It would be absurd, I think we can all agree, if Paul Renner, our esteemed Speaker of the House and Flagler’s chief pork slabber, were to champion a bill entitling every citizen to take out $2,000 from their local policing budgets so they can have their own private security and call it “Police Choice.” After all, don’t we all pay taxes? Shouldn’t we have a choice how that money is spent? Don’t we free Floridians know best? Sheriff Rick Staly would be the first to tell Renner he’s out of his mind.
It would be absurd, I think we can all agree, if Renner, claiming that taxpayers shouldn’t have their park choices limited to Holland and Ralph Carter Park, were to champion a bill entitling every household to take out $1,000 from the parks and rec budget so they could help subsidize their Disney and Universal experiences and call it “Park Choice.” Even Renner’s chamber of commerce courtesans would tell him he’s out of his mind.
But not too many people told Renner he was out of his mind when he did exactly that to public schools: he championed a bill entitling every child in Florida to $8,000 a year to spend on private education, at the public school system’s expense, and called it “school choice.” The few who did were themselves told they’re out of their mind.
“School choice” is an orchestrated demolition of public schools and the social contract. The focus-group euphemism masks the thieving of tax dollars to subsidize private schools, transforming what was once an aspiration of fringe Christian and anti-government militants into state doctrine. “I hope to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have public schools,” the televangelist and founder of the Moral Majority Jerry Falwell said in a 1979 sermon. “The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be.” Falwell lived long enough to see Jeb Bush’s Florida reopen that door. Renner swung the wrecking ball.
Flagler County schools are losing close to $11 million this year to “choice,” siphoned out so 1,250 students can get their $8,000 either for private school or home school. True, not every one of these students was attending Flagler schools before, so it’s not a net loss of 1,250 students. But very few of these students were either qualifying or getting taxpayer subsidies before. Exactly 136 did in Flagler just four years ago, costing the district less than $1 million. Now anyone qualifies, including millionaire families, and every dollar going to them is a dollar diverted from public education.
That figure of 1,250 students is for the first full year of this “choice” being in effect. Coming years will only accelerate the drain on public schools, because if you have children you’d be out of your mind not to take the $8,000-per-child handout, especially since most of you aren’t paying anywhere near $8,000 in school taxes each year. The rest of us, and even more so businesses and renters, are subsidizing the swindle.
Advocates of the swindle have come up with a couple of defenses: first, that they’re taxpayers who should choose where their money is spent–the untenable argument that would then support “police choice” and “park choice,” and if you push that logic far enough, “war choice,” as in: you may spend my money on the Ukraine war but not the genocide of Palestinians. But in our social contract how our taxes are spent is not an a-la-carte option, though Boomer narcissists who can’t see past the hedge of their gated community think it should be.
Second, the advocates claim the dollars “follow the child,” as if public money going to private subsidies were new money that doesn’t affect public school budgets. It’s excellent propaganda. But it’s a double-barreled lie–double-barreled, because not only is every student lost to the public schools a loss of $8,000, but every student who was never enrolled in public school but is now getting the $8,000 compounds that loss, since these are public dollars that would have otherwise been allocated to public schools.
Incidentally, we don’t say that people receiving food stamps are on “food choice.” We don’t say that people getting Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are on “poverty choice.” When people get free money from the government, we call it welfare. Ditching the ordurous school-choice euphemism and applying the language’s proper definition–school welfare–exposes the state’s fabrications.
Facts do the rest. The welfare kings and queens this time are much richer than those on food stamps. As the Miami Herald reported Sunday, “Last school year, the average income of families who provided income data and received scholarships for a family of four was $86,000.” (To be eligible for food choice this year a family of four can’t have a household income above $62,400.)
According to Step Up for Students, the state’s arm administering school welfare, 82 percent of handouts went to students attending religious schools–madrassas–like one in Palm Coast that boasts of “raising champions for Christ” and still sports a crusader for a mascot, which is no less offensive to a few hundred million people than if it flew the Confederate or Nazi flags. Our tax dollars are subsidizing that kind of bigotry.
More perniciously: When Bush started the welfare-to-school wagon he limited it to the disabled and the needy. Minorities benefited disproportionately. It was a form of segregation in reverse, like affirmative action. Renner’s scheme, like so much under Gov. Ron DeSantis, revives pre-Brown v. Board of Education segregation. By eliminating eligibility barriers, wealthier families use the subsidy as a bridge to very expensive public schools whose tuition keeps the riff raff out, even with $8,000 subsidies. A family might’ve afforded a $9,000 school but couldn’t afford a $15,000 school. So clever schools adjust their tuition just so as a barrier to undesirables and to make extra profit, thus cashing in twice over: in dollars and in whitening their own “choice” of who gets in. Et voilà. Jerry Falwell’s jolly jowly ideal realized.
Of course innumerable schools are metastasizing like cancer to take advantage of welfare money: you’ll see them everywhere. The state is begging them to start up. It’s easy, because the crowning achievement of the swindle is that schools getting welfare don’t have to match public school standards. Admittedly in Florida the standards are not much to speak of, but they’re still stronger than most of those fly-by-night schools hoping to cash in on the dole. None of the schools, rich or lousy, have to provide the huge range of services public schools are required to, such as special education, athletics, free transportation. Nor even safety protocols.
In a lesser known swindle, the big theft also now requires public schools to transfer millions of their dollars for the building maintenance of charter schools, the privately run, already publicly funded schools like Imagine at Town Center, whose parent company some years ago was court-ordered to pay back $1 million for running a real estate scheme with public dollars. The Florida Legislature has now legalized the scheme. Imagine at Town center received $700,000 this year for capital improvements, siphoned out of the district’s budget.
Finally, to make sure the dagger cuts deeply and fatally, the state makes it mandatory for school districts to advertise school welfare on their websites. Districts like Flagler must make it as easy as possible for parents to apply for the money and get out of the district, while the state provides a detailed list of private schools to choose from, including, of course, every madrassa under the sky. State and districts could not be shouting louder: Public schools suck. Here’s $8,000. $16,000. $24,000. Now leave.
