F.A.C.E. to FACE   F.A.C.E. BULLETIN     October 21, 2010 Dear Friends, Governor’s Press Office, Governor Crist Supports Step Up for Students Program, Joins scholarship recipients and their families to celebrate success of scholarship fundraising initiative. Below is the text of the Channel 4 Donor Appreciation Rally story. It is not as good as this video report. http://cbs4.com/local/governor.crist.education.2.1253498.html The Rev. H.K. Matthews, a civil rights pioneer, responds to The Miami Herald, Vouchers a dirty word to Democrat. Rev. H.K. Matthews is a civil rights icon and minister. Rev. Matthews is a revered figure in the civil rights movement who marched with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and then worked tirelessly in Pensacola and other Florida cities in the struggle for equality. Matthews began his contribution to Pensacola's Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s as President of the Pensacola Council of Ministers. He was jailed 35 times as a political prisoner for the staging of protests for the demonstrations of civil rights. He has determined that parental choice in education is an extension of his life's work. Thank you for Stepping Up For Students, Michael A. Benjamin Executive Director, F.A.C.E. Florida Alliance for Choices in Education www.stepupforstudents.com www.flace.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 16, 2009 CONTACT: GOVERNOR’S PRESS OFFICE, (850) 488-5394 Governor Crist Supports Step Up for Students Program ~ Joins scholarship recipients and their families to celebrate success of scholarship fundraising initiative ~ FORT LAUDERDALE – Governor Charlie Crist today joined south Florida parents, teachers and students at Mount Bethel Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale to thank the many sponsors of Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship fund, also known as the “Step Up for Students” fund, for their continued donations to this invaluable program. Through the K-12 Step Up for Students scholarship fund, low-income families throughout the state are empowered to choose the educational environment that best suits the needs of their child. Just last year, nearly 25,000 Florida students benefited from Step Up for Students Scholarships in about 1,002 private schools throughout the state. “I am grateful to all the companies who have taken the time to learn about this valuable program and participate in it,” said Governor Crist. “With their generous support, Florida’s children have more scholarship opportunities available and together, I am confident we will continue to provide more educational opportunities and options here in Florida.” Through the continued success of the program, Florida taxpayers are saving an estimated $39 million a year according to Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Attendees gathered to celebrate eight years of the program’s success by commending the generosity of donors such as Walgreens, Winn-Dixie, the Florida Lottery, Lowe’s, The GEO Group, Beall’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Great Florida Bank and the City of Fort Lauderdale Parks and Recreation and Joseph C. Carter Park. Participants also listened to the personal story of scholarship recipient, Antonio Trigo, and his siblings who have all benefited from the Step Up for Students program. Through the scholarship program, Antonio was able to transfer to a new school environment where he began to succeed after struggling in a public school classroom. Last spring, he graduated as Valedictorean of his 8th grade class, is excelling in high school and plans to pursue higher education. The Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program is funded through contributions made by corporations that receive a dollar-for-dollar credit against state corporate income taxes for up to 75 percent of their tax liability. Through this donation, scholarship recipients are able to attend a private school or out-of-district public school of their choice increasing their chances for educational success. Participating students come from families that qualify for the federal free or reduced lunch program, and the average income for a household of four is $25,600. Two-thirds of the students are African-American or Hispanic and three-fifths live in single-parent homes. For more information about the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program, visit www.stepupforstudents.com. Oct 16, 2009 6:45 pm US/Eastern Crist Says Education Is "Opportunity Provider" In a week where South Floridians worried—again—about what's happening to our children, CBS4 met a group Friday who make you worry a lot less. While Governor Charlie Crist looked on, hundreds of school students in Fort Lauderdale beamed and applauded one another, their mentors, and their corporate supporters. The youngsters are going to private schools in our area thanks to Florida tax credit scholarships. Miami Union Academy student Briana Derry said, "It means a lot because it is a second chance to do better at life than what I did before." Corporations from Walgreens to Marriott International have contributed millions of dollars to the scholarships offered by the program Step up for Students" since 2001. They get dollar for dollar state tax credits in return. Nearly 25-thousand low income families across Florida got scholarships worth up to four-thousand dollars apiece last year. Marriott spokeswoman Melissa Froehlich Flood said, "It lets us know we are doing the right thing and that our spirit to give to the community is working." Governor Crist met Antonio Trigo, a high school scholarship freshman who has hopes of going to Harvard. Trigo said, "It (the tax credit scholarship) completely changed the road I was going on. Before I received it I was going nowhere in my public school." Governor Crist told me, "Education is the equal opportunity provider in our country and what "Step Up" does for children, it gives them the power of choice. Even if they are from low income homes they have the opportunity to pick the best education for their children and that is what it is all about." All of that is welcome, especially at a time when Florida public schools are being wracked by increasing budget constraints and cutbacks, that may only deepen after federal stimulus money runs out. The Miami Herald Saturday, October 17, 2009 Vouchers a dirty word to Democrats By BETH REINHARD Question: When is a voucher not a voucher? Answer: When you're a Democratic candidate for attorney general and you voted for one of the education legacies of Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. In the kickoff debate of the attorney general race on Sunday, state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach pointed to two key votes that set him apart from rival state Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres. One was Aronberg's vote for vouchers.” Tossing out the politically charged word in a room full of liberal Democrats was like waxing poetic about ACORN in front of a bunch of Republican conservatives. Aronberg was indignant. “I've never had a Democrat distort my record,” he said. “I have never voted for a voucher.” Except that he did. Aronberg voted for legislation tweaking one of Bush's signature voucher programs, which awards income tax credits to corporations that give