SCPA FIRST THURSDAY EVENT: VOUCHER VULTURES DEVOURING PUBLIC SCHOOLS
MAY 2ND / 6:30 PM
Vouchers are private school scholarships which ultimately divert money allocated for K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS to fund private schools and home schooling.
Governor DeSantis recently expanded the school voucher program to include every student in the state, regardless of income. Parents can apply and use up to $8000 a year towards private schools that accept the voucher.
When students leave the public school system and take their public dollars with them, it wreaks havoc on a school district’s budget and negatively affects enrollment. The local fiscal impact arises as communities need to address budget deficits from the loss of state aid. Florida has already chosen to spend millions of taxpayer dollars each year on charter schools. That money comes directly out of neighborhood public school resources as well, so funding a third voucher system significantly weakens local community districts.
And, since many families use vouchers to send their children to church-related schools, some claim that they violate the “separation of church and state.”
It has already been predicted that this situation will foster the creation of a variety of new private schools, given the promise of state funding with little accountability. And it motivates families to turn to parent-directed, loosely regulated home education with its expanded subsidy. The end result is a severe burden on public school districts, and this drain on state funding can be expected to increase substantially in the coming years.
Our country’s strength and future success is directly connected to the quality of education we provide to our children. Join us as we discuss the Florida School Voucher Program and its impact on students, teachers, educational quality and the threat to the long range health of our public school system.
SPEAKER:
Norín Dollard, PhD
Florida Policy Institute Senior Policy Analyst & Director of KIDS COUNT
Norín has more than 30 years of health services research and evaluation experience in Florida and New York, in the area of behavioral health needs of children and families across child-serving systems. She has been responsible for or directed all aspects of the research process including design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination, typically using a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis. Norín has directed both federally funded and state funded evaluation and research projects. As KIDS COUNT Director, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, she leverages her experience with large administrative data sets to inform child and family policy with data. Norín holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of South Florida and a Master’s of Public Administration from the University at Albany – State University of New York.
Vanessa Skipper BFT VP
Vanessa is the Vice President of the Brevard Federation of Teachers and also serves as the Secondary Director on the Executive Cabinet of the Florida Education Association. Before becoming the VP, she was an area director on the executive board of the Brevard Federation of Teachers, a member of the BFT bargaining team (still on team as VP),and building representative at Cocoa High School. She began her involvement with our union by jumping into the fire and taking over as a building representative when the BR at her school retired. She had the highest percentage increase in membership in Brevard since taking over as a building representative. From there, she was selected to become one of the founding members of FYRE, Florida’s Young Remarkable Educators, and to represent Florida at the NEA Women in Leadership Summit in Atlanta, the NEA Member Voices training in Washington D.C., and the NEA Leadership Summit in Dallas, TX. She was one of six finalists for the 2014-2015 Brevard Public Schools Teacher of the Year. She taught secondary English Language Arts & journalism for twelve years before being elected as a release officer of BFT. Standing up for our students and our profession is her passion, and she loves representing Brevard teachers in the fight to keep our profession respected and our classrooms places where learning comes first.
