Advocates at rally laud school vouchers

An article about a rally for the Florida voucher program (called the Florida Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program).  Here's what John Kirtley wrote:

We actually had 3,000 people at this event, where Walgreen's announced an $8 million contribution and incredibly powerful testimony was heard from children whose lives have been saved by the program. Here is the press' reaction. Not bad for us in Florida, I guess.

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Advocates at rally laud school vouchers

Susan Jacobson, Sentinel Staff Writer

October 21, 2006

Shamel Donawa was struggling at a public school in Osceola County when she heard about a program that would help her go to private school.

Her widowed mother works as a hotel housekeeper, but Shamel, 17, can attend Heartland Christian Academy near Kissimmee because of a school voucher funded by Florida businesses.

Shamel, who hopes to become a nurse, said the smaller classes and personal attention have improved her chances for success in life.

"I'm just thankful that I have the opportunity to come here and my parents had the opportunity to decide for me," the high school senior said Friday.

Shamel joined Gov. Jeb Bush and others in celebrating the 5-year-old program at a rally of more than 2,000 students, teachers and others at El Calvario Christian Academy in south Orange County.

Advocates of the Florida Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program hope it will not go the way of the state's Opportunity Scholarships, a smaller voucher plan declared unconstitutional in January by the state Supreme Court.

The program works like this: Corporations can redirect up to three-quarters of their annual state taxes to a nonprofit scholarship-funding organization. The corporation then gets a dollar-for-dollar tax credit from the state.

That money finances vouchers for low-income students -- up to $3,750 a year to attend a private school, or up to $500 for transportation to a public school outside a child's home school district.

About 15,000 students are enrolled in the program. About 60 percent of them are from single-parent homes; 77 percent are minorities.

Businesses have contributed more than $200 million in the past five years. On Friday, Walgreens announced an $8 million donation.

Seventy percent of participating schools are religious, said John Kirtley, president of the Florida School Choice Fund.

Friday's rally was full of cheers from advocates of school choice.

But critics of the program consider it an attempt to undermine public schools.

The Supreme Court threw out the Opportunity Scholarships on grounds they violated a provision of the Florida Constitution requiring the state to maintain "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality" public schools.

No one has challenged the corporate voucher on those grounds, but Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, described it Friday as a "thinly veiled . . . end run around the Constitution."

"I think it will eventually be evaluated and found unconstitutional," Simon said.

Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, which represents teachers, said the program allows private corporations to target where they send their tax money -- something private citizens can't do.

"It fosters this parallel school system, which is something we think is wrong and unconstitutional," Pudlow said.

Laquanda Fields, who attends Teacher's Hands Academy in Orlando, said she is grateful to the program. She likes being able to pray in school, she said.

"I think it's better to start out that way in the morning," she said.