Two weeks ago, I reported on the accountability nightmare surrounding Florida’s state voucher program.
“The scholarship program is about a $4.3 billion issue right now, but $300 million is sloshing around among and between vouchers, homeschoolers, private schools, students who are on programs that are specific to exceptional student mobility issues and neighborhood public schools,” State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, told Inweekly.
“By that, I don’t mean it’s in somebody’s pocket inappropriately,” he explained. “What I mean—and we in Senate have asked a hundred times in a hundred ways—is the right money going to the right place in the right amounts at the right time?”
Gaetz added, “The answer to that question is at best muddled.” Read Florida’s $4.3 Billion Nightmare.
Tampa Bay Times
The Tampa Bay Times has noticed the same issues that we have. Florida’s school voucher program faces a significant accounting crisis, with more than $47 million in funding for approximately 23,000 students improperly tracked or frozen due to verification issues.
- Details: The state’s systems for tracking students and their voucher awards have proven inadequate as the program has grown to nearly 500,000 participants and $4 billion in spending. Some voucher recipients were incorrectly identified as attending public schools and never received their funds, while others received money despite actually being enrolled in public schools and therefore ineligible.
St. Cloud mother Kimberly Tirado exemplifies the crisis. After visiting Harmony High School for three days, her daughter was erroneously listed as enrolled despite never attending classes. This caused her $8,000 voucher to be frozen for nearly a year, leaving her unable to pay for needed special education services. Many families await reimbursements for therapies and educational expenses while living paycheck to paycheck.
- Problems: Officials identified multiple technical problems: software that cannot split payments into smaller than quarterly increments, state deadlines for fund distribution that don’t align with enrollment count dates, and inadequate guidance for distinguishing between students with similar names. Districts received only four days to verify thousands of files, often without student ID numbers included.
Legislative Response
House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee Chair Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka held two October hearings to address the crisis. While lawmakers discussed solutions like mandatory ID number tracking and improved technology, no concrete fixes have emerged. The situation might have been prevented had the House not rejected a Senate proposal in spring 2025 aimed at preventing these exact funding miscues. Read How to fix Florida’s voucher funding snags? Parents, lawmakers want answers.
Politico
Politico reports that Florida school districts are urging state lawmakers to pass reforms to Florida’s school choice programs.
- Improving how Florida tracks student migration between public and private options has emerged as a top priority for local education officials ahead of the 2026 session.