Thousands rally against lawsuit to end Florida's school choice program
PENSACOLA, Fla.
Thousands of parents and children rallied against a lawsuit that could end the state's largest private school voucher program. The Florida Education Association is the lead group behind the lawsuit that says the program in unconstitutional, but many feel the voucher program is need to help low-income and minority students. More than 78,000 students across the state receive vouchers through the state's tax credit scholarship program. A Pensacola woman was the first student accepted to Florida's school choice voucher program when it took effect nearly 17 years ago. Khaliah Clanton, 24, credits private school education as a key factor for her success, something she wouldn't have been able to afford without school choice scholarship program. In 1999, the then Florida Governor Jeb Bush kicked off the program, which allowed her to go to Montessori, a Pensacola private school. "I was 8, when Jeb signed the A-Plus Education Program," Clanton said. She was in second grade. Back then, it would have cost Clanton's family $5,000 to $7,000 a year, a cost they wouldn't have been able to afford, had the state not paid for it. "If it was not for this program I could not have gone there," she said. Eventually she transferred back to public school, graduating from Pensacola High School, but still credits Montessori for putting her on the right track, by giving her an education that worked for her. "It's more one on one, which I really thrived on," she said. Donna Harper with Escambia Education Association sides with many teachers around Florida strongly opposing the school choice tax credit program. Harper said there's no proof private school education is better, and questions how the program is ran. "There's no accountability on how children are selected to go to the school, there's no accountability of how the money is funding the program," she said. Clanton admits different students fit better in different schools, but believes that's for families to decide, regardless of income. "We should have the option where we're financially able to or not, education is what's driving the world," Clanton said. A judge last year threw out the lawsuit, but the FEA has appealed the ruling. FEA President Joanne McCall said in a statement that her group has no plans to drop its lawsuit.
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