Government Reports
The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program is overseen by the state Department of Education (DOE), which issues quarterly and annual reports on enrollment and periodic reports on performance.
Financial Impact Reports
A recurring question about the scholarship is whether it has a positive or negative financial impact on the rest of the public education system. The following reports attempt to answer that question.
“The corporate income tax credit scholarship program produces a net savings to the state. We estimate that in Fiscal Year 2007-08, taxpayers saved $1.49 in state education funding for every dollar loss in corporate income tax revenue due to credits for scholarship contributions.” – OPPAGA, December 2008.
Tax Credit Scholarship: The Record of Performance
The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for low-income students, now in the 18th year of operation, has demonstrated consistent growth and progress. The program attracts among the poorest and lowest performing students from district public schools, and yet those same students now keep pace with students of all income levels on standardized tests. We know parents rate the scholarship program with extraordinary satisfaction and it saves the state millions of dollars each year that can be put toward other educational programs.
2020-21 School Year
73,338 scholarship students
1,934 participating schools
69 percent of schools are faith-based
63 percent of students are in grades K-5
55 percent of students in single-adult households
12 above poverty (average household income was $32,368)
Evaluation of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, Participation, Compliance and Test Scores in 2012-13, August 2014 state Department of Education report found that, “…the typical student participating in the program gained a year’s worth of learning in a year’s worth of time. It is important to note that these national comparisons pertain to all students nationally, and not just low-income students.”
The report also notes that those who choose the scholarship were struggling academically at their previous school, a pattern that is “becoming stronger” over time.
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.
A recent report from the Urban Institute also discovered that scholarship students were more likely to attend and graduate from college.
March 2009 survey of 1,994 households, June 2010 state Department of Education report:
1) The report 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.
The March 2010 State Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report uncovered two remarkable findings on how the the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program saves taxpayer money: 1) For fiscal year 2008-2009, the scholarship program saved taxpayers $36.2 million and, 2) For every $1 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,” the report found, “This occurs because education spending for students receiving scholarships is reduced by more than the amount of revenue lost.”
According to Florida Tax Watch, during the 2017-18 school year, the FTC scholarship was worth $0.59 for every $1 spent on public education from all sources.
For more information on costs and savings regarding the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship see the Cost Savings Fact Sheet
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 public schools that were the most likely to lose students to a learning alternative.
2) 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 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.
A recurring question about the scholarship is whether it has a positive or negative financial impact on the rest of the public education system. The following reports attempt to answer that question.
2002 Preliminary Collins Center Financial Analysis
2003 Florida Tax Watch Analysis of impact on class-size reduction
2007 Collins Center Fiscal Analysis link to report
2008 Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability Report
2010 Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability Research Memorandum
2012 Florida Revenue Estimating Conference Analysis
2014 House Appropriations Fiscal Analysis
Florida Statutes Section 1002.395: “The Legislature finds that: Ensuring that all parents, regardless of means, may exercise and enjoy their basic right to educate their children as they see fit is a valid public purpose that the Legislature may promote using its sovereign power to determine subjects of taxation and exemptions from taxation. … Expanding educational opportunities and the healthy competition they promote are critical to improving the quality of education in the state and to ensuring that all children receive the high-quality education to which they are entitled.”
Since its creation in 2001, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship has undergone a continuing series of revisions that have expanded the program and strengthened accountability measures. The sweep of those changes may well be reflected in a simple computation of length. In 2001, the main law was 1,332 words. In 2019, it is 11,833. (They are codified in two sections: F.S. 1002.395 and 1002.421.). Read more about program rules and accountability here.
Our Students:
- Nearly 70 percent of the scholarship students are African-American or Hispanic
- The average student lives in a household earning $32,368 a year, or just 12 above poverty
- 55 percent live with only one parent
- They ranked among the lowest-performing students in the public schools they left behind