School Board member Zucker hates voucher program that saves the district money, helps low income, homeless and minority families

At a recent meeting Sarasota County School Board member Caroline Zucker, District 2, came out against the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships program. Zucker, a Republican, is joining with the teachers unions, NAACP, Democrats and Charlie Crist to stop this tax credit program, which benefits low income and minority students in Florida. Currently 461 Sarasota County students are receiving Tax Credit Scholarships.

According to Step Up For Students, “With the income-based scholarship, families can choose between two options: (1) A scholarship to help cover private school tuition and fees, worth up to $5,272 or (2) A  scholarship to assist with transportation costs to attend a public school in a different county, worth up to $500.” If a child is entering kindergarten through 12th grade and meets one of the following, he/she may qualify for a Florida Tax Credit scholarship:

Chart courtesy of Step Up For Students.

To learn more read the Step Up For Students annual reports on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

The Friedman Foundation did an audit of 10 school voucher programs. The key Friedman Foundation finding was:

If the average voucher amount is less than the average per-student educational cost, a savings is realized for those students that use a voucher to leave a public school to enroll in a private school. It’s that simple!

According to the Florida Department of Education the purpose of the Tax Credit Scholarship is:

To encourage private, voluntary contributions, to expand educational opportunities for children of families that have limited financial resources and to enable children in this state to achieve a greater level of excellence in their education, the 2001 Florida Legislature created s. 220.187, Florida Statutes, establishing the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. In 2010, the FTC Scholarship Program was expanded and renumbered as Section 1002.395, Florida Statutes.

The law provides for state tax credits for contributions to nonprofit scholarship funding organizations, called SFOs. The SFO’s then award scholarships to eligible children of families that have limited financial resources. The tax credit cap for the current year is $357,812,500. The tax credit cap amount will increase to $447,265,625 for the 2015-2016 state fiscal year.

[Emphasis added]

This tax credit program has primarily attracted the poorest and lowest performing students. The Florida Official Revenue Estimating Conference projected the program saved taxpayers $57.9 million in school year 2012-2013. Scholarship participation has tripled in the past seven years with an expected 67,000 families participating in 2014-2015. Additionally, since 2006 with mandatory standardized testing in Florida, scholarship students have been achieving the same gains in reading and math as students of all income levels nationally.

 So why is board member Zucker adamantly against a program that helps low income and minority students get a better education?

The false notion that school choice and voucher programs take money away from public schools. Hillary Clinton, during the 2000 U.S. Senate debate against Rick Lazo, was asked if she supported school vouchers. Clinton stated, “I do not support vouchers. And the reason I don’t is because I don’t think we can afford to siphon dollars away from our underfunded public schools.” Research has proven Clinton wrong.

Rick Lazo’s reply to the voucher question was, “I believe that it’s immoral to ask a child to go to a school where they can’t learn or where they’re not safe. Eighty percent of African-American and Hispanic parents feel that they need it. Why should we trap poor kids in failing schools simply because the teachers unions won’t agree with it?” Research has proven Lazo right.

We now know on who’s side Zucker stands – Hillary, Crist, the NAACP and teacher unions.

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