As students continue to be bribed out, public schools will be left with less money, all the responsibilities for higher standards, more challenging students, crumbling buildings and, revoltingly, school board members and superintendents in full Stockholm Syndrome mode. You hear them in board meetings not only talking about school welfare but praising it, pandering to it, the way the condemned suck up to their executioner.
There are exceptions. Our own Colleen Conklin for years has been sounding the alerts about the swindle, starting with the charter schemes. She thankfully kept a few of those out of the district, back when local school boards had a say. They no longer do. And Conklin is leaving in November. Our remaining board members love the school welfare swindle and are probably trying to figure out how to cash in with their own kids without looking like public school traitors.
But as Jerry Falwell implied, it’s a matter of time before those school board members are surplus property, like public school buildings, like buses, for that matter like teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, bus drivers and administrators, all of whom are already treated like disposable obstructions in the way of school welfare and the cult known as “parental rights.”
Pierre Tristam is the editor of FlaglerLive. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
Bailey’s Mom says
I totally agree, it’s absurd that public tax money is allowed to be swindled out for private & religious schools!
If you want that for your children then you pay for it. Period.
These fools need to be voted out before it gets worse.
Private Police & Fire Departments, then the military. I think the Government Officials need to remember that it is We who pay their salaries, We need to stop all the selfish Me people and get back to For The People and invest in our Public Schools and Departments to benefit the whole community.
Cranky in FB says
If you want to feed kids breakfast lunch and babysit them then pay for it yourself. I already pay into the welfare system. Schools need to be schools again.
Charles Smith says
What we want for “our” children may differ from what you want for our/yours, and their children…. The school system has an agenda and the curriculum is a result of that. Wether its liberal, conservative, in between, or religious ideology, there will be some for and some against. If they are in the public schools system that is what they get, period. Personally, I will take the money and run to the nearest school that will teach my children the subjects, morality, and life’s lessons that I deem necessary to enable my children to succeed in life….isn’t that what we all want? Being retired military, I can’t remember a time that I did not pay taxes, which helped pay my wages….did you pay into your wages…I think not.
Laurel says
Charles Smith: We all paid. This year, we will pay over a thousand dollars to the PUBLIC school system, and some will take out eight times as much, or more. I would like my tax to go to the system that it was created for. Religious people can tyth their own.
Charles Smith says
You have a vote in how this all plays out Laurel…just as we all do. Good luck.
Laurel says
Charles Smith: Well, I don’t remember being able to vote against it as it is already in play.
Daniel says
Orchestrated demolition? These are taxpayers making a choice about where their tax dollars are better spent for the sake of their children’s education.
‘Woke will make you broke’ appears to be true. Blame the school’s chosen curriculum.
ABSOLUTE RUBBISH says
Absolute RUBBISH! There is no “woke” curriculum. And I’m sorry, if you want a private education, pay for it! If you are going to use MY tax dollars, then OPEN YOUR BOOKS and be completely transparent and accountable with my damn money!
Laurel says
I wonder how many home schooling parents have the time, and knowledge, to be teaching algebra, geometry, social science, computer science, science, true history and civics. What about art history and literature? I know that teachers need a specific education, not just a curriculum, and certification, for starters, so who is checking the home schooling parents for their knowledge and ability to support the kids as they need help with their work? Are these kids subject to S.A.T. testing?
I, too, would like to know how my taxes are being spent, and what the results are.
Was this voucher program voted on? I don’t remember that.
Ash says
I am friends with 2 public school teachers locally. Do you know what they both have in common?
1. Neither one teach subjects they are personally strong or well versed in.
2. Both are functioning alcoholics who steadily post online about how much they hate teaching and how much kids annoy them.
I have enjoyed them as friends and while I am not demonizing the profession as a whole, they are certainly two people I wouldn’t want teaching my son.
I am the product of a half private and half public school education. When I entered the public school system, I was leaps and bounds ahead of my public school peers. I scored in the top 10% of every standardized state test – even in my weakest subject (math). The public school system responded by coralline me back down to the level of my peers. The system is broken. It’s the conveyor belt of education. Is that really what we should be aspiring to for our kids?
Laurel says
Ash: Any teacher could be a functioning alcoholic, so that is moot as an argument. Private sector teachers could also be incompetent, so again…
So, here I go again! My granddaughter went to public school in Broward County. She was in the highest percentile of advanced students. She excels in mathematics. She learned to take apart a computer and put it back together again in grade school. She had an extremely high S.A.T. score. She was sent to China twice through the public school system. Her mom’s support and involvement had a great deal to do with her success. So, are you going to tell me that this is not a possibility in public schools?
Public schools are not perfect. I was a good student at Stranahan High School (oh, back in the day!) but when we moved to Oakland Park, I had difficulty at Northeast High. Back then, the high schools did not follow the same curriculum, and it felt like they were all over the place to me. However, when I got to public college, I graduated with a 4.0 average.
So, I am not buying this concept that home schooling, Christian schooling or simply private schooling is so much better. My stance is that public taxes should go to public schools. If you prefer home schooling, that is your choice. If you prefer Christian schooling, that, too, is your choice, but do not take the funds away from the kids whose parents may not be able to afford to stay home, or afford the difference in private schools. Our system was set up so that all kids get good schooling, and if it isn’t good enough, which happens, improve it! Don’t work at further destructing it.
Jim says
Well said. I’m glad my kids are out of school. I feel for those parents in Florida who are sending their kids to public school expecting an education that will start preparing them for entering the world but who are going to see the drop in quality as we proceed with this farce.
And for those sending their kids to private school, good luck. I have a niece who graduated from a prestigious private school and even through college. She’s living at home with a minimum wage job because she got absolutely no preparation for the real world.
In Florida we’re in a rapid race to the bottom.
Staying Under the Radar says
@ Jim says: I love your closing statement. You are so on point. Were it not for family circumstances beyond my control I would have left years ago, or never come back to start with. It has been the low point of my life.
Marvin says
This is an article that I might expect to be written by an education insider or other government bureaucrat for whom throwing money at a problem is always the only answer.
As someone who has substitute talk in public and private schools and had children in both systems in both Flagler and Volusia county schools, I am more convinced that something akin to the voucher program remains very important to families truly concerned about getting a quality education for their children.
