Matthew Lincoln reports for CBS12 in Boca Raton, where private schools are cashing in on taxpayer-funded vouchers.
For the past few months, the CBS12 News I-Team has been looking at trends in Florida’s private schools.
Enrollment is going up – about half a million kids go to private school, and that’s up 25 percent from five years ago.
Parents who make that choice can receive a huge break from the state. Through the Step Up for Students scholarship, they are eligible to receive 8 to 10 thousand dollars to go towards their kid’s private education.
But as that’s been implemented – average tuition at private schools across the state is raising faster than inflation.
[T]he I-Team investigation shows that the average cost of tuition at private schools has grown faster since vouchers became available, is growing faster in Florida than in other states, and is growing much faster than the rate of inflation.
“It’s a grift on the taxpayer,” says Palm Beach County representative Emily Gregory. She says she’s heard the call from constituents about the rising tuition at private school.
“Most vouchers in private schools, that child was already at the private school. So if that child was already there, and the tuition has increased about $8,000 then that family didn’t get any tax break. Now we’ve just charged the state $8,000 for that student.”
Gregory doesn’t blame the schools – she says it’s up to the legislature to create guardrails to the voucher program.
“I hear unity,” she says. “I hear bipartisan support in the community – that these are reasonable expectations of accountability for taxpayer dollars.”