Vouchers are welfare for the wealthy. The myth of helping poor kids yields to the nightmare of using tax dollars to subsidize exclusionary religious private schools for wealthy and paying subprime voucher schools for the poor.
“Once reserved for low-income students and those with disabilities, state scholarships, often called vouchers, are now available to all – and they’re fueling an unprecedented pipeline of public money, estimated at $3.4 billion this year, into private, mostly religious schools across the Sunshine State…
“‘This is just a subsidy for wealthier people — people who already have the advantage,’ said state Rep. Kelly Skidmore…[She] is among those who fear the impact of the voucher explosion on public schools – which are losing money as students shift to private education – and the implications of handing millions in taxpayer dollars to private schools over which the state has little control.
“These schools are free, as the Sentinel has reported previously, to hire teachers without college degrees, teach history and science lessons outside mainstream academics and discriminate against LGBTQ students and staff. They do not face the same accountability requirements as their public counterparts, whose students’ test scores and graduation rates are publicly reported…
“Critics suspect the state’s new law actually undermines choice for many low-and-middle-income families. That’s because those families may struggle to afford private schools that charge more than the $8,000 scholarship – and an increasing number of schools are boosting tuition, powered by the fuel of taxpayer subsidies.”
Originally posted to Facebook 2/12/25.