123,000 new students taking Florida school vouchers, report says
Florida lifted income level requirements for vouchers for fall 2023. Priority is given to lower income families, but 44 percent are from families below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $55,000 in income for a family of four.
As of Sept. 8, 242,929 students had enrolled in 2,098 private schools using vouchers through the state’s two main programs, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and Family Empowerment Scholarship, according to a report by Step Up for Students, an organization that administers the vast majority of vouchers in the state.
That is an increase from the roughly 170,000 students who received vouchers through the programs during the 2022-2023 school year.
OR IS IT?? “As we continue to analyze the data provided by Step-Up For Students, what initially stands out is that roughly 7 in 10 new scholarship awards are going to students already enrolled in private school, at what FPI (Florida Policy Institute) estimates is a $676 million cost to the state,” the Florida Policy Institute, which strenuously opposed the voucher expansion, said in a statement Thursday. These families receive about $8,000 per year for private school tuition.
What does private school tuition cost in Florida?
The average private school tuition in Florida is $10,415 per year (2023-24).
The private elementary school average tuition cost is $10,362 per year and the private high school average is $11,528 per year. The private school with the lowest tuition cost is Hope Christian School, with a tuition of $1,500. The voucher program represents significant savings for families who have been sending their children to private schools.