When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed universal school choice into law in 2023, advocates celebrated a historic victory. Today, more than half of Florida’s K-12 students attend private, charter, home, or magnet schools rather than their neighborhood public schools.
But behind the celebration, there’s a problem—a big one.
- “Is the right money going to the right place in the right amounts at the right time?” asks State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. “The answer to that question is at best muddled.”
That’s putting it mildly.
Today at 11 a.m., Inweekly will publish an investigation revealing how Florida’s voucher dream has turned into an administrative nightmare—with $300 million “sloshing around” between vouchers, homeschoolers, private schools, and public districts.
- At the center of the chaos is Step Up For Students, the nonprofit organization managing the scholarship program. While Step Up will pocket $173 million in administrative fees this year, families are waiting months for reimbursements, schools aren’t getting paid, and Florida’s Department of Education can’t seem to keep track of who owes what to whom.
The details are shocking:
Some families waited 76 to 80 days for transportation payments. Private schools are fronting costs for students while payments sit in limbo. School districts were shorted $47.1 million in their final payments last fiscal year, making it impossible to close their budgets.
- And here’s the kicker: auditors found 267 student accounts that exceeded legal limits, totaling $2.1 million in excess funds. Meanwhile, Step Up failed to allocate nearly $5 million in interest to student accounts as required by law.
“DOE is really fumbling the ball,” says State Rep. Alex Andrade. “I’ve had constituents reach out and say, ‘I’ve been waiting six months for a $1,000 reimbursement for a tutor.’”
Sen. Gaetz puts it bluntly: Step Up has turned the Family Empowerment Scholarship program into an “accountant’s nightmare.”
Read the full investigation at 11 a.m. on inweekly.net to discover how Florida’s model “school choice” state became a cautionary tale—and what it means for the future of education funding.