First, anything the government runs is usually going to be bloated and inefficient, and I was a government manager for enough years to admit that. The school system, complete with union influence, is a sterling example of this, and compounded with a mentality that “bigger is better” for sports reasons and economy of scale, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
When I oversaw the delinquency and dependency prosecutions throughout Volusia, Flagler, St John’s, and Putnam counties, I saw firsthand the problems in our public schools and there were many investigations into their causes.
Without getting into a treatise, our parents are largely to blame. Too many parents send their kids to school, expecting overwhelmed teachers to deal with discipline issues, apathy, and psychological problems an institution cannot effectively handle. These parents are the first to jump on the institution when it fails to accomplish what they were too lazy or inept to handle themselves at home.
The parents who care enough to want a good education for their children or who want to separate them from the behavioral issues in a larger institution, either adapt their household budget to pay for private schooling (before vouchers), or tried homeschooling or Florida’s virtual School programs. These parents were still paying taxes to support the public institution they were now avoiding. Many did not think this was fair, but then, senior citizens and childless people also support our educational institutions.
The parents who wanted a better education for their children or tried to isolate their children from disciplinary/safety/bullying problems in larger institutions, but could not afford private tuition, were sadly out of luck. As parents who paid a lot to remove our children from the public schools where my relatives were teachers and a school board superintendent in the past, we felt guilty about that somewhat elite status.
The school voucher program levels the playing field quite a bit, allowing concerned parents more options. On the negative side, it can leave the more problematic or apathetic situations in the public school system.
Sitting through substitute teacher orientation with full-time teachers and subs recently, I know that many teachers recognize the bureaucracy must accept a lot of the blame for a failing public education system. It’s not the teachers fault. You can spend days reviewing the red tape imposed by federal and state officials on local school administrators and find fault. You can recognize that as any organization gets larger there is generally less efficiency, less accountability, a slower time to react to needs, and more snowballing growing larger and larger year after year.
Smaller private schools, whether religious or otherwise, and charter schools can avoid this.
A retired bureaucrat argued with me that smaller private schools can’t necessarily afford nice chemistry labs, for example. I responded from first-hand experience that a lab is worthless if some administrator failed to order supplies before the school year started, whether it be due to an oversight, a change in approved suppliers, or a budget shift.
But again, the biggest problem to me is the troublemaking or apathetic student whose parents haven’t invested enough time or energy into that child to cause them to respect the job a teacher is trying to do in the classroom, thus depriving the students who wish to learn of that opportunity. Until you learn how to fix that, you can’t blame concerned parents for trying to place their child in a different environment so they can learn.
I say focus on fixing the problem or else adapt to changing societal mores and lowered standards and give parents a range of school options…let the parent choose whether they want stricter discipline and educational requirements for their child, or a more lax experience requiring less parental involvement perhaps.
Continuing to dump large sums of public money into an educational system that was failing long before vouchers came along is not a bright thing to do. Voucher programs didn’t create this mess we have, and while it is politically convenient to blame innovations that didn’t necessarily come from within the education bureaucracy, it misses the root problem, a much tougher conversation.
Pierre Tristam says
Literacy helps. You missed the part where the government you so despise is scheming against public schools, and the part that details the bleeding of money out of public schools. In inflation adjusted dollars, Flagler schools are getting 10 to 15 percent less money than they got 10 years ago, before accounting for the current heist. Your facts, your premise, are wrong. Ideology is no substitute. Incidentally, calling me an “education insider” suggests you haven’t been familiar with my coverage of the local school district (well, the dismal school board, anyway: let’s not indict the professional educators because morons rule the school board.) Ayway public schools are expert at literacy. Yay Title I! Try them.
Callmeishmael says
Remember when the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment meant something?
Yeah, those were the days.
Bob says
I agree that “the biggest problem … is the troublemaking or apathetic student whose parents haven’t invested enough time or energy into that child to cause them to respect the job a teacher is trying to do in the classroom, thus depriving the students who wish to learn of that opportunity.” But as for “Until you learn how to fix that, you can’t blame concerned parents for trying to place their child in a different environment so they can learn.” I can certainly blame them for taking an easy way out that degrades the education of all those who can not afford a private school and lets the devil take the hindmost. The patriotic, responsible, and ethical solution is to take on the work needed to help fix the system. If it isn’t clear why that’s patriotic, America is in worse shape than I thought.
Skibum says
It is meant to be a complete undoing of America’s public education system, a viscous circle where taxpayer dollars is taken from public education and handed out to private, mostly “religious” based schools, causing our public education to erode due to lack of funding. Then proclamations are made about how horrible our schools are so more money is taken away, causing further erosion and teachers leaving, causing more parents who want to use the taxpayer funds handed to them to pay for private schools. Then MAGA elected officials throw out how they not only want to defund the federal education department… they want to completely eliminate it altogether. Sounds to me like what MAGA is working to create a totally religious based school system for American youth. Wait, isn’t that what the Taliban already created? What’s next… telling our country’s young girls that they aren’t allowed to be educated because their place is in the house, learning only those household skills allowed be the men who make all of the rules and now laws? At what point will it be too late to stop our public education system that is currently circling the drain, about to get flushed down the toilet for good?
Laurel says
Florida is Project 2025’s guinea pig. See how people fall for it? They would rather have the money sent to them than to improve the public school system, where anyone can attend, and let the people who can afford private schools pay for it themselves. That is the way the system is set up, and has runs for decades. Yes, no one family pays $8k, $16k, $24k, $32k in annual school taxes. It is welfare for those who don’t need it.
Tim says
Public schools need some competition and accountability.
Pierre Tristam says
No argument there. Understanding that currently there’s immeasurably more accountability in public schools than there is in any other school. No exception. If you can prove me wrong, you’re welcome to it, but you will not. You cannot.
Deborah Coffey says
And, they’ve got it! Do you even know how many failing charter schools there are and private schools (that are barely held accountable)?
Truth says
Hear me out. The expansion of this program was not for the reasons stated. It was to accommodate developers. With the over- growth they campaigned for ( were free!) they created multiple issues, one of the overcrowding of public schools. So what better way to ease up the needs for new schools which cost serious money, than to pass the buck to every half ass private school. If this program would collapse tomorrow and these kids had to come back into the public school system there would be no room. Thats the real reason they did it.
