By Colleen Conklin
If we really care about efficiency and outcomes in education, we should start with the one system–the only system- legally bound to educate every child, open its books, follow Sunshine laws, publish results, and answer to voters—our public schools. They are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. That’s not “just education.” That’s democracy in motion.
And that’s precisely why the current voucher experiment—built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight—is the opposite: it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.
Florida’s voucher/Education Savings Accounts experiment flipped accountability on its head. Billions in taxpayer dollars now flow to private operators who don’t have to:
- Report standardized results publicly,
- take every student (ESE, homeless, disciplinary issues, mid-year transfers),
- follow open records/open meetings rules, or
- undergo the same independent audits that districts must.
If we’re serious about “efficiency,” we have to follow the money—and the data.
- Florida’s voucher tab is exploding with little sunlight.
The voucher expansion (what was known legislatively as House Bill 1) is projected to cost taxpayers about $3.9 to 4 billion just this year. Step Up For Students, the private group that administers almost all of these funds, is legally allowed to keep up to 3 percent of that ($120 million) for “administrative expenses.” Meanwhile, districts must publish audited financials and operate under Florida’s Sunshine and public-records laws. Voucher schools and so-called Scholarship Funding Organizations (SFOs) do not.
- Most “new” voucher dollars are not helping kids leave “failing” public schools.
When Florida went to a universal voucher system in 2023, extending eligibility for vouchers worth $8,000 to $35,000 a year to all, without restrictions, 122,895 new students signed up. Only 13 percent had been in public schools. 69 percent were already in private schools. Another 18 percent were brand-new kindergarteners.
If you do the math for Flagler County schools, $17 million has been diverted to private schools. However, of that, over 87 percent of those students receiving vouchers never attended Flagler schools. They are children who had always attended private schools or were being homeschooled. They are now being provided with vouchers to offset tuition. Most private schools have doubled their tuition or significantly increased it due to the availability of the vouchers. That was to be expected. Pretty soon private schools will have the highest-paid teachers and all the bells and whistles, while public schools will be starved of funding.
- Accountability gap: The real “fraud and abuse” risk.
Public schools are audited, follow Sunshine laws, report test data, employ certified teachers, meet class-size rules, serve every child—including ESE and homeless students—and get school grades. Voucher schools receiving public dollars don’t have to do most of that. There is no comparable, statewide academic reporting or financial disclosure requirement. How do we measure return on investment (ROI) without data?
You’re worried about “fraud & abuse”? Then why give a pass that huge part of the system that operates in the shadows? Prove me wrong: require voucher schools and the organizations skimming administrative fees to publish audited finances and disaggregated achievement data just like districts do. Same dollars, same rules.
Scholarship Funding Organizations (like Step Up for Students) keep administrative fees, yet their books aren’t open the way a district’s are. If “fraud & abuse” is the concern, why exempt these private intermediaries from the same scrutiny we demand of elected school boards?
- Democracy.
Public schools are the great equalizer—the one institution required to take every child, regardless of disability, income, language, religion, or behavior. They are also the civic glue where kids from different backgrounds learn to live in a pluralistic society. Undermining that common space with a shadow system that can pick and choose students—and hide its books—weakens the fabric of our democracy, not just our budgets.
And let’s drop the D.C. blame game. Tallahassee and state legislatures wrote these voucher laws, raided FEFP dollars (Florida Education Finance Program, the state’s education funding system), and starved district capital budgets while loosening oversight on private recipients.
If local projections were off in 2021, fix the modeling. Don’t use it as an excuse to gut public schools’ accountability while expanding an unaccountable parallel system. The legislature—not Biden, nor Trump—controls the FEFP formula and voucher rules. Florida has shifted billions into vouchers in the last two sessions. That’s a state policy choice. If local schools feel squeezed, it’s largely because dollars are being systematically diverted from the districts that must take all students, every day.
Throwing money blindly is wasteful. Throwing public money into a black box is worse. Public education is the thread that stitches a diverse nation together—economically, civically, and morally. We should strengthen it, not siphon it off to a system that won’t even show us the receipts.
It’s time to wake up and stop electing people who couldn’t care less about transparency and accountability. It’s time to stop the grift.
It’s time to wake up and stop electing people who couldn’t care less about transparency and accountability. It’s time to stop the grift—because history will mark this voucher free-for-all as one of the biggest scams ever pulled on American taxpayers. Yes, K-12 needs real fixes—curriculum, support staff, teacher pay, facilities—but don’t be blinded by that truth: siphoning public dollars into an unaccountable shadow system is not reform, it’s sabotage.
