They join 21 others whose payments were suspended for failure to comply with new rules.
By STEPHEN HEGARTY
Published December 17, 2003
FORT LAUDERDALE - Another 100 private schools have been suspended from Florida's voucher programs because they failed to meet Monday's deadline for complying with new state requirements.
The schools join 21 others already cut off from receiving state voucher money. About 1,700 students have been using state voucher money to attend those schools. That amounts to about 7 percent of the voucher students statewide.
Education Commissioner Jim Horne referred to the suspensions Tuesday as his "no tolerance policy."
But the suspended schools still have a chance to get back in the state's good graces without losing any voucher money. The next payment for two of the state's three voucher programs is scheduled to go out Feb. 1. So the newly suspended schools still have time to comply without missing the next payment.
"We're not giving up on these schools," Horne said.
Speaking Tuesday at a meeting of the Florida Board of Education, Horne described steps he is taking to ensure that private schools are complying. For instance, he said, his department will conduct "random audits" to see whether schools that say they're in compliance really are.
Horne and board chairman Phil Handy also gave a brief response to the blistering report on voucher programs issued last week by the state's chief financial officer, Tom Gallagher.
In the report, Gallagher said a lack of appropriate safeguards and oversight "has put the success of these vital school choice programs at risk."
Well before Gallagher's report, the state's voucher programs have been stung by numerous embarrassing revelations regarding a lack of accountability and safeguards. Several lawmakers have proposed reforms, and after several reports of shortcomings in the programs, Education Commissioner Horne proposed a series of reforms as well.
Handy responded to Gallagher's report by saying, "We are engaged in ... what is arguably the world's most far-reaching education reform movement."
Said Handy: "There will be some failures. There will be some hiccups." Handy also welcomed Gallagher's participation and oversight of the voucher programs.
Horne said he would send a formal response to Gallagher this week.
Out of the 1,163 private schools participating in voucher programs, 1,042 or 90 percent report that they comply with all state regulations. About 25,000 children attend those schools with vouchers. Those 100 schools filled out a form required by the state, but reported areas in which they were not yet in compliance.
The 21 schools that already had payments suspended did not even fill out the form to say whether they met the state's requirements.
Board member Bill Proctor asked Horne if he had heard from the 21 schools that already were suspended.
"Many of them are getting out," Horne said. "Too much hassle. Too much paperwork. If you can't fill out a form that's basically online, maybe you don't belong in the program."
