There’s a glaring problem with PreK-12 education funding, but the House remains mum

While lawmakers are supposed to conclude their Legislative Session Friday, they have yet to complete their only constitutional obligation, to pass a budget.

While House Speaker Daniel Perez indicated recently the budget would not be done in time, we do at least have some idea of what to expect in it. Both chambers’ draft budgets are lower than years past, agreeing that cuts should be made, though differing on where. But both the House and Senate do want to spend more on education – about $30 billion total on PreK-12.  

As a School Board member, I should welcome higher education spending, particularly in a new age of austerity, right? As an elected official focused on education, I routinely ask myself these two questions: (1) Are kids learning?  (2) Are our tax dollars being invested wisely (and is this being transparently reported)? When I meet with elected lawmakers who may not have expertise or personal interest in PreK-12 education, I suggest they judge legislation and budgeting by asking the same two questions. 

The state budget proposals hover around $114 billion. Even though that’s a cut in recent spending, it would still be $20 billion more than just six years ago. That growth is dominated by two areas: health/Medicaid at $10 billion and PreK-12 education at $5 billion. 

I am pleased to have health care professionals address that piece of the budget. Education is a deep passion of mine, so I’ll talk about that one. 

Are kids learning, and are our tax dollars being invested wisely and transparently reported?  

The state and your local School Boards can answer those questions for the $25.4 billion budgeted for public PreK-12 schools. If your public schools are struggling, you know it. And if they are soaring, you know that, too. Plus, every tax dollar is publicly reported.   

Now, what about that other $5.6 billion? That is, mostly, the cost of school vouchers (including the $1 billion from the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships), which are now subsidizing private and home education at taxpayer expense. In fact, vouchers account for almost all of the growth in the education budget. Since HB1 passed in 2023, Florida’s universal voucher law has allowed any student of K-12 age to receive roughly $9,000 a year for any experience deemed educational with no strings attached and no meaningful accountability. Alleged “educational benefits” have included trips to Disney World, private singing lessons, and big-screen TVs. 

Again I ask, are kids learning, and are our tax dollars being invested wisely and transparently reported?

The state Department of Education cannot answer those questions for vouchers. In fact, the Auditor General’s office audited the voucher scholarship program, and their November report laid bare that on any given day the state cannot account for $270 million, or 30,000 funded students, and made very clear recommendations to the Legislature on necessary changes to make it right. This included very basic practices like separating the unchecked scholarship dollars from public education dollars and requiring a student’s schooling location be verified before funding. Those recommendations formed the basis of SB 318, which passed the Senate with tax-oversight gusto. No action in the House. Nothing. 

This is odd to me because the House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee held four meetings in the Fall during interim committee weeks specifically addressing scholarship mismanagement. I attended two of them. At each one, committee members asked great questions. They received the same Auditor General’s report. Then, once the Legislative Session started, nothing. Not a word about addressing the very problems they laid bare. How can that be? 

People tell me it’s a bargaining chip, that the Senate President and the House Speaker will work it out, implying that it is out of their hands and I should simply not worry about it or ask these House members about it anymore, that it is just part of The Process. Meantime, $400 million in tax dollars are sitting in the bank of a private scholarship management company earning millions in interest, and there is no public reporting of how this $5.6 billion in vouchers is being spent. 

This answers the question “are tax dollars wisely invested and publicly reported?’ with a resounding “no.” And no one in the House is saying a word about it. 

Are voucher students learning? Maybe, but we don’t really know. While we can all name a handful of the good private schools we know, don’t forget that 76% of all private schools reported in the state are unaccredited by any academic agency, and these now partially tax-funded schools are not required to administer and report the state academic tests for reading, math, science and history. 

Voucher proponents want you to believe that the nearly 400,000 new scholarships since 2021 have gone to students fleeing public school. They are not. Homeschool numbers are flat, and private school numbers are up just 15%, meaning that 85% of the vouchers since 2021 went to students already in private school. The only difference is, now your tax dollars are footing the bill. 

While both Senate and House budgets propose a modicum of austerity, it won’t be enough to save the state’s finances for long. The Legislative Office of Economic and Demographic Research’s latest Long-Range Financial Outlook for the next two fiscal years shows that without policy and budget changes, Florida will face a $1.5 billion deficit in fiscal year 2027–28 and a $6.6 billion deficit the following year. 

Florida cannot afford vouchers that are unaccountable and have no income limits. 

Legislators, as you consider our budgets that are facing deficits, do the right thing. Implement the recommendations of the Auditor General and of SB 318. If not, we have to ask, why not?  

Friends in the public, call/email/ask to meet with your lawmakers — especially if they are on Budget or PreK-12 committees. But even if not, PreK-12 Education is now 26% of our entire state budget. It’s worth noting, 20 years ago it was 19%, and we were in a far healthier place funding-wise when compared nationally.

Every legislator should learn about it. Every legislator should care about it.  

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Laura Hine is a member of the Pinellas County School Board and Executive Director of Educating Florida’s Future. She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and earned an MBA in finance from USF. Her two children attend Pinellas public schools. Her views expressed here are her own.