JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Billion-dollar deficits. Hiring freezes. School closures across Northeast Florida.
As public school districts warn they’re running out of money, Florida’s rapidly expanding Family Empowerment Scholarship program is under growing scrutiny.
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Critics argue the state is funneling billions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools and into private and homeschool education with little oversight. But for some families, those same scholarship dollars have completely changed their children’s lives.
The debate is now playing out in court.
Last week, the Florida Education Association filed a lawsuit arguing Florida’s scholarship program is diverting billions in taxpayer money away from traditional public education. The state said the program gives parents more freedom and more control over their children’s education. But district leaders across Florida say the funding shift is leaving traditional schools in a deep financial hole.
Kayaks, theme parks, power tools
For months, Action News Jax dug into how the money is being spent. And if you want a glimpse into where some of those taxpayer dollars are going, all you have to do is scroll.
Action News Jax combed through a public Facebook group made up of families who receive Family Empowerment Scholarships. Many of the posts centered around the application process, curriculum recommendations, and questions about reimbursement eligibility.
But among those conversations were discussions about items ranging from kayaks and power tools to three-wheeled scooters, animal supplies, and even trips to Florida theme parks. Action News Jax cross-checked those posts with the scholarship purchasing guidelines and found that most of the purchases appeared to be allowed under the program’s rules.
All while public school districts across Florida face budget shortfalls totaling millions, and in some cases, billions, of dollars.
Still, for some parents, the scholarships have been life-changing.
“There was a lot of interruptions in his class. Not by him, thank goodness, but there were students in there with behavior problems and throwing desks, throwing chairs,” Clay County mother Sarah Mills said. “It became a hazard, and unfortunately, he dealt a whole school year with that and fell behind.”
Mills pulled her son Levi out of public school after she said he fell behind in first grade. Levi later received a McKay Scholarship, which paid for private school from second through seventh grade. But when teacher shortages hit Levi’s private school, Mills applied for the Family Empowerment Scholarship.
‘Shouldn’t have to force my child to go to public school’
Levi, who has ADHD, qualified for the Unique Abilities Scholarship. Mills then decided to homeschool him herself.
“And he gets just under $10,000,” Mills said. “So I think it’s like $9,500 for the year.”
That money is deposited into Levi’s education savings account through the state scholarship program. The dollars are awarded by the state and managed through the nonprofit organization Step Up For Students.
According to Mills, homeschooling transformed Levi’s education.
“Going from seventh grade to what we have now is, he has equivalent to sophomore credits,” she said. “So he would be going into his junior year at 14 years old.”
Mills said the scholarship has allowed Levi to thrive academically while also participating in extracurricular activities she said would otherwise be financially out of reach.
The 14-year-old swims competitively for USA Swimming and Orange Park High School. He also plays on Orange Park High’s tennis team, takes private art lessons, and receives private music instruction to improve his trumpet performance.
His scholarship even paid for a $3,500 trumpet that Mills said will last him for years. The family also purchased a laptop and a Nintendo Switch, which Mills said Levi uses for educational games.
Action News Jax interviewed Mills at her dance studio. As a direct provider who accepts scholarship funds, Mills said some of her dance students use scholarship dollars to pay for classes there, too.
She said she has never used scholarship funds for trips to Disney or SeaWorld, but she understands why the program has become controversial as public school districts lose enrollment and funding.
“I know there was a whole uproar about different schools having to shut down,” Mills said. “If a school doesn’t have the amount of students they need, then they have to close. If I don’t have enough customers at my business, I have to close.”
“With the amount of kids that are going into this Step Up program, they are losing funding per kid in the public school sector,” she continued. “I shouldn’t have to force my child to go to public school.”
‘The law says they can have it’
And Mills is far from alone.
In 2019, Florida spent just over $100 million on scholarship programs. By 2025, that number ballooned to $3 billion.
Since March, Action News Jax has repeatedly asked Step Up For Students for records showing the most common purchases families make using taxpayer dollars, including how much money has gone toward theme park tickets and technology purchases.
Initially, the organization said obtaining those records would cost more than $42,000.
