At the start of this year, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida had surpassed the half-million mark in the number of students participating in the state’s Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program.
DeSantis’ announcement was welcomed by those in the school choice movement who applaud state lawmakers for their commitment to ensuring that all Florida families have access to the best education for their children.
Florida still has progress to make in its educational offerings. A school choice advocate points out another option that many families favor, especially those who may not have the financial means to pay for private school tuition or whose children are unable to attend school in person for various reasons. These reasons can include mental or physical health issues, bullying, or specific learning needs.
Full-time online public schools have been a lifeline for hundreds of families in Florida since Florida Virtual School first opened its doors as a high school in 1997. Florida was also the first state to mandate full- and part-time online learning options statewide.
Thanks to these efforts, Florida is now home to a robust state-sponsored virtual school, several multi-district options, and a plethora of district programs.
While all of this sounds amazing—a new national ranking of online learning policies across the country reveals there’s a need for improvement of supporting the state’s online learning options.
Parents for School Options (PSO), a national parent advocacy organization that promotes school choice policies across the country, just released a report card examining online learning policies in all 50 states. The report card found that while Florida receives an A in virtual school enrollment, we earned a D in funding and a B in remote-proctored testing, an important issue for virtual families.
PSO’s List of Areas that Need Improvement:
1. Move Away from Completion Funding
Currently, a virtual learning program only receives funding when a student completes the course or program they are enrolled in. While the intention was to ensure programs fully educate the student, it doesn’t take into account situations when a student may unenroll mid-year. Many students enroll in full-time online learning to get them through a tough situation like a physical or mental health challenge that prevents them from being able to learn in-person. Some of these students get better and return to in-person learning in the middle of the school year. When this happens, the schools do not receive payment for the education they provided to the student. The costs can add up, especially when special services such as special education and counseling have been rendered to the student. Because of this, some programs have decided to limit enrollment to only higher-performing students, restricting options for families. Only a few multi-district programs accept every student.
Of the 37 states that have some sort of statewide online learning, 24 of them fund them with the same state base funding as their brick and mortar counterparts. This is even true in the deepest of blue states like California, which is not exactly known for being a school choice haven.
2. Expand Remote-Proctored Testing
Remote-proctored testing allows full-time online students to take state-mandated tests in an online setting with robust security, privacy, and anti-cheating detection in place.
Remote-proctored testing alleviates burdens on families by removing the need for time off work, childcare, or long travel to testing centers, particularly in rural areas where the nearest testing site might be several hours away.
Florida already allows students grades 3-8 math and 3-10 English, but not grades 5-8 science, end-of-course tests, or PM3. Moving from a B to an A grade would just require expanding the scope of tests we currently allow to these.
3. Glaring omission of online learning from FES program
While not mentioned in the report card, another significant issue Florida faces is the exclusion of online learning from the Florida Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program. I have previously addressed this topic, and the legislature has yet to take action. This session, Florida lawmakers are considering Senate Bill 1462, which would allow for full-time online private school options and hybrid charter schools. This change would be a tremendous benefit for Florida families, as it would expand their educational choices to include options available in other states. Currently, Florida is the only state with an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that explicitly prohibits online schools from accepting funds. Hybrid schools are a popular choice among families seeking more flexibility, as they enable personalized learning while still providing some structure through traditional schooling. This model also allows families more time for extracurricular activities and family engagement.
