Bill would expand “corporate scholarships,” add more financial, academic accountability Options

[Chris Spiliotis]

Read the blog entry, link to the Bill Fact Sheet, and post a comment on orlandosentinel.com.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_educ...untability.html

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Bill would expand “corporate scholarships,” add more financial, academic accountability

posted by lesliepostal on February, 10 2010 11:42 PM

Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, filed a bill today that advocates say would make important changes to a scholarship program designed to help low-income children attend private school.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program — one of Florida’s two remaining voucher programs — served nearly 25,000 students last year, providing them scholarships they could use to offest private school tuition.

The bill would provide for the expansion of the program but also require more accountability, including financial audits and the reporting of test student scores by schools, if they enroll a certain number of cholarship students. These students do not take FCAT but do take other standardized exams.

Here is some information about the bill from Step Up For Students, a scholarship funding organization that provides these tax scholarships to low-income students: House bill factsheet 2.9.10

The group says the program helps poor kids struggling in their public schools and saves the state money to boot.

Public school administrators have had a different take in the past – in part because they lose students to the program.