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Some parents swear by voucher program

Although the policy is still highly controversial, many say that it's an educational blessing for their children.

In 1999, Gov. Jeb Bush signed Florida's original voucher law for students in "chronically failing" schools, creating the nation's only statewide voucher program. Within 24 hours, a lawsuit was filed to challenge the law.

Amid five years of legal wrangling in which both voucher proponents and voucher opponents have declared victories - and two additional voucher programs have been created - hundreds of Pinellas schoolchildren have chosen to enroll in private schools and to use vouchers to pay for their tuition.

Vouchers remain controversial. In fact, the original voucher program, called the Opportunity Scholarship Program, was declared unconstitutional Aug. 16 by a state appeals court. The Florida Supreme Court will ultimately decide the program's fate.

Problems concerning voucher administration continue to crop up. Not all private schools accept them, and not all children are eligible to apply for them.

But many parents, especially those who would not have been able to afford private school tuition otherwise, say that taking a voucher to attend a private school was their child's best educational option.

L.A. King, whose son Martin was held back in third grade because he was unable to pass the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, used a voucher last year to send Martin to Morning Star Catholic School in Pinellas Park. This year, Martin's brother Tristen joined him at Morning Star.

"I regreted having to take Martin away from where he was comfortable and happy and doing well," King said when Martin first switched schools. "Do I regret putting him in Morning Star? No. He's happy and well-adjusted."

Children in Pinellas County can participate in one of the two newer voucher programs. One, the McKay Scholarships Program, is for disabled students. The other, the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program, is for low-income children.

About 660 Pinellas students with special needs attended a private school last year courtesy of the former program. The John M. McKay Program for Students with Disabilities defines students with special needs as those who are mentally handicapped, speech and language impaired, deaf or hard-of-hearing, visually impaired, dual sensory impaired, physically impaired, emotionally handicapped, specific learning disabled, hospitalized or homebound, or autistic.

To qualify for a McKay Scholarship, a student must have attended a public school the previous year and must have an Individual Education Plan, or IEP. Children who meet those criteria may request a McKay Scholarship to enroll in and attend private schools, or they may choose another public school that the parent thinks better suits the student's needs.

The scholarship is equal to the amount of state generated funding the student would have received - about $7,000 a year - or the cost of the private school's tuition and fees, whichever is less.

More than 450 Pinellas children signed up last year for the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which allows funding organizations to collect money from corporations. The organizations get a tax break for providing tuition scholarships for private and religious schools. Students who qualify for a corporate tax credit scholarship can get a voucher that pays up to $3,500 of their private school tuition.

The original voucher program, the one that has been declared unconstitutional by the state appeals court, allows parents whose children are assigned to a failing schools to either choose higher performing public schools or to apply state generated funding toward private school tuition. The program defines a failing school as one that received a failing grade in the previous year and at least once in the three years before that. No Pinellas schools meet that criteria at this time.

If the Florida Supreme Court declares the Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional, it may or may not affect the other two voucher programs.