By Ana Goñi-Lessan, The News Service of Florida
Florida’s largest teachers union filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Education, alleging the disparity between traditional public schools and private schools receiving taxpayer vouchers violates the state constitution.
The lawsuit filed in the Leon County Circuit Court by the Florida Education Association was joined by a group of parents, school board members and civil rights organizations. It alleges nearly $5 billion in taxpayer dollars are being sent to private schools and charter schools via the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which aren’t held to the same standards or oversight as traditional public schools.
That discrepancy violates the Florida constitution’s requirement for the state to “make adequate provision for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public schools,” the lawsuit claims.
“With this lawsuit we are simply asking for accountability, transparency and a basic set of educational standards, which is what every parent wants – regardless of where they choose to send their children,” said FEA President Andrew Spar. “Floridians have made it clear we should be strengthening not abandoning our public schools.”
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas defended the universal voucher program, saying the program empowers parents.
“Thanks to (Gov. Ron DeSantis), every Florida family has access to universal school choice, empowering them to select the learning environment that best fits their child’s individual needs,” Kamoutsas wrote in a post on X. “We stand unapologetically convicted on the principle of always putting students first!”
As of March, there were an estimated 521,000 students enrolled in private and home school options using voucher funds for the 2025-2026 school year, according to data from the state’s Office of Economic & Demographic Research.
According to the lawsuit, about a quarter of the state’s education budget is going to voucher programs, up from 12 percent in 2021.
In 2023 lawmakers expanded the existing voucher program, which was targeted initially to low-income families, to any K-12 student in the state. The law provides that money from corporate tax credits, which funded the initially program, be used first before general funds are used for the universal voucher program.
Last year, the state’s auditor general found a “myriad of accountability challenges” within the voucher system. The report showed overspending and delays in scholarship payments that resulted in a funding shortfall and a system without proper controls to verify where students who received the voucher payments were being educated.
A bill that would have implemented the recommendations from the report passed the Senate but never received a hearing in the House.
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