Nancy N. says
This was NEVER about overcrowded public schools. It has always been about funneling money to private schools. It’s long been a plank of the GOP platform to dismantle and privatize public education. Remember Betsy DeVos? It’s her whole reason for existing. And one of Trump’s new policy statements calls for dismantling the DOE if he’s elected again. They started nearly ten years ago here in Florida, before the recovery even really started from the 2008 crash, by starting the Gardiner program for autistic kids. It was a trojan horse, to get a foot in the door, and they’ve gradually expanded it every year since until now it’s open to everyone. And all the private schools increased their tuition by the amount of the scholarship, and parents are still paying the same amount. So who is benefiting? – the churches and their religious schools, which are suddenly pocketing all this extra money, while still continuing to operate as elite institutions and keeping the riff-raff out.
ABSOLUTE RUBBISH says
Nancy NAILED IT!!
Deborah Coffey says
A perfect column written with exactly the right amount of disgust. There are 3 things Republicans have wanted to get rid of forever…Social Security, Medicare, and public schools. It takes a certain amount of Fascism to accomplish these goals and, Florida has almost reached its goal under Ron DeSantis. When he refuses to leave office at the end of his term, it will have reached its goal.
But, people continue to vote for anyone with an (R) next to their name on the ballot and then they whine and cry about how terrible their lives are. The LIES coming out of Tallahassee on The Capitolist are just incredible. If we won’t take the time to be good, competent citizens and find the TRUTH, then maybe we deserve the worst of what’s coming….Can you count the freedoms you’ve already lost under the Fascist Ron DeSantis administration?
Sam says
Who said Republicans wanted to get rid of social security and Medicare? O, the main stream media. Fact is we want to get rid of taxation on those benefits. As far as public schooling, no one wants to get rid of it. There needs accountability to it. If public schools are the only option, then substandard standards will be the norm. Even amongst public schools. If Bunnell is a crap school, I should be able to send my child to Belle Terre. I will agree though that the scholarship funds to choose a private school need to be income restricted. At the very least, funds should be capped at 4x of your school taxes anyone under 150,000 income and 6x anyone under 85,000 income
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
“Who said Republicans wanted to get rid of social security and Medicare?”
Might want to ask your Senator Dick Scott.
Laurel says
Rick Scott whose company was found guilty of Medicare fraud. Republicans don’t seem to mind that sort of thing. Democrats need to stop letting it slide.
Deborah Coffey says
I’m sorry you seem to know so little. This is a really easy Google search of the many times Republicans have tried to kill Social Security and Medicare. Do your homework. Oh, and Rick Scott actually put it in writing 2 years ago and Project 2025 has it in writing right now!
Dennis G Lynch says
Google! You really think everything you read on google is true!
Skibum says
Here’s a Google lesson 101 for you, Dennis. When you “Google” something, up pops a variety of sources from which you can review. Of course, not everything you see with your eyes on the internet is accurate, but wise people know which sources on an internet search can be trusted and which ones are misleading or complete BS. But at least with “Google” you are given a variety of resource links to scroll through and find a trustworthy source of information if you don’t already have one in mind. That is by far much more reliable than going to the faux infotainment website where you will certainly be offered a lot of BS, misinformation, disinformation and outright lies meant to placate the “orange Jesus” and the MAGA cult. Choose wisely!
Sade says
Don’t forget the use of boolean operators, too! Search “The issue with Dennis site:edu” will return all and only .edu sources. Always remember: Search like a smooth operator, not a smooth criminal!
Lots of other options, too! https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/
Nancy N. says
Republicans have LONG wanted to gut Social Security and Medicare. Just within the last year, Congressional Republicans proposed a budget that would have raised the retirement age for the programs to 69, removed the ability for Medicare to negotiate drug prices and removed caps on annual Medicare out of pocket drug costs for seniors, ended the $35 insulin program, and cut Social Security disability benefits, among other things. They are suddenly pretending in the party platform they don’t want to do that because they know it is unpopular with most people but if you look back at years of actual legislation and votes (including by DeSantis when he was in Congress) they have consistently proposed and voted to limit and cut those programs. Look at what they do, not what they say.
Tony Mac says
Spot on, Nancy…All voters need to do is read the Top Ten on the Republican 2025 Plan.
It’s there, they’ve said it, they’ve written it down. Now, will that convince some of the geezers here, especially veterans, the the Republicans are, indeed, coming for the “benefits”? Probably not — they will continue to vote against their own self-interest simply because they hate Democrats that much. But they will get their Social Security checks, their Medicare, their ACA, their VA benefits — all Democratic programs while at the same time vilifying any and all Democrats in this funky state. Heck, they even elected a guy who defrauded Medicare and the VA as Governor and Senator.
Project 2025:
The following is a partial list of proposed changes with chapter and page references. It shows how the Heritage Foundation with Trump as president plan to reshape our country. At a quick scan you can see how CAPITALISM plays a big part as they move to privatization for greed and control. This should frighten everyone.
• Privatize Social Security (c22, p715)
• Privatize veterans’ healthcare (c20, p635)
• Privatize infrastructure projects (c19, p555)
• Privatize the Federal Aviation Administration (c19, p565)
• Reduce federal disaster relief programs (c16, p610)
• Reduce funding for federal research programs (c12, p415)
• Decrease regulations in healthcare (c14, p450)
• Reduce funding for public health programs (c14, p455)
• Repeal the Affordable Care Act (c14, p460)
• Promote free-market healthcare (c14, p465)
• Dismantle the Department of Education (c11, p365)
• Reduce federal student aid (c11, p385)
• Increase private sector role in public education (c11, p390)
• Limit federal involvement in technology standards (c28, p850)
• Reduce federal government intervention in various sectors (c1, p25)
• Cut federal support for renewable energy projects (c12, p405)
• Reduce regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency (c13, p425)
• Withdraw from international climate agreements (c13, p430)
• Reduce environmental regulations on businesses (c13, p440)
• Promote energy production on federal lands (c16, p600)
• Limit the jurisdiction of federal courts (c1, p40)
• Decrease the size of the federal workforce (c3, p95)
• Restructure the Department of Homeland Security (c5, p165)
• Reform the Department of Justice (c17, p565)
• Repeal Dodd-Frank financial regulations (c27, p800)
• Abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (c27, p815)
• Repeal net neutrality regulations (c28, p845)
• Eliminate the Department of Commerce (c21, p660)
• Limit federal involvement in local policing (c17, p575)
• Reduce business regulations (c18, p520)
• Reduce federal oversight of labor standards (c18, p530)
• Implement a flat tax system (c22, p700)
• Lower corporate tax rates (c22, p725)
• Restrict the powers of the Federal Reserve (c24, p770).
