Released: 9/2/2009
Author(s): Matthew Ladner
Jeb Bush campaigned for Governor on a clear and bracing set of education reforms in 1998. Having won office, he immediately pursued a dual track strategy of education reform: standards and accountability for public schools, choice options for dissatisfied parents. Florida lawmakers followed these reforms with additional measures, including instructional based reforms, curtailing social promotion, merit pay for teachers, and additional choice measures.
Governor Bush met fierce resistance. Ten years after his election, this study lays out the evidence on the cumulative impact of his reforms. The National Assessment of Education Progress tests representative samples of students in every state on a variety of subjects and is the nation’s most reliable and respected source of comparable K-12 testing data across states.
In 1998, 47 percent of Florida fourth-graders scored “below basic” on the NAEP reading test, meaning they couldn’t read. By 2007, 70 percent of Florida’s fourth graders scored basic or above—a remarkable improvement.
After a decade of strong improvement, Florida’s Hispanic students now have the second-highest reading scores in the nation; and African-Americans score fourth-highest when compared to their peers.
The average Florida Hispanic student scored higher than the overall average score for all students in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. Florida’s African Americans went from being far behind their peers in Indiana to be significantly ahead of them. Hispanic students in Florida score approximately a grade level above Indiana Hispanics, and have moved to within striking distance of the statewide average for all students in Indiana.
The pages that follow lay out the Florida reforms, and suggest how they could be emulated and/or exceeded in Indiana.
Programs
Enacted 2001 • Launched 2001–02
Florida provides a tax credit on corporate income taxes as well as insurance premium taxes for donations to Scholarship Funding Organizations (SFOs), privately run non-profit organizations that distribute private school scholarships. SFOs provide scholarships worth up to $4,106 for low-income students. They also may provide students with funds for transportation to another public school. Businesses get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to scholarship organizations. The overall size of the program is capped at $140 million for 2010–11 (that amount will rise by 25 percent in future years if the total credits claimed in a given year amount to 90 percent of the current cap).
In 2011, new legislation amended the original Florida Tax Credit Scholarship law in two ways: (1) Eliminated the tax liability cap (formerly set at 75 percent) on the total tax due that qualifies for a credit; (2) Allowed the carry forward of an unused amount of a tax credit to the next fiscal year, and eliminated the rescindment of all or part of an unused tax credit.
Enacted as Pilot Program in 1999 • Expanded 2000–01
Any student with a disability whose parents are unhappy with their assigned public school is eligible to receive a McKay voucher to attend a private school or another public school. Started in 1999 as a pilot in Sarasota County, the program originally was capped at five percent of eligible enrollment. It was expanded statewide in 2000–01, and the cap was removed.
New legislation has expanded the program to include “504 Plan” students (section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973). Essentially, this extends eligibility to an estimated 50,000 students across the state of Florida. Section 504 protects qualified individuals with disabilities. Under this law, individuals with disabilities are defined as persons with a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities. People who have a history of impairment, or who are regarded as having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, are also covered. Major life activities include caring for one’s self, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, working, performing manual tasks, and learning.
