The Benefits & Popularity of School Choice in Florida

Denisha Allen is the Senior Fellow of the American Federation for Children (AFC).  She shares her story of how school choice turned her life around and why it's so important for our children.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm for w J and O dot com
in the Florida News Network and back to school for
a Palm Beach County and most of the state of
Florida today and those that are not back today will
be back later this week. But we're talking school choice
right now, because it's not just back to school for

(00:20):
the public schools, also charters and private schools. And we
have Denisha Allen, Senior Fellow from the American Federation for Children,
Tampa Bay area based nonprofit joining us. Now. Thank you
for coming on with me.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you so much, Joel. It's a happy pleasure to
be on on this Yeah, joyous day. Students and going
back to school and parents are just so happy.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
I g yeah, and your story is a is a
real positive one. I know that you're we're not going
to give your age, but you're a grown up now
and married with with two kids of your own. But
you know you you struggled in school, particularly elementary school,
because of issues at home and absenteeism, but then you
found school choice. Tell me a little bit about that.

(01:07):
You know how school choice essentially saved you when it
comes to your education.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yes, and you're right when you say it. School choice
saved my life. I come from a family of high
school dropouts. My mom dropped out of school. She had
me at sixteen years old, and it wasn't It was
hard growing up. We were homeless at even one point,
and thanks to the school choice, the trajectory of my life,
you know, took a different turn. I failed the third

(01:35):
grade twice because I couldn't read and really was in
line to become a high school dropout, maybe even a
teen parent. In the sixth grade, I received the Florida
Text Credit scholarship to go to a private school and
everything changed. I was then in a learning environment where
teachers wrapped around me with support and wanted to help

(01:58):
me make the most out of my life. And I
ended up graduating from high school with honors. I went
on to college and received a master's degree as well,
and all thanks to school choice. And here we are
today's back to school, and we have stories of students

(02:19):
all across the state, but then also all across the
country who are now receiving and going into learning environments
that meets their needs because of school choice. Last year,
Governor Ron DeSantis past universal school choice in the state.
And now we have over forty one percent of students
in the state going to private, charter, even homeschool options.

(02:43):
And over there are over five hundred thousand students in
the state who are now choosing, who are now going
to the school of their choice. And that's that's an amazing,
amazing thing you see that you know, there there's that
are now coming out where traditional public schools have decline

(03:05):
in students and some traditional public schools are now closing
down in the state because there's so many students choosing.
And I think what we see is that parents are
now understanding that they have the power and they can
go to any learning environment. They have the dollars, they

(03:25):
have the power. They're walking around and shopping for the
best learning environment. And we're going to see much more
of it because a federal tax credit scholarship bill was
passed in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, And in the coming years,
we're going to see where more and more and more
and more families are going to be using their power

(03:49):
to find the best learn environment for their kids. And
every day going to school is just going to be
such a happy and joyous occasion.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Now, obviously, you struggled in the in the public education
arena and ended up, as we said, being saved by
school choice because you went to a private school using
your parents' tax dollars. And that's what the state new
state law from last year does. It allows you to
take a parent to take the tax whatever that I

(04:18):
believe it, and you could correct me if I'm wrong.
Whatever that tax amount that would be going to the
public school, take that and put it towards a private school.
I'm thinking many times, you know, depending on the school,
parent may also have to pay towards that as well,
because it doesn't cover it completely. But you can talk
to that. But would you would you say that in

(04:43):
all cases or in most cases, students would be better
off in a private school versus a public school in
our state.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
So to answer your immediate question, no, I think that
the best learning environment for each kid is different. You know,
we've created a system of public education that is a
one size fits all, meaning you go into a building,
every kid is probably going to learn and do school

(05:13):
the same way. And we don't want that. We don't
want every kid going to a private school. We don't
want every kid going to a public school. We don't
want every kid going to a homeschool or a charter school.
What we want is for the parent to know to
choose the best option for their kid, and even in
one household, that might look like a private school for one,

(05:33):
a charter school for the other, or traditional public school
for the next. And so we really want for parents
to have the power to choose the best learned environment.
And the way that they do that is it's through funding. Yes,
And so right now we have in Florida a universal
scholarship program where parents can get from you know, range

(05:55):
maybe seven thousand dollars to ten thousand, depending on the
powers needs to go towards learning expenses. That could be
tuition to a private school, or if this child is homeschooling,
that could mean tutoring services, you know, uh uh, materials, books, iPad,
things that the child needs in order to learn. Right

(06:18):
what the north start is that the funding will follow
the student. And so right now, the funding is not
necessarily following the student. If a family wants to take
advantage of all of their universal dollars, they would have
to opt out of the traditional public of traditional public

(06:38):
schools and be designated as a homeschool student. So there's
still some caveats. But if you're going to traditional public school,
you're getting those you're getting public you're getting taxpayer dollars,
and you don't have to ask any question. But the
government is still controlling how we spend those dollars. And
so we would want for every student, no matter how

(07:02):
you decide to educate your kid, to be able to
take those dollars and do with them what you think
is best, if that's directing them to a traditional school,
or maybe you want to homeschool, and so it really varies,
and we really want for the funding to be equitable,
to be the same, and for parents to direct it.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think I hear one of your kids in the background,
she's talking about school. I'm not in school yet, I guess.
So what would you say to somebody, because this has
been an argument that we've heard from. I guess it's
mostly unions. But because it's mostly unions, but most of
Florida's teachers, not all public school teachers, are in a

