Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill that he described as the largest expansion of the state's school choice program in its history.
The legislation makes every student in Florida eligible to obtain a voucher that would use taxpayer funds to send them to private schools, along with other changes to the program.
"Now, primarily there will be a preference for low- and middle-income families, but at the end of the day, we fundamentally believe the money should follow the student and be directed on what the parent thinks is the most appropriate education program for their child," DeSantis said at the bill signing ceremony, according to local news outlet Click Orlando.
The Florida Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the state, criticized the bill saying it may lead to a mass transfer of students from public to private schools, and would provide state money to charter and private schools that aren't required to meet the same standards as public schools.
"The universal voucher bill signed today by Gov. DeSantis will drain billions of taxpayer dollars away from the neighborhood public schools that nearly 90 percent of Florida's parents trust to educate their children," the organization said in a statement. "Additionally, this new law will hand over that public money to unaccountable, corporate-run private schools. Average Floridians will be helping pay for millionaires and billionaires to send their kids to elite private schools that hand-select their students. Once again, we see Gov. DeSantis putting his political ambitions ahead of Floridians, including our students. We are deeply concerned that children will pay the ultimate price for the governor's politics."
DeSantis claimed on Monday that "the amount of scholarship money is less than what would go per pupil for public anyways" and "since I've been governor, we've raised the amount of funding to our public schools every year. I mean, the idea that they've been starved, that theoretically could happen, that's a choice that legislators and a governor would make, and I push to have more funding for the school districts. And we're actually going to do for public school teachers, the biggest teacher pay increase we've ever done."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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