The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for low-income students is in its 10th school year in 2011-12 and still has much to prove. But what is documented at this point is that it is attracting the poorest and lowest-performing students from district public schools, that those same students have kept pace with students of all income levels on standardized tests, that parents rate it with extraordinary satisfaction, and that it saves tax money for other educational options.
By the numbers:
(as of January 2012)
38,032 scholarship students
1,185 participating schools
79 percent of schools are faith-based
70 percent of students are in grades K-5
56 percent of students in single-adult households
12.3 percent above poverty (average household income was $24,250)
Academic performance:
Evaluation of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, Participation, Compliance and Test Scores in 2010-2011, August 2011 state Department of Education report
1) "The estimated effects of program participation on math performance are statistically significantly positive at conventional levels … and the estimated effects on reading performance are significantly positive in the case of reading. ... These differences, while not large in magnitude, are larger and more statistically significant than in the past year's results, suggesting that successive cohorts of participating students may be gaining ground over time.”
2) Scholarship students achieved the same standardized test scores gains in reading and math in 2009-10 as students of all income levels nationally. “The typical student participating in the program tended to maintain his or her relative position in comparison with others nationwide. It is important to note that these national comparisons pertain to all students nationally, and not just low-income students.”
3) Those who choose the scholarship were struggling academically at their previous school, a pattern that is "becoming stronger."
“Scholarship participants have significantly poorer test performance in the year prior to starting the scholarship program than do non-participants. … These differences are large in magnitude and are statistically significant, and indicate that scholarship participants tend to be considerably more disadvantaged and lower-performing upon entering the program than their non-participating counterparts.”
Parental Satisfaction:
March 2009 survey of 1,994 households, June 2010 state Department of Education report
1) The report also found a 95.4 percent approval rating among participating parents. Of that total, 75.1 percent said their schools were “excellent” and 20.3 percent said they were “good.”
2) Low-income parents with children in public schools were one-third as likely to rank their schools excellent and 13 times more likely to rate their schools as poor.
Impact on the Florida budget:
Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program Fiscal Year 2008-2009 Fiscal Impact, March 2010 State Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report
1) For fiscal year 2008-2009, the scholarship program saved taxpayers $36.2 million.
2) For every $1 in lost to tax credits, the state saved $1.44.“While the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program reduces the amount of tax revenues received by the state, it produces a net fiscal benefit. This occurs because education spending for students receiving scholarships is reduced by more than the amount of revenue lost.”
Impact on district public schools:
May 2010 report: Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers, by Northwestern University economics and social policy professor David Figlio:
1) The creation of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship in 2001 led immediately to academic improvements in the public schools that were the most likely to lose students to the learning alternative.
2) The learning gains were the largest in the public schools with the greatest number of nearby private schools and those with the greatest incentives to keep federal money they received based on the number of lower-income students. “Our results indicate that the increased competitive pressure faced by public schools associated with the introduction of Florida's FTC Scholarship Program led to general improvements in public school performance.”