(07:46):
teacher's union, And one of the arguments that they'll say is, well,
this is taking you know, this is taking money away
from the public schools. And then others on the other
side of things say no, it'll make the public schools
try harder to be more competitive and better. What are
your thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
You know, I used to have these social media arguments
with the flat earthers, you know, the ones that believe
there that's flat. And that's kind of what these arguments
are when it comes to you know, the teachers' union
and arguing that, oh, school choice takes money away from
traditional public schools. And to put in a different light,

(08:27):
the money doesn't belong to the schools. The money does
not belong to buildings, it doesn't belong to the to
the system. We have these dollars in order to educate students,
and unfortunately, what has happened is that we have you know,
collected all the public funds and use them to really

(08:51):
pay for adults, you know, in the system, and we've
forgotten about the students and making sure that they're in
the best learning environments that work for them. Uh And
but that that shift is is changing because even now
districts like UH or in Orlando, you know, they're putting

(09:12):
out marketing messages, They've hired marketing firms in order to
attract families back into the districts because they're trying to,
you know, move parents to come back into the into
the system. They've realized that if they don't customize, if
they don't change what they are offering, parents are going
to continue to leave the system, leave the traditional public

(09:36):
school system, and go to an other living environment that's
gonna really cater to their wants and the needs of
the child. And so that's that's what we that's that's
that's that's what has been acted in the past. And
now parents are like, hey, we've got enough of it.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
So you would say then that that this school choice,
you know, the the growth of school choice in Florida
and you know, hopefully around the country with the new law.
And then of course the President also did an executive
order aim that expanding school choice even more will make
and looks to maybe be in some cases the public

(10:17):
schools up their game a bit.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Oh absolutely, yes, for sure. And so yeah, and the
recent big, beautiful bill that just got passed signed by
President Trump. It includes a federal tax credit scholarship which
will provide universal, near universal school choice across the country
for every student in America. There are some caveats. The

(10:42):
governors of each state will have to opt in to
provide scholarships to students, but that program will take place
in twenty twenty seven. Parents will be able to utilize
scholarships for their students beginning in twenty twenty seven. And yes,
we've seen in the state. Florida has the one of

(11:03):
the oldest and most successful and largest school choice programs
in the country, with over five hundred thousand students participating
on the program. What we've seen here is that school
choice has been a tie that has lifted all boats,
meaning traditional public school academic outcomes have improved, so has charter,

(11:26):
and so has private school students who are going to
private school. Everyone is now having We've seen higher academic
outcomes thanks to the expansion of school choice, and so
that that has we'll see that happening across the country.
There have been some unfortunate stories of traditional public school

(11:48):
buildings closing down because of the client and enrollment. But
that's that's okay. You know, where if there there's you know,
so many walmarts, one is going to close down and
something else that is more needed will come in and
take its place. We want for the education space to

(12:09):
continue to evolve and mature and serve the needs of
its community and of our students because for too long,
to be honest, it has not and we need to evolve.
We need to create better spaces for our kids.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Well, really quick before we wrap up. You know, we
used to in Florida and you you remember this. I'm
sure the school vouchers years ago. What is the difference
in what we had as far as school vouchers? And
I know they were pretty limited versus school you know
what what the governor did a year ago by signing
the new law.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, you're exactly right. So what I took advantage of
growing up was we you could say, we used to
have now we have a voucher. We used to have
text credit scholarships and that was a tax credit for donors.
Both individuals and corporates could donate to the scholarship program

(13:06):
to provide scholarships for students who are low income and
could not afford private school tuition. That's the type of
that's the program that I took advantage of before we
had what we do today. And today what we have
is regardless of income. It is it is prioritized by income,

(13:28):
but regardless of income, you can get a scholarship to
provide learning, learning opportunities for your student. And so now
every parent in Florida, regardless of how much money you make,
can take advantage. However, lower income families are, they have
preference for hire dollars right.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Because they don't have as much of their own to
put towards what the tax dollars would would pay for. Okay, well,
Denisia Allen anything before wrap up?

Speaker 2 (14:02):
You know, Joel, I just think that, you know, it
is so befitting that back to school season and we're
talking about this topic. And I do wish parents all
the best in navigating the large landscape of options that
they now have, because it's it's power that families never
had before. And so I do encourage every family to,

(14:23):
you know, not just stick with what they're given and
stick it with their told, but to really now go
out and exercise that new found power.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
How can folks, how can American Federation for Children help
help our listeners?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, so, at the American Federation for Children, our top
priority is to make sure that these bills are effective
and they pass all across the country. But we also
want to, yeah, help parents navigate all of their options
and help them continue to advocate forward their students because
they know what's best. And so folks can go to

(14:59):
our website Federation for Children dot org and follow along
on how they can how they can register for programs
across the country and in various states. In Florida, folks
can go to step Up for Students dot org in
order to get more information about how to apply for
scholarship and what schools and resources are available on my

(15:24):
scholarship and it's it's it's a it's a lot to
uh to, you know, to do, and so go to
my scholarship. You can shop around apply for scholarships, and yeah,
do what's best for your kids.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
All right, Well, I appreciate you taking the time on
this back to school sounds like maybe somebody's hungry in
the background, so we'll let you attend.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Denisia Allen, Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children,
thank you for joining me once again.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Thank you, Joe, have a great one.