Please feel free to copy and share
Laurel says
President Biden just signed off on Medicare negotiating lower prices on several common drugs.
The dude says
If we’re being honest here… there wasn’t much here to “destroy” that hadn’t already been.
Joe D says
The SARCASM would be amusing if the FACTS about “School Choice” weren’t so TRUE.
This whole Florida State Legislation on this issue (supported by our Governor) is a NATIONAL DISGRACE! I’m HOPING SOMEONE files a lawsuit against the law! Of course the taxpayers will be paying the court fees to defend the legal challenges, too.
Greg says
Could it be that some public schools are failing our children? Could it be that the union leaders are demanding too much? It’s not only here where it happens. It happens in Pa as well.
Pierre Tristam says
Of course some schools fail. When a body fails, you rescue it, you don’t bring in Jack Kevorkian’s van.
Pogo says
@Dr. Kevorkian is owed an apology
https://www.google.com/search?q=Kevorkian
Cranky in FB says
Why have schools become another form of welfare? Free food free babysitting? Not arguing that kids need to eat and can learn better on a full stomach, but why is feeding them and babysitting coming out of the school budget? That funding should come from the welfare budget.
Concerned says
You are spot on, Pierre!
Regarding non-public schools’ lack of required accountability and responsibility, not only do they NOT have to provide services for student’s who have special needs, but due to the laws and legal rights of a student with an Individual Education Plan, the public school still must send professionals indicated on the “IEP” to serve the child’s needs. This means the public school employees must create, monitor and update the IEP and serve the student in the private school setting. This siphons more time, money, energy and services away from our campuses.
Nancy N. says
That is not actually true about the public school having to serve scholarship students with IEP needs attending private schools. When a family accepts the scholarship for a student, they sign away the right for that student to receive services of any kind from their local public schools. The only exception to this is that the districts are required by law to prepare an IEP for a student if the parent requests one from the district. However, a student receiving a scholarship is not entitled to actually receive services from the district under the IEP that is drawn up. This is not a common need, however. My daughter has been on the scholarship for nearly ten years and we’ve never requested an IEP update. There’s simply no need for it.
Justsayin says
Mabe the solution is let the taxpayer make the choice. Do I want my money to go to public schools or private schools? Just looking at the NEA’s front page of their website speaks volumes. Why should my tax dollars support their political beliefs? Funny how they are against private schools too. https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/rabooklet_1.pdf
I would encourage people to research some of the founders of the public school system. Names like Harace Mann and John Dewey. When you learn more about them, you understand the NEA’s belief system and who they support.
Laurel says
Florida is the guinea pig for Project 2025. DeSantis said he wanted to make America Florida, and he has been diddling with Florida for awhile now. This is obvious, yet many are still not seeing. I guess it is hard to see when you are getting anywhere from $8k to $32k, and up, annually, in taxpayer money you haven’t matched, for your kids, and you don’t have to worry about other kids, or worry about how this effects the community as a whole. Yet, the school your kid is going to may not be the best one. No brainer for no brainers.
This area is white enough as it is, I mean stunningly so, without attracting more people who believe they can keep themselves, and their kids, away from those who are different, or darker. More people are moving to Flagler County, yet the public schools are not growing in student population. Hmmmm. So why are they so attracted to an area that supposedly has such a poor public school system? Bribe more people to come here, and make sure Florida is a red state. Make America White Again!
Ah, but prejudice is everywhere.
Well, Pierre Tristam, your article hit the bullseye. Very well written and very factual, but you just had to add “…but in our social contract how our taxes are spent is not an a-la-carte option, though Boomer narcissists who can’t see past the hedge of their gated community think it should be.” didn’t you? Us “boomer narcissists” don’t have children in school, and most of the “boomer narcissists'” kids went to public schools, and we have paid school taxes all our adult lives, without complaint! It’s the current twenty somethings, thirty somethings, and forty somethings who are receiving these welfare funds. You think all us “boomer narcissists” want this? No, we’re not all MAGAs cultists, and MAGA cultists come in all ages.
That statement made an otherwise good article fall flat, for me anyway, but enjoy.
Jastsayin says
So exactly what part of project 2025 are you against? Or are you against all of it?
Laurel says
Justsayin: As EdP wrote about the topic of Project 2025 “Why should we throw the baby out with the bathwater?” When the bathwater is that excessively toxic, you toss it. The baby here is extremely hard to find.
I don’t want to get rid of most all of what Tony Mac posted above (I’m sitting in a warm car in Jacksonville and I’m not typing it all), and I do not trust the White Christian Nationalist’s Heritage Foundation one, stinking iota. There are young females, of color, in our family and I want them to have a future where they can make their own decisions about their own damned lives without some wealthy, white, misogynistic males telling them what they can and cannot do. These people are highly offensive and dangerous to our country’s wellbeing.
Laurel says
To be clear, I do not want Project 2025 to rule our lives, and Tony Mac posted the Heritage Foundation’s goal of doing just that. I thank Tony Mac for providing us with specific information and where it can be found.
Home School Family says
I’m honestly confused over what you would like families to do. We home school. We always paid our own expenses. However that doesn’t seem good enough for Flaglerlive. The articles I’ve read here suggest that everyone acknowledges that the schools here are not great. This isn’t the result of the money homeschoolers receive. This is a new program. These schools were bad before this program was put in place and I argue partly as a result of how bad they have become. I also argue that Flaglerlive is also partly to blame because consistent coverage of how crappy the schools are doesn’t necessarily entice families to want to enroll. There are systematic issues at play that the peanut gallery reports on yet has no solutions for. Admittedly, I’m confused and must have missed something because Flaglerlive’s stance seems to be that these schools are falling apart-yet families are supposed to continue sending their kids to them without question? I’m confused.
