In a recent Herald-Tribune guest column, William Mattox of the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee posed two questions:
Is the highest goal of K-12 education to produce great schools?
Or is it to produce great students?
The answer to each question is a resounding “Yes!”
Sarasota County has excellent public schools.
We’re also rich with magnet and public charter options that were carefully approved by our School Board as legitimate options for our students and families.
As a strong proponent of school choice, I’ve supported these decisions.
The voucher grift begins
However, in 2023, Florida changed the charter school approval process.
In effect, this process now forces local school boards to approve any charter school application that comes their way – knowing that rejections mean costly legal battles before a commission appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Shortly after passage – and despite overwhelming community objection – Sarasota’s School Board majority approved two for-profit charter schools to operate in our county.
I cast the lone dissenting vote.
Notably, a School Board colleague who voted to approve the new schools has her children enrolled in one of them – and also probably uses vouchers.
Do you think it is a coincidence that former Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran and former Florida Senate President Manny Diaz – two men with direct ties to the private charter school industry – both served as state education commissioners for Gov. DeSantis?
Corcoran’s wife founded Classical Preparatory Academy in Pasco County and his brother, Michael, is a lobbyist for a company that manages for-profit charter schools across Florida.
Diaz was a top executive at a Miami for-profit charter management company.
Today, both men are presidents of state universities with hefty salary boosts.
In this situation, the voucher program is both a gift and a grift.
Florida’s school voucher program began as a tool to help low-income families afford private school tuition. In 2023, it expanded to all families regardless of income.
Last year approximately $4 billion in state tax revenue funded 500,000 students in private schools, charter schools and homeschools – 70% of whom never attended a public school.
In Sarasota County, we know that 3,300 students received vouchers who had never set foot in a public school.
Your tax dollars are paying for homeschooling and private education that these families could already afford.
In his piece, Mr. Mattox referred to this voucher program as “The Fund to End Unjust Double Payments.”
Really?
How does he know, since the state can’t get its numbers right?
A 2025 Florida Department of Education audit exposed significant failures in the voucher program, including more than $360 million in unaccounted funds and $47 million sent to families for private education while their children were still enrolled in public schools.
Yet the Florida Legislature’s most recent session concluded without a single fix for this.
To top it all, Florida continues to rank 50th in the nation for teacher pay
The voucher grift expands
In the same year, the grift expanded with the advent of “Schools of Hope.”
This law allows privately managed, for-profit charter operators to take over or co-locate in unused space at traditional public schools, rent-free, with districts and taxpayers covering operational costs.
During my tenure, I have watched the Florida Legislature systematically defund public education under the disguise of school choice. Our state Rep. Fiona McFarland and state Sen. Joe Gruters have been consistent supporters of this shift.
And the grift will continue if current U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is elected as Florida’s governor.
Donalds and his wife, Erika, have already said that “profit is not going to be a bad word” in the education industry if he becomes governor.
But could that be because Erika Donalds owns several for-profit companies that provide services to private classical academies?
Some of the voucher dollars go to homeschooling.
This parental choice can be legitimate, but it must be backed by measurable standards and accountability established in state law.
But did you know that parents are not required to hold a valid Florida teaching certificate?
And that the state does not prescribe a curriculum?
And that parents have the right to choose any methods or materials they prefer?
And that there are no hours or instructional days required?
And that parents can determine when their child’s homeschooling education is complete?
And that parents can issue diplomas to their children?
The Heritage Foundation invested in many programs like Project 2025, Moms for Liberty and the James Madison Institute, which employs Mr. Mattox.
This is exactly the type of political influence and propaganda that Sarasota citizens from both sides of the aisle want to keep out of education.
The gift is that parents are in the driver’s seat of school choice.
The grift is party politics, personal financial gain and cronyism at the cost of student outcomes and teacher salaries.
Mr. Mattox may dismiss Sarasota’s concerns about school choice as crying or “bellyaching.”
But make no mistake: we are mad as hell – and we’re not going to take it anymore.
Tom Edwards represents District 3 on the Sarasota County School Board. He was first elected in 2020.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota schools pay huge price for Florida’s voucher grift | Opinion
Reporting by Tom Edwards Guest columnist, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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