Florida to Be First to Launch Statewide School Vouchers

Florida lawmakers today are expected to give final approval to the nation’s first statewide school voucher plan, which would provide thousands of low-income and minority students with tuition money to be used in private or religious schools.

The law is expected to turn Florida’s schools into a large-scale laboratory that will test a controversial concept debated in public education circles for years.

The Florida House approved the measure Wednesday by a 70-48 vote. Passage of the bill in the state Senate, which is likely today, would fulfill a campaign promise by Gov. Jeb Bush to revamp the state’s troubled education system by offering students a way out of low-performing schools while providing incentives for all of Florida’s 3,000 public schools to improve.

“We are going to have true accountability,” said Bush, a Republican who assumed office in January. “I will sign that bill with a smile on my face.”

The bill offering what Bush called “opportunity scholarships” has had a relatively easy road through the Legislature in Tallahassee, despite critics’ objections that the voucher plan would divert millions of dollars from public education to private schools. “More and more high school students will be ill-prepared to enter college,” warned Pat Tornillo, president of Florida Education Assn./United, a union representing 70,000 school employees.

Bob Chase, president of the National Education Assn. in Washington, called the voucher plan “a bad piece of legislation that makes absolutely no sense. Why take money out of the public schools for a voucher program that, in cities where it’s been used, has a spotty track record at best?”

The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, among other groups, argued that handing parents tax dollars to spend in religious schools is unconstitutional. They vowed a court challenge.

But backers were ecstatic Wednesday.

“We are redefining what public education is,” said Patrick Heffernan, president of Floridians for School Choice, a lobbying group. “The real significance of this legislation is that for the first time, on a statewide basis, families can choose their school--whether it is operated by the government or not.”

Under the terms worked out in a compromise between House and Senate conferees, each of Florida’s public schools will be given a grade, A to F, based on standardized test scores. Those schools scoring well would qualify for additional state funding.

But students in schools rated “F” for two years within a four-year period would be eligible to transfer to another public school, or could accept a voucher to pay for private school tuition. The voucher would be worth up to $4,000.

According to estimates from the state Department of Education, by the fall of 2000, as many as 169 schools in 32 of Florida’s 67 counties could be designated as failing, making up to 156,000 students eligible for vouchers.

Most of the schools expected to rate an F are those serving low-income, minority communities--as do the four schools already labeled “low-performing” by the state. One of those schools is in Orlando, one is west of Tallahassee, and the other two in Pensacola. Students at those schools will be eligible for vouchers in September.

Many other schools believed to be destined for F grades are in South Florida, including 43 in Miami-Dade County that have a total enrollment of 48,500.

State Rep. James Bush, a Miami Democrat whose district includes some of the state’s poorest urban areas, called the voucher plan “an unfair, exploitative program which will gradually erode public schools’ effectiveness. This is not in the best interest of African American, minority and poor children.”

Bush, who is no relation to the governor, said the $4,000 available through vouchers would not be enough to pay tuition at many private schools--which would not be subject to the same standardized testing. And many low-income parents would be unable to provide transportation for their children to private schools.

In Washington, Center for Education Reform President Jeanne Allen dismissed those objections. “For the first time, parents have a firm guarantee that if the school their child is in is not working, they can go someplace else,” she said. A voucher for $4,000 would cover the tuition at 90% of Florida’s private schools, she said.

“Opponents really miss the point,” Allen said. “As soon as the ink is dry on that bill, schools will have huge incentives--with extra money for teacher training and other tools--to do what is expected of all schools. Schools have been low-performing because they have been permitted to be.”

In addition to offering vouchers and incentives, the “A-plus plan” also requires annual testing of children in grades 3 through 10, and bans passing students to the next level even though their grades do not warrant it--a practice called “social promotion.”

School voucher plans are being used in some cities, such as Milwaukee and Cleveland. Mayor Rudolph W. Guiliani is touting a voucher plan for New York City. Maine and Vermont for years have used a voucher system for some rural students. And other states, including Texas, Pennsylvania and New Mexico, are looking at legislation similar to Florida’s.

But the Florida plan is easily the biggest experiment with educational vouchers ever enacted. Although estimates vary on how many of the students eventually eligible for vouchers would use them, most experts agree that within four years, the number of Florida schoolchildren taking part would be at least 12,000--double the number enrolled in Milwaukee’s program. An estimate from Floridians for School Choice puts the total at as much as three times that.

“If every family in Florida were given an opportunity scholarship tonight, the next day 70% to 80% would enroll their child in a public school,” Heffernan said, “because most are doing a good job.”

But, he said, up to 30% of those eligible for vouchers would use them.

About 250,000 of Florida’s 2.3 million schoolchildren attend private schools.

Studies of voucher schools in Milwaukee and Cleveland show that achievement scores do rise for students who move out of failing schools, according to Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of public policy and education.

But, Fuller added, “creaming off of the best students does occur. Even when you target low-income families, the evidence is that the more-educated, two-parent households tend to participate, leaving the poorest students behind.

“And I do worry that no one is asking about those kids left behind.”

In California, former Gov. Pete Wilson proposed legislation similar to Florida’s in 1996. It passed the Assembly but was defeated by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

In 1993, the state’s voters rejected by a 69.5%-to-30.5% margin a voucher measure that would have given $2,600 checks to all students who were in or who wanted to be in private school. The state’s legislative analyst said that, if passed, it immediately would have cost $1.3 billion to pay for students already attending private schools.

The California Teachers Assn. poured more than $13 million into the fight and it was defeated by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

Recognizing the financial clout of the teachers, others who have been tempted to launch another ballot measure have backed away.

But voters are growing more fond of the idea. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that, among likely voters, vouchers are favored 52% to 43%.

A Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Timothy Draper, wants to test that sentiment. He’s drafting a measure he hopes to qualify for the March 2000 ballot.

Times staff writer Richard Colvin in Los Angeles and Times researcher Anna M. Virtue in Miami contributed to this story.