We are a regular family. My husband and I both work. We’ve had multiple jobs at once in the past while raising kids. We want better for our child and honestly the resources now available for homeschoolers far exceed those in our schools. Am I supposed to stop providing my child a better education and place them into our public schools? Why does my child have to give up an education that has resulted in them testing in the 98th percentile in reading and math on state tests? Why? And why are we not talking about all the families in this county who can also afford to pay for their child’s school yet choose to send their kids to public schools. Many of those families are receiving the so called “school welfare” too through special services. Yet because we home school we are on the naughty list and targeted. Division isn’t the answer here. Putting families like mine on the defensive isn’t the answer. We are opting to take the pep money this year because of Flaglerlive. I’m beyond over being the scapegoat for your failing system.
Skibum says
I respect your choice to home school your child. But, having said that, it is one of a couple of options open to families where parents decide NOT to send their children to public schools paid for by public taxpayer dollars, and instead send them to a private school or do the allowed teaching at home. Parents should foot the bill themselves for those options, NOT everyone else. Public transportation is an option for people who either don’t have a car or just choose to take public transportation. If they decide to take a taxi instead of the city bus, should taxpayers be required to help pay for the taxi ride simply because it it a better option for that person? Of course not! And don’t get me wrong… public funds going to families who need assistance affording a private school option would be one thing, if there were guardrails to prevent others who had the financial resources to pay for it themselves from scamming the system and taking public money for themselves. But to offer public money to every family which takes huge amounts of taxpayer funds away from public schools will just keep eroding America’s public education system further and further until eventually there will be no more public education in this country. That would be a horrible “fix” for what our nation’s education system needs for future generations.
Homeschool family says
I absolutely agree. And so do home schooling families. Which is why home schooling families do not have any money given to them at all. They actually fought against it. PEP families do receive funds. But that money is not money from the public school funds. It’s a completely different pool of money that never has and never will have anything to do with public school funds. If my family declines pep money that money still will not ever touch Flagler schools. And while we are on the subject. There are a ton of really bad schools in areas where no one wants to attend, live, or work. You all should relocate because those schools could use your kids for funding. You all are a bunch of privileged heartless monsters sending your kids to Flagler schools when there are some F schools in the country that could use those funds!! Again. My child is not your hog to earn money. And the pep money has absolutely ZERO to do with Flagler schools. It’s a corporate tax dump that never touched schools to begin with.
Laurel says
Omg. Takes all kinds.
LoumeD says
The claim that school choice is an “orchestrated demolition of public schools” ignores the benefits of competition in the education sector. By allowing families to choose where to send their children, school choice encourages public schools to improve their offerings to retain students. This can lead to overall improvements in educational quality and efficiency.
The comparison to “Police Choice” or “Park Choice” is misleading. Education is a service directly provided to individuals, and the quality and fit of that service can vary greatly depending on the student’s needs. School choice allows for a more personalized education that can better serve diverse student populations, including those who may not thrive in a traditional public school setting.
While it’s true that funds “follow the child,” this mechanism ensures that public funds are used efficiently. If a public school is losing students to private or charter schools, it indicates that parents believe those alternatives offer a better education. The solution should not be to restrict choice but to address the issues within public schools that cause parents to seek alternatives.
The idea that school choice leads to a net loss for public schools fails to account for the benefits gained by students who find a better educational fit elsewhere. Moreover, public schools are not losing funds arbitrarily; they are losing funds in proportion to the number of students they are no longer educating.
School choice expands access to high-quality education options for low- and middle-income families, who otherwise might be limited to underperforming public schools based on their residential area. The $8,000 subsidy makes private education accessible to more families, promoting equity rather than undermining it.
The claim that school choice perpetuates segregation is racist. Many private and charter schools serve diverse populations, and the availability of school choice can help break the link between residential segregation and educational inequality.
The article’s assertion that private schools benefiting from school choice are of lower quality or lack accountability overlooks the fact that many private schools have rigorous standards and are subject to oversight through accreditation bodies. Parents can and do make informed decisions based on the quality of education these schools provide.
The lack of certain services, such as special education or athletics, in some private schools is offset by the flexibility to choose a school that best meets a child’s specific needs. Not all students require the same set of services, and school choice allows for a more tailored educational experience.
Skibum says
Wow, that is a very lofty idea to challenge our nation’s public education system to improve while at the same time decimating their financial resources that are necessary to pay for teachers, books, other school staff and all of the things that schools must have to stay open. You talk about “competition in the educational sector” like it is a choice between shopping for groceries at any number of private businesses one may choose from, or deciding to go to one particular doctor over someone else. America’s basic education system for children to graduate from each grade and eventually receive the minimum requirement of a high school diploma should not be looked at in the same way we view our colleges and universities, at least in my opinion. Every child should receive the basic required knowledge that will help set them up for success throughout the remainder of their life, regardless of whether they choose to continue their higher education, go into the military, start a business, or whatever they aspire to do with their lives. Too many parents want to mix school education with their religious views, and unfortunately there are far too many private schools that are more akin to churches than schools. Americans are horrified at the type of “education” the Taliban and other religious-centric countries in the middle East have established, and here we are in the USA trying to enact strict controls on education, encouraging kids to receive their religious centered education at home or in any number of private schools operated by religious organizations or that are affiliated with church denominations, banning books and telling school aged students which books they are allowed to read, etc. etc. etc. We absolutely cannot continue to go down this road and become the “American Taliban” type of education that we so vehemently despise and oppose!
Laura H says
Claim: Schools are “loosing funds” to private or online options.
Truth: Public schools are not getting reimbursed for children they don’t educate.
Claim: State is giving out $8,000 checks to families choosing private or homeschool options
Truth: Families must first apply for the program (it’s not automatic) and submit an educational plan and other documentation. 8K funding is not guaranteed but a maximum allowance as program funds allow. The money is disbursed to the school of choice as families complete the program requirements such as submitting allowable receipts for reimbursement, participating in standardized testing, etc. It isn’t a check in the mail without requirements, expectations, and deadlines.
Claim: School choice is “orchestrated destruction” of public schools
Truth: The taxpayer money allocated for a FL child’s education now travels with the specific child and helps funds educational options best suited for the child (as determined by the plan orchestrated by parents/ legal guardians).
