Florida model could avoid voucher pitfalls

Published February 26, 2014

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, February 25, 2014.

A judge has blocked private school tuition grants, which appear to violate the N.C. Constitution's provision that state funding go exclusively to public education.

Courts in other states with similar constitutional language have said the same thing about such programs, so the injunction has been expected since the General Assembly approved the grants last year.

Rep. Paul Stam, a Wake County Republican who helped pass the law, has said he'll address the judge's concerns with a legislative fix. That could be a smart approach. Whether it's better than simply throwing in the towel will depend on what lawmakers propose.

They would do well to look at a successful Florida program. Despite the same state constitutional block on funding for private education as in North Carolina, the Florida scholarships have been in place for more than a decade and survived several court challenges.

Florida's program is one of several around the country operating through tax credits rather than vouchers. A 2010 federal ruling in an Arizona case found that tuition programs funded by tax credits are insulated from the kind of concerns expressed by the North Carolina judge.

Florida also awards aid on the basis of family need, regardless of students' or public schools' academic performance. Students from wealthy and middle-class families don't qualify; the purpose is solely to provide an education alternative that wouldn't otherwise exist for impoverished young people.

The Florida program additionally sets reasonable academic standards for the schools to which this aid can be applied. North Carolina's grants were open to exploitation by almost anyone claiming to run a school, with virtually no oversight. Accountability isn't just smart; it also shows the program works. Students receiving tax credit scholarships in Florida have consistently outperformed those from similar backgrounds who did not.

These aspects help defuse animosity between advocates for private and public education, according to Jon East, a spokesman for Step Up for Students, the nonprofit group that administers Florida's program. East noted that a large interfaith coalition of progressive religious leaders, including those with the state NAACP, have recently announced support for expanding the program. Although initially passed with only Republican backing, many Democrats, seeing the program's value to underprivileged families, have signed on to renew it in recent years.

North Carolina will want to put its own stamp on any program, but legislators tinkering with the untenable model they adopted last year could learn much by looking at the Sunshine State.

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/article_296aad2f-aa3c-54cd-80c6-68f0a82fd985.html