The group of private school owners suing the organization in charge of handling half a million student vouchers in Florida are seeking amendments to improve the private school choice movement in Florida, their attorney said on Friday.
This comes after state audits into the funding organization and Florida's Department of Education revealed that funds disbursed to families through the organization, Step Up For Students, have been mismanaged and the program has been plagued with inconsistencies and accountability issues that have resulted in many cases of voucher payment delays — and frozen funds — to students and schools.
At the press conference in Jacksonville, the schools' attorney Lamont Carter explained the reason for the lawsuit against Step Up For Students.
"We're pushing for transparency, accountability, standard operating procedures and sound fiduciary responsibility," he told media. "It's not only monetary... we're, once again, looking for reform."
Last year, the schools filed a demand letter to Step Up For Students, the Department of Education, Gov. Ron DeSantis and then-education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. However, the lawsuit filed this week is only against Step Up For Students.
The schools on the complaint say they have cut education programs their students rely on in the face of delayed voucher payments that have affected their operations — programs critical to their students with disabilities.
Executive director of iCity Christian School in Jacksonville said while change needs to happen at legislative and financial levels, the heart of the case is the students.
"At the center of this matter, our students and their stability must come first," she said. The larger purpose of the lawsuit "is ensuring that our programs funded for students operate as intended under the law."
MORE ON VOUCHERS:
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School administrators say the problems with voucher payments began after the dramatic expansion of the program in 2023, when state lawmakers and DeSantis passed the landmark law HB1 in 2023 to expand access to school vouchers, opening the floodgates for any child to use public money for private schooling.
The schools joining the lawsuit:
- Square Pegs Learning Center in Panama City
- Mountaineer's School of Autism West Palm Beach
- Lakeland Institute for Learning in Lakeland
- Educational Harbor Christian School in Palmetto
- Diverse Abilities School in Southwest Ranches
- iCity Christian School in Jacksonville
- Dickens Sanomi Academy in Plantation
The schools' claims of mismanagement are specific to their schools and not reflective of the program as a whole, spokesperson for Step Up For Students Scott Kent told WLRN's news partner WJCT in an email.
"Step Up For Students is disappointed that the schools have chosen to file a lawsuit, which we believe is motivated by their goal of effecting policy and legislative changes, which would undermine anti-fraud controls," he wrote. "We will work with our attorneys to address the allegations the schools have raised and respond accordingly."
The complaint, filed in Florida's Fourth Judicial Circuit Court in Duval County, seeks damages exceeding $50,000, not including interest and attorneys' fees.
The lawsuit comes as the Legislature is seeking to overhaul Florida's voucher program with the goal of not only making sure students are funded properly, but also safeguarding taxpayer money — more than $4 billion of state funds go into sustaining the largest universal voucher program in the country.
The bill aims to bring more efficiency and transparency to the state's popular school voucher program by proposing the separation of private school voucher funds from public school funds. Introduced by state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola, it unanimously passed the Senate, attracting widespread bipartisan support.
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