As a taxpayer, I find it ironic that the self -acclaimed “party of choice” is selective when it comes to choice re educational options for FL children. This gross inconsistency in practice makes it seem like a fight for control vs advocate for choice and change.
Laurel says
Laura H: so, how does the public school improve when the taxes are funneled elsewhere, and do you pay $8k per child in taxes annually?
protonbeam says
we are hardly ever given an option to have a referendum on the failing quality of government services – from the post office to the DMV and on and on and on – the facts are that charter schools CONSISTENTLY outperform public schools by a wide margin in academics, especially math and reading. On that basis alone we should recognize the “government” has a questionable role in education. Taxes are forced – giving people a choice how tax money is spent is returning choice to the people (DEMOCRACY) and is also providing great outcomes. The simple solution is not forcing kids into failing public schools (remember we compete with the planet, not just in America) is foolish. On the university level “choice” already exists and government funds go to both public and private institutions – school vouchers enables poor families to make better choices and have more access – it seems like the arguments here are centered around relegion and don’t discuss academics.
Whathehck? says
Charters schools are less transparent than public schools. How can the public monitor a school system in their town when their board can meet whenever they like. Charter schools take fewer children with disabilities and fewer children whose language is not English as their 1st language. Charter schools can keep only the students they want. Once they receive our tax dollar and these “undesirable” kids are returned to public schools they keep the money. Remember they are for profit enterprises.
Jason says
You raise some interesting questions about the operation and acceptance criteria of these charter/private schools. Some of those questions might have answers in the actual law that the governor signed–but this article wasn’t meant to educate you, it was meant to elicit an emotional response.
Did you notice that the author of this article didn’t provide a link to the law(s) or policies that govern how this program works. When someone is trying to convince me to take their position on an issue and they cite no facts and instead make emotional please and ad hominem attacks against others then you can safely assume that the facts might not be in the person making the arguments’ favor.
Here is a starting point for more information from the Florida Department of Education https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/k-12-scholarship-programs/fes/
And here is the Flagler Country Schools link for school choice (it includes a link to the School Choice Scholarships) https://www.flaglerschools.com/students-families/school-choice
Laura H says
As a parent of school age children I am choosing to focus my efforts on making the best educational choices for my children rather than trying to solve the sinking behemoth of certain other educational options.
Yes, I am a taxpayer.
PS- another fact is 8k is only a fraction of what it costs to educate a child in a public school setting bc of all the overhead (read any of the multiple peer reviewed journals about this) so taxpayers are again getting a “bargain” with this program and parents are happy and students engaged. Win-win-win!
Jason says
There seems to be quite the animosity towards the religious private schools by the author. No data was offered on whether or not those schools had better outcomes or not for students but apparently those schools are teaching bigotry because of a mascot they have? Buddy Taylor is used as a church on Sundays — should that be allowed if its bigotry? Voting is taking place in churches, is that enabling bigotry as well? This article reads like an emotional outburst of a child, screaming, clawing, deflecting but no real substance. It sounds an awful lot like the talking points from the teacher unions fighting to remain in control.
Of course the school districts must be concerned about this program but what actual negative impacts are there at the student level? The article doesn’t seem to offer any harms other than ~11m dollars isn’t going to the school. What programs are being cut? How is this actually impacting the students?
How much did FPC’s newly repaved parking lot cost? What funds payed for that? Could the money spent on that project been better served on buying a new bus or two to transport my handicap child to school with a wheelchair ramp that consistently operated? Probably won’t find out the answer to that question here.
Laurel says
Jason: Here’s a question for you: Why should people of other religious beliefs, or even atheists, pay for Christian teaching, taking funding away from public schools? Please stick to the religious aspect of this particular question.
Jason says
I believe that you have been used as a pawn by the author of this article and other entities to spread misinformation. It is true that students choosing to use these programs will reduce the amount of funding the schools receive. But aren’t you even remotely curious why this article includes no factual information about what the Flagler County budget actually is? The author only tells us that close to 11million isn’t going to the schools. Why doesn’t the author provide a list of services or classes that will be impacted by this loss of funding? Could it be that there won’t be any real impact? Could it be that having 1,200 less students in the public school system actually help relieve stresses on the schools? I think you deserve to be treated like a competent and intelligent individual and provided the facts about this issue rather than be shouted at and expected to simply take on the authors viewpoint without any evidence.
More to your question, the law changes how the money gets allocated and allows the money to follow the student. If the student and their family decide to attend a secular or religious school then that’s really not any concern of mine. As long as the government is not favoring a specific religion then I have no issue with it from a layman’s understanding of the constitution and the separation of church and state. What I am personally concerned with is shifting the scale of power back to the parents instead of the teachers unions. What I’ve come to learn is that most of the educators in private schools are non-union which is a direct threat to the power base of the teachers unions. Once I learned that, all of the arguments against school choice programs started to make a lot more sense to me as I could truly understand why educators would advocate against these programs. When viewed through the proper lens it all began to make sense to me.
And school choice programs are not new ideas. These programs didn’t arise from some Project 2025 conspiracies. The idea that parents should be able to choose has been around in one shape or another for decades. There is a great book from Thomas Sowell on this exact subject https://www.amazon.com/Charter-Schools-Enemies-Thomas-Sowell/dp/1541675134.
Pierre Tristam says
The commenter is tiresomely disingenuous, since the article is entirely a documentation on the swindle’s impacts. For more details, before the theft was even that pronounced, see –from two years ago–“Flagler Schools’ Budget Is Millions Short from 10 Years Ago as District Is Forced to Shift Tax Dollars to Private Schools.” The commenter’s ideological giveaway–what he/she/they term “the proper lens”–is the fixation on unions and very strange math: maybe we can remove a few dozen million dollars from AdventHealth’s budget too. It’ll relieve stress on remaining doctors next time you go in for heart surgery. Or the sheriff’s office. Maybe we can remove a few dozen cops: it’ll make it easier to administer the department. And so on. Never trust a slasher.
Jason says
I just reread the article and the only harm you really make a claim to is the loss of funding. There isn’t any mention of how that funding loss is actually going to impact the school directly. You mentioned that funds will be diverted from building maintenance and free bussing (which isn’t actually free as you know and I believe federal funds might actually cover transportation infrastructure costs to some extent?). You could have easily provided those details but instead you choose to make emotional appeals and go on about park choice.
