When a newspaper reporter asked Hillsborough teachers union president Jean Clements in 2009 why she would partner with a group that provides Tax Credit Scholarships to low-income students, she didn’t hesitate. “Whatever school they attend, they’re still our children,” she said. “This is not a competition. It’s about all of us doing our best to help children who come from very difficult circumstances.”
The partnership, which provided professional training to teachers in both public and private schools in Hillsborough, drew national attention. But, more importantly, it underscored the changing nature of both the politics and the working relationships that surround the scholarship program.
“I think people are seeing that our goals are genuine, and that we are in fact partners with public education,” said Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up For Students and a former teachers union president himself. “We all know that economically disadvantaged children struggle and this program is intended to help public education fulfill our shared promise of equal educational opportunity.”
The coalition in support of these scholarships has grown rapidly, and the Legislature itself is one barometer. The program was created in 2001 by a Republican majority and one lone Democrat but was expanded in 2010 by a bipartisan vote of 122-34 that included nearly half the Democrats, a majority of the Black Caucus and all but two of the Hispanic Caucus. In the Senate chamber, Al Lawson, an African-American Democrat from Tallahassee and the senior member, was allowed the honor of making the closing argument in favor of the bill.
“This gives us a unique opportunity because some of these kids are the poorest of the poor who get this opportunity to attend these schools,” Sen. Lawson said. “I know in my community how these kids are doing and how much they have been able to benefit from this, and I will tell you that you should just embrace these kids and listen to these kids and what they tell you about how rewarding it has been.”
As lawmakers were considering that scholarship legislation, 5,521 low-income students, parents, educators and activists marched on March 24, 2010, to the Capitol in what became the largest parental choice rally in national history. Among the politically and racially diverse array of speakers that day was James Bush III, then-acting president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bush announced that the national SCLC had formally endorsed both the scholarship and the bill.
“I am here to proudly proclaim,” he said, “that the organization created by Dr. King believes that a scholarship for low-income children is one way to break the cycle and close the gap.”
In the 2010 statewide elections, the bipartisan theme continued as a diverse activist group formed to urge candidates in both parties to support the program. “The reason a coalition of black, Hispanic and Jewish leaders in Florida is so passionate about learning options for poor children is much the same reason people across this country are being reduced to tears by a new documentary film called
Waiting For Superman,” wrote Julio Fuentes, CEO president of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options and group organizer. “What hurts us is to see any child denied a genuine education opportunity.”