SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Starting Saturday, Florida will open up school vouchers of up to $8,000 for students to attend any school they want.
As of July 1, parents can choose any school they want to send their child to under Florida’s family empowerment scholarship.
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For parents, income restrictions and enrollment limits are no more, and the voucher can be used to pay for private school tuition and homeschooling. The money can also be put into an education savings account to be used for school-related costs, such as internet costs. fees for standardized tests, tutoring as well as full- and part-time enrollment in college as a dual enrollment program.
But Thomas Bugos, the president of the Sea Teachers Union in Seminole County, said this bill does not change that much.
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“But it does give a free coupon to anyone that’s already paid. So the millionaires and billionaires that are already putting their students in $30,000-$40,000 private schools are getting a coupon for $8,000 or more,” Bugos said.
Bugos said it’s money that will be diverted from public education, where 80% of the students currently go. He said the potential is there to lose $2 billion in the public school system.
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“Which not only impacts teachers’ raises, but it’s also going to impact the students the quality of the education, they’re gonna be able to receive the materials, all the vast majority of technical classes that we have are going to take a huge impact the arts, so band, anything like that are going to lose their funding, or dramatically be reduced,” he said.
Teacher Clayton Phillips said it makes school boards the easy target for the wrath of parents.
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“The legislature always has an easy excuse. It’s not our fault. It was the school board that had to make that decision, not us, even though they’re starving the school board have the money that they need to make the decisions to make it an equitable system for everyone,” he said.
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