I found the park choice analogy to be interesting because in fact I do have park choice and I can choose to use ANY park I want. Before school choice I needed to lie about my address to send my kids to the school I wanted but now I can send them to any school as long as I provide the transportation.
The hospital analogy is also interesting, you seem to ignore that Advent is a private company and I can most certainly choose to go to Advent or drive to another hospital of my choosing. Now if it were life threatening I would go to the closest hospital but then I could always request a transfer or leave AMA. But I’ve never once heard medical professionals advocate for patients to be bound to a hospital or doctor they didn’t trust.
I don’t have to hide my bias or ideological views on this issue. I can plainly state them as I have. I believe the teachers unions have too much control and are fighting all attempts to make teachers accountable as public servants. They actively oppose teacher transparency measures such as teacher report cards and benefit from a system that makes it incredibly difficult to remove them. Even the police officers you used in another analogy can have the complaints against them viewed by the public — but you have no such accountability for teachers. Why?
I am not a journalist, but you are. Your own website claims that your values include (https://flaglerlive.com/about/our-values/) fostering open, honest and civil conversations and to maintain the highest level of credibility and journalistic standards. I would respectfully tell you that I think you fell short in this article of those values. I think your decision to use logical fallacies in the article and in comments falls short of your own values and those of the Society of Professional Journalists (https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp).
I copied text from this article into this logical fallacies website (https://www.logicalfallacies.org/) and it came back with the following:
Straw Man: The argument misrepresents school choice advocates as “fringe Christian and anti-government militants” without addressing their actual arguments, creating a distorted version to refute.
Ad Hominem: The use of derogatory terms like “fringe” implies an attack on the character of those who advocate for school choice rather than addressing the merits of the argument itself.
Slippery Slope: The assertion that school choice will lead to the “demolition of public schools” assumes a negative chain reaction without providing evidence that this will certainly occur.
Appeal to Emotion: The language used (e.g., “orchestrated demolition,” “thieving of tax dollars”) is emotionally charged, aiming to provoke an emotional response rather than present a rational argument.
Pierre Tristam says
If you need a machine to fill in your mind’s blanks that tells us all we need to know: I don’t do machines (FlaglerLive is blessedly AI-free), and this dismal exchange is over.
Laurel says
Okay, so you know that I identified with the female in the video, right?
I did literally LOL! Thank you for today’s laugh, if, um, you aren’t using me as a pawn of course.
Laurel says
Jason: I asked you a simple question, and asked you to stick to the topic of religion, which you brushed aside and went around it.
You stated “I believe that you have been used as a pawn by the author of this article and other entities to spread misinformation.” How could I be “…used as a pawn by the author…” when the author wrote the article, then afterwards, I commented? Absolutely no logic there; instead, you misrepresented me. I challenge misrepresentation.
You also stated ” I think you deserve to be treated like a competent and intelligent individual and provided the facts about this issue rather than be shouted at and expected to simply take on the authors viewpoint without any evidence.” Gee thanks, but I had my own viewpoint to begin with. You clearly had no idea of that, and instead, went off on a rant about union teachers. What does any of that have to do with my question? Nothing. You evaded my question and proceeded to make me sound like a follower without a thought of my own. Huh!
So, you don’t mind whatever religious school the money is funneled to, correct? How many schools in Florida, that are private religious schools, that are not Christian? You like stats, right? That was your only, somewhat closely referenced response to my previous question.
Jason says
I answered your question by stating that as long as the state isn’t favoring a specific religion then I don’t have any constitutional concerns with tax dollars being used to educate students at religious or secular schools. Now, with this being the United States of America it wouldn’t be surprising to me to learn that an overwhelming majority of all religious private schools were Christian. If we were discussing this issue as though we lived in say Iran then I’d equally not be surprised to learn that religious backed schools would be overwhelmingly based on the Muslim faith. That’s no shocker to me and it probably isn’t to you either. I don’t understand the issue with it though? If a private school were in Flagler or any other county in Florida that were based on Muslim, Judaism, Hindu, etc I wouldn’t care as long as the state didn’t discriminate against them and create preferential treatment towards a specific religion.
I don’t want to place words in your mouth, but it seems like you are wanting to make a point about religious schools vs secular schools and that you don’t want tax monies going to religious institutions. You don’t have to lead me to the water–just come out and say what it is you feel I need to be coached into saying for you.
The author of this article made it a point claim that religious schools were associated with bigotry because of a flag. That is such a huge leap to take seriously. Now if the author were to have instead claimed that these schools are teaching from the bible and that the students are being taught not to support today’s social causes then that would have been a much more articulate position. Again, I actually find it easier to have an intellectually honest conversation and I’ll provide my biases up front as I have but reading some of the comments and replies that this authors articles seem to attract makes we believe that the public school system has failed in a more substantial manner than I initially considered.
Pierre Tristam says
To be clear: I did not “claim that religious schools were associated with bigotry because of a flag.” I referred to one school in Palm Coast as an example “that boasts of ‘raising champions for Christ’ and still sports a crusader for a mascot.” It would be like flying the Nazi or the Confederate flag, and our tax dollars going to a bigoted outfit of the sort. I probably don’t need to remind the commenter that the Crusades were 200 years of raping, pillaging, mass-murdering, enslaving and thieving in the name of Christianity. Only ignorant bigots would still brandish a crusader as a mascot, the way an ignorant bigot would brandish a burning cross while parading in white bedsheets and calling himself a grand wizard. Like I said: no different than having a confederate flag or a swastika for a school emblem. The school, incidentally, is First Baptist Christian Academy. But the commenter tends to take his cues from machines and his reasoning from crusader-justifying cynics who pretend to just be asking questions. The pose is not fooling anyone. Not to worry: the trolling won’t be allowed to go on.
william says
I was thinking, withholding a sum of police budget money for private security would be a great idea and perfectly in tune with the “Live Free or Die” spirit that rules here in New Hampshire. Then it struck me. It may just catch on, and the libertarian nutcases would be able to do to our police (and later fire?) department precisely what they’re already doing to our school systems.