Overview
- SB 318, filed by Sen. Don Gaetz with Sens. Danny Burgess and Corey Simon as co-sponsors, would create a distinct scholarship funding category, move to monthly payments, assign state student IDs, set application deadlines, require cross-checks of enrollment data, reduce administrative fees, and mandate annual audits.
- The Auditor General reported the state could not verify the status of roughly 30,000 scholarship students at a given time, obscuring about $270 million, and flagged pre-start disbursements and risks of duplicate payments.
- The Florida Department of Education, in its audit response, backed placing scholarship payments in a separate budget silo to improve tracking and reconciliation.
- House PreK-12 budget chair Jenna Persons-Mulicka criticized proposals to separate voucher funding from the main school formula, warning such a move could end universal school choice, highlighting a rift with Senate leaders.
- The voucher system now serves about 500,000 students with nearly $4 billion disbursed, after lawmakers recently patched shortfalls with a $47 million budget amendment on top of $118 million from the education stabilization fund.