Step Up later provided broad spending categories that included private school tuition and fees, part-time tutoring, instructional materials, and home education instruction.
Action News Jax also requested the same information from the Florida Department of Education, but the department has not fulfilled the public records request.
“I’m not going to say to a parent, ‘Oh no, shame on you for taking that.’ The law says they can have it,” Dr. Norin Dollard with the Florida Policy Institute said. “But I don’t agree with that law.”
Dollard is an educator and researcher with more than 30 years of experience studying Florida’s education system. She said her research found the scholarship program lacks meaningful oversight.
Step Up For Students pushed back on those concerns in a lengthy statement to Action News Jax, saying, “There are many accountability measures. Every tuition payment must be approved by the school and the parent before payment. Step Up is required to submit to audits by outside CPAs and the state Auditor General. Schools receiving scholarship funds of a material amount must have third-party CPAs examine their books and send a report to Step Up, which reports any irregularities to the state for further action. These are just a few examples.”
Cannot account for ‘$270 million on any given day’
Meanwhile, school districts across Northeast Florida say declining enrollment tied to the scholarship expansion is creating a serious financial strain.
In Duval County, district leaders say declining enrollment contributed to a $1.4 billion deficit, with plans to close or consolidate more than 20 schools by 2030.
In Clay County, the district froze hiring and reassigned nearly 200 jobs to save money.
In St. Johns County, leaders say they’re facing a $23 million deficit next year and are cutting more than 150 positions to make up the difference. Superintendent Dr. Brennan Asplen also wrote in a letter to the state that the district is currently educating some scholarship students for free because their scholarship dollars have not yet been returned by the state.
State audit reports released last year also identified problems within the scholarship system. Auditors found Step Up For Students failed to deposit scholarship funds on time, overfilled some accounts for students with disabilities, and underestimated how many families would enroll in the program. According to the audit, that miscalculation created a $400 million budget gap.
During a Florida Senate committee hearing, state Sen. Don Gaetz said the state could not account for roughly 30,000 scholarship students.
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“The amount of money which we cannot account for as being in the right place at the right time exceeds $270 million on any given day,” Gaetz said during the hearing.
Then in February, seven private schools, including one in Jacksonville, sued Step Up For Students over financial strain caused by what they described as long-term payment delays and unpaid debts.
Step Up responded by saying the complaints were specific to those schools and “not indicative of any larger issues with the programs.”
Dollard said efforts to add more accountability measures have repeatedly failed in the Legislature.
“Every time an attempt is made in the Legislature to put additional guard rails on, the other chamber kills it,” she said.
This past legislative session, Gaetz introduced Senate Bill 318, which would have increased accountability by assigning a Florida education ID number to every scholarship student and separating scholarship funds from the general public education budget.
The bill also proposed creating a stabilization fund for districts losing students faster than expected and requiring annual audits of scholarship funding organizations like Step Up For Students.
The legislation passed unanimously in the Senate before dying in the House in March.
More than 8,400 students had Florida theme park tickets paid for with taxpayer dollars
“I believe in educational experiences as much as the next person,” Dollard said. “But as a public school parent and graduate, I paid for the trips to Disney and Universal.”
“Parents should have choices,” she added. “But they should be responsible for those choices and pay for those choices.”
Dollard worries the scholarship program could permanently reshape Florida’s public education system if lawmakers continue expanding it without additional regulations.
But Mills sees the issue differently.
“I don’t want people to think like it’s being taken advantage of,” she said.
She believes taxpayers themselves should take a more active role in oversight and accountability.
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“If you’re paying for it, then you should have a say in what’s going on,” Mills said. “Be happy that there’s programs out there that allow parents to participate and kids participate in these types of things without it hurting your pocket.”
Since March, Action News Jax has continued asking the Florida Department of Education to open its books and answer questions about scholarship spending. The department never responded.
But after seeing promotions for this investigation, Step Up For Students contacted Action News Jax and said roughly half a million Florida students now receive scholarships through the program. That would make the scholarship system equivalent in size to the nation’s second-largest school district.
The organization also revealed that during the last school year, more than 8,400 scholarship students had Florida theme park tickets paid for with taxpayer dollars.
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