years away. They expect surplus for fiscal year 2025-26, but things get sour soon. The committee expects a deficit of $2.8 billion the following year and a $6.9 billion the following year. Expenses on K-12 education are the biggest drivers digging holes in that budget. (The second is Medicaid.) Florida public schools have been funded below inflation for 20 years compared to the previous year.

In short, the answer is a school voucher. They have been a generation in Florida, but in 2023 they expanded beyond all awareness without the necessary accountability. The cost to taxpayers is now $4 billion, growing, a major cause of the looming budget crisis.

The voucher began 25 years ago as a limited programme to help students with disabilities fund special services. Soon after that, they expanded to include students from low-income families who attended unperforming schools. The program continued morphing and growing to peak with the “Universal Voucher” two years ago. Essentially, it means a voucher for everyone who has no limit on the income of a family, and even those who already attend private schools can get them. Currently, voucher students are receiving $9,163.75 to be homeschooled or attending private schools without the academic supervision expected from Florida taxes.

Let’s take a look at Pinellas County, where I am the chairman of the school board. Five years ago, Pinellas had 2,383 voucher students cost $16.6 million under a more limited program. This year, there will be 17,912 voucher students under the voucher for whom, at a cost of $168 million. This is a 10x increase that breaks your budget in just a few years. For context, some of our best programs have been proposed – International Baccalaureate Programs, Advanced Placement Courses, and all career accreditation programs will seriously damage these programs, which are important for Florida’s future.

what happened? Pinellas Public Schools have not lost students to private schools. In fact, over the past three years, district records show that 1,200 people have returned from private schools to public schools. No, the budget question is simple. High-income students who are already in private schools are currently receiving public taxes. At a recent dinner supporting Boy Scouts, a parent from a local private school told me, “We didn’t need any money, but the school told us to apply for it.”

To justify everyone’s vouchers, I often hear the argument that “it’s the money of my parents.” Curious, I checked the numbers. In Pinellas County in 2024, the median value was rated as assessing the housing value of a single family. The homeowner paid $664 for K-12 education. The voucher is $9,164. If a household receives a voucher, the neighbor will pay $12 for each dollar they pay for it. If they receive three vouchers, it would be $27,500 in publicly funded private or homeschooled education, of which $25,500 is the tax paid by others. This is everyone’s money.

I also often hear that parents are the best judges of their children’s needs. As a parent of my own two children, I couldn’t agree any further. And since we all agree, let’s make sure we are making the profit from our investments, as good companies need them. That means accountability, as I was delved into when I was a Navy officer.

See, we can all name the great private schools in our community. I’m glad that my parents have so many options. Our son was part of one of the best until he realized that our national security and economic prosperity depended on the excellence of K-12 education. But did you know that there are 149 private schools in Pinellas County alone, and 7 in 10 are not accredited by academic institutions? The proportions are similar across the state. Florida is currently spending $4 billion on vouchers. Do you want to go to a school where none of the taxes are accredited?

Pinellas Public Schools are successful. I recently attended breakfast to celebrate our best and greatest honors, including 27 national merit scholarship finalists and graduates attending Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Florida and University of South Florida. Of course, there are public schools that we struggle with. I know this because academic records are reported and transparent. Our public schools are accountable. Can the same be said about the voucher program?

Maybe it’s time to ask some questions:

Should there be income limits for voucher eligibility? If not, why?Do all schools that receive public funds have to be academically accredited? If not, why?As with public schools, do all schools that receive public funds need to manage Florida accountability assessments and obtain school grades? If not, why?Do you need homeschool students to receive a voucher to get a Florida rating? If not, why?

Friends, I have a problem. Florida is facing a looming deficit as the voucher expanded on a massive scale in 2023. This has impacted K-12 education, leaving them unadapted and ultimately affects all public services, including criminal justice, healthcare, and transportation. The good news is that we can fix it. Consider the above questions. The solution may be in the way you answer them.

Laura Hein is the chairman of the Pinellas County Board of Education. She is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and earned her MBA in finance from USF. Her two children attend Pinellas Public Schools.