Dr. Colleen Conklin, a Flagler Beach resident, was a Flagler County School Board member from 2000 to 2024.
Dennis C Rathsam says
POPPYCOCK, With all the negative publicity, the revolving doors of fanatics, YOU wonder why parents seek a better alturnative. A gambler will tell you, “Shakey money, never wins…This school board shakes like a rattle snakes tail. Now lets start the finger pointing Will
Jake from state farm says
At some point, we stopped treating schools as places for academic learning—and started treating them like daycare centers. Schools were built to educate, not to raise children. Yet more and more, they’re being asked to do just that: feed students multiple meals a day, teach basic life skills, offer emotional support, and act as the only structure in a child’s life.
This isn’t about blaming teachers—they’re already stretched thin and underpaid. The problem is bigger than the classroom. We’ve blurred the line between public education and parental responsibility. When did it become the school’s job to feed, discipline, and raise kids?
Public education is essential, but it was never meant to replace parenting. If we want stronger schools, we need to demand more from families—not keep piling more on teachers.
This is exactly why so many families are walking away from the public school system. Schools shouldn’t be treated like just another form of public assistance. Parents must step up and take ownership of raising their kids.
Rick G says
Excellent comment Dr. Conklin. Thanks for sharing this. I was wondering how deep this voucher crap was going.
John says
It was all a gop scam to enrich themselves! School funding has been cut for decades by republicans then the orange terror brought the final nail in the coffin. We must take the country back from these terrorist that protect their pedophile leader!
Nancy Skadden says
Yay! You are missed Coleen.
Conklin for Mayor!!!
Deborah Coffey says
Bravo, Colleen! You are spot on in every sentence.
Pogo says
@All true
… and jeb bush, et al., dug the grave. The last time this benighted thinking among the Hoi polloi was normal — they weren’t on the road to serfdom — they were living it as feudal vassals (very few) and peasants (all the rest); they’re slouching down a blind alley that’s the dead end they dread.
This isn’t the first dark age of humanity; but damn well may be the last.
Stephen PLAYE says
Ms. Conklin, Thank you for that powerful piece.
You have put a spotlight on the shameful state-level grift that is stealing the future from our children.
Nancy N. says
Scholarships “up to $35k” aren’t open to all. The only way a child gets $35k in scholarship is that they have to have the absolute highest matrix score on the FES-UA scholarship – meaning very profound medical and/or developmental needs. Eligibility for that scholarship was not affected by the expansion. In fact, many parents with students in the FES-UA program prior to the expansion (like myself) advocated AGAINST the expansion because we knew it would erode inevitably cause problems for many reasons to have universal eligibility.
As someone whose high needs autistic child has thrived the last ten years learning with the scholarship (and who was profoundly failed by Flagler Schools’ inclusion program)…I can say that the scholarship has provided opportunities for my child to grow that she would never have had otherwise. It has meant so much to have the ability to get her therapy, tools, and activities that have helped her.
That said, I have a profound understanding that the state legislature did the right thing (helping kids like mine) for the wrong reason (idealogical ones). Kids like mine were used as a trojan horse to get their foot in the door to undermine public schools with vouchers for all. None of these decisions are being made with kids’ best interests at heart. It’s all about politics.
Jim says
Well said. And more reason why I feel we lost one of the best school board members that Flagler has had.
I think that the lack of openness and auditing of where these funds are going are two of the biggest issues. How can anyone complain about “waste and fraud” yet do nothing to assure that these funds are being used as intended?
I also 100% agree that all private schools should be transparent with their results for all testing done. Let’s see how they stack up to public schools.
And, finally, I’ll make the argument that since public schools must take everyone, even those with learning and/or behavior issues, doesn’t that make the argument that they deserve more funding for that? If private schools get to avoid this issue, give additional funding to public schools. That seems like a no brainer to me.
Dr. Colleen Conklin is also correct about the fact that we all should be more attentive to who we put in elected office in order to try to stop stupid things like this. Unfortunately, we’re asking an electorate that has recently put Norris in as mayor and Fine in as our congressional rep. Not good signs that we’re capable of sorting through the pile for the good candidates.
Joe Urgese says
Thank you Dr. Conklin. Well said! Hope this hits home.
Greg says
First off, I not suggesting Palm Coast did any of what I’m saying here. Schools brought this upon themselves.
Stop trying to indoctrinate children
Stop the DEI crap
Teach reading, writing, and math
Stop the secret of helping kids to be a different sex if they want to be something different
Stop hiding this from the parents, you are NOT the parents