Joshua Cowen of Michigan State University tweeted the following information from official sources in Florida:
Oh would you look at that—70% of expanded Florida #schoolvouchers users were already in private school.
Another 18% entering kindergartners.
Only 13% came from public school.
@FLBaloney @FloridaPolicy @DianeRavitch
drive.google.com/file/d/1yyl80J…
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I suspect most wealthy people never pass up a chance for more money, no matter where it comes from.
Vouchers are welfare for the wealthy so they have more money to spend on other things, like a new yacht or another vacation in Europe, flying first class.
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“Wealthy” is relative here. I think it’s safe to assume the vast majority of private-school parents who are using these vouchers don’t have yachts and don’t regularly fly first class to Europe.
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FLERP,
Private school parents are already paying tuition. Whether or not they have a yacht is irrelevant. If they do have a yacht, they too will get $8,000 from the state to cut their expenses. If they don’t have a yacht, they were already able to pay private school tuition. They are not needy.
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I agree that whether they’re wealthy by any definition isn’t the real issue.
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Not surprised. Not surprised at all.
And, if someone did the research it would be found that families who are able to use the vouchers in Florida do NOT have children with special needs, or had discipline if they did attend public schools, etc. Only the chosen few without physical and mental problems will be allowed in private schools that are accepting the vouchers. Bet on it!!!!
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Not surprising to me. Changing schools takes time and effort. And it probably often takes more money than the vouchers provide. Whereas if your kid is already in private school, all you have to do is apply the voucher
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Florida is totally irresponsible about charter schools and vouchers. It throws a boatload of public money at them, and there is zero accountability. While the state has over 600 charter schools, it also has the second highest closure rate of charter schools in the nation. All is disruption is a costly alternative to adequately funding community public schools. It is unsurprising that Florida also squanders public funds on vouchers for affluent students. Most parents were already shouldering the expenses of these schools. The ample tourist dollars provides DeSantis with cover for these reckless public policies. https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/florida-charter-schools/67-758325c2-5144-4abb-bf32-f24c7f6495d8
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I posted a link to the same article and didn’t see that you did it until after I posted. It’s under moderation at the time of this post. I’m glad Florida TV is finally giving some pushback to this agenda.
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It’s gonna get a LOT worse when the full bill for all the voucher parents comes due. It’s really going to do a number of the Florida education budget. But Ronnie probably thought he would be in the White House by then.
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This is shocking. A Florida TV news outlet is actually investigating part of this school privatization scheme instead of merely showing soundbites from DeSantis and FLDOE press conferences and moving on without questions.
https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/florida-charter-schools/67-758325c2-5144-4abb-bf32-f24c7f6495d8
Florida is No. 2 behind California for the number of charter school closures.
And the number one reason why they close is not because they failed academically like privatizers say is the point, but they close mostly because of financial mismanagement.
I hope this was shared on their nightly news and through social media posts and not just buried on their website.
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Come to Arizona. Not only have our illustrious leaders offered vouchers to everyone, but our Superintendent of Schools (who I am pretty sure has no education background) is spending additional millions on TV commercials pushing the voucher (excuse me ESAs) agenda. It’s like a circus here.
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