Teachers unions strike again as they seek to appeal the ruling on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. In August, First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee struck down a challenge by the Florida Education Association, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP and others to the program.
In a recent blog post by Step Up For Students, Bishop Victor Curry, the chairman of the group calling for the plaintiffs to drop the suit, stated:
“We are very disappointed that the union will continue its effort to evict over 92,000 poor, mostly minority children from schools that are working for them. These children were the worst performers at the public schools they left, and now they are thriving. The union’s decision is wrong for the children, and wrong for our public schools.”
The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program currently serves more than 92,000 students in Florida and allows businesses to help organizations like Step Up For Students provide scholarships for K-12 students from low-income families to attend high-quality private schools, helping to break generational poverty by providing students with exponentially greater educational opportunities for success. Yet, in 2014, the Florida teachers union and the state chapter of the NAACP filed legal challenges to the scholarship program. The Florida Chamber stood for parents and students then, and we continue to do so today.
The Florida Chamber continues to remain focused on ensuring all students in Florida have the opportunity for a quality education that meets their needs. We believe education is quickly replacing tax incentives and the new economic development currency. This is one reason why we actively support the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.
Resources:
LEARN more by visiting the Florida Chamber’s Education Issue page here.
READ the blog post by Step Up For Students here.