private school scholarships to poor kids. This amounts to as much as $118 million in tax dollars that otherwise would be going into the state treasury and, critics charge, could be spent on public education. The 2009 bill allowed insurance companies to participate in the program, increasing the pool of donors and potentially allowing more kids to get scholarships. “We call these corporate vouchers, and we have had difficulties with them,” said Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for the statewide teachers’ union, the Florida Education Association. “Helping poor kids is a good idea, but we think we ought to try to help all the kids in struggling schools, and we think this takes away from the public schools' ability to do it.” Aronberg remained steadfast Friday, saying he has “never voted for a bill that created vouchers or expanded the voucher program.” It’s true that the 2001 legislation creating the program predates Aronberg’s arrival in the Senate. And it's true that in 2008, he voted against legislation that increased the available tax credits from $88 million to $118 million. The 2009 bill did not raise the $118 million cap. Gelber, who got the union's “Champion of Education” award Friday, suggested Aronberg was making a distinction without a difference. “He voted for the program and I voted against it. It couldn't be clearer,” he said. “I want to fix public education, not privatize it.” It was hard to see the issue in such stark terms at Friday's rally celebrating the voucher program at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale. Hundreds of children in matching white T-shirts, mostly black and Hispanic, all poor, packed the chapel. They heard from Antonio Trigo, who once struggled at Parkway Middle School in Miami Gardens, which has earned Ds and Cs from the state. His grandmother applied for him to get a scholarship to attend Mt. Olivet Seventh-Day Adventist School in Fort Lauderdale, where he was valedictorian of his eighth grade class in the spring. He is now in ninth grade at Miami Union Academy. “Before I received the scholarship, I was going nowhere,” said Trigo. “It got to the point where I didn't want to go to school at all, and I didn't care about my future.” Kids like Trigo are the reason why the Democratic Party's opposition to vouchers has weakened over the years. The most controversial parts of Bush's voucher program were struck down by the Florida Supreme Court. Aronberg was among four Senate Democrats who voted for the voucher bill this year. The Rev. H.K. Matthews, a civil rights pioneer who spoke at the rally, said, “Our children shouldn't have to fight an uphill battle just to learn what has been promised by our Constition and our God.” Beth Reinhard is the political writer for The Miami Herald ------------------------------------------ Letter to the editor: I’m confused. A Saturday headline said “vouchers a dirty word to Democrats,” but the column was about a scholarship program for low-income students that a majority of black politicians in this state support. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarships are not some Republican plot to destroy public schools. They are a helping hand to low-income children who are mostly black and Hispanic, and they are a moral imperative. That’s why a majority of the Black Caucus and the entire Hispanic Caucus in the Legislature voted to strengthen the program this year. Nearly 25,000 children in K-12 used this option last year to attend 1,000 different private schools. One of them, Antonio Trigo, an inspiring young man at Miami Union Academy, was mentioned in the story. Antonio was close to failure in his previous school and is now scoring two grade levels above his age. Why would anyone want to deny this as an option for any low-income student who is struggling? Does Sen. Dan Gelber really want to send Antonio back to his old school? How could Sen. Gelber say that anyone who supports this program isn’t a true Democrat? I have devoted my life to the cause of social justice for blacks in America. I walked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, sat at segregated lunch counters in Pensacola, and was jailed 35 times during the process. I fought so that the generations that came after me would have an equal opportunity, and nowhere is that more important now than in public education. Our children are failing and dropping out and I have no patience for those who would deny them educational opportunities. Under this program, Antonio and thousands of other students like him are achieving success, and that is not a dirty word. Rev. H.K. Matthews Pensacola In the Wall Street Journal … D.C. School Vouchers Have a Brighter Outlook in Congress By ROBERT TOMSHO The District of Columbia's embattled school-voucher program, which lawmakers appeared to have killed earlier this year, looks like it could still survive. Congress voted in March not to fund the program, which provides certificates to pay for recipients' private-school tuition, after the current school year. But after months of pro-voucher rallies, a television-advertising campaign and statements of support by local political leaders, backers say they are more confident about its prospects. Even some Democrats, many of whom have opposed voucher efforts, have been supportive. At a congressional hearing last month, Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and vocal critic of the program who heads the subcommittee that controls its funding, said he was open to supporting its continuation if certain changes were made. They include requiring voucher recipients to take the same achievement tests as public-school students. The senator's comments were a "really positive sign," said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a group that supports vouchers and charter schools -- public schools that can bypass many regulations that govern their traditional counterparts. "It's clear the momentum is coming our way," added Kevin Chavous, a former Washington city councilman who has appeared in television ads supporting the voucher plan, known as the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, has introduced a bill that would reauthorize the voucher plan. His co-sponsors include Democratic Sens. Diane Feinstein of California and Robert Byrd of West Virginia. But issues such as testing still must be negotiated with Mr. Durbin. Any bill would also have to pass the House, where there has been far less discussion. Some congressional staffers say they doubt there will be final action on the program until next year. The Opportunity Scholarship Program provides about 1,700 students from low-income families with annual scholarships of as much as $7,500 to attend private schools. It isn't the largest voucher program in the country. But unlike similar efforts controlled at the state or local level, it was created and has been funded by Congress, which has broad authority over the District. That has kept the debate over vouchers percolating on Capitol Hill even though they have made relatively little political headway elsewhere. It also may force the Obama administration to weigh in. The administration supports charter schools but opposes vouchers. Amid congressional debate over the District voucher plan's future, the U.S. Department of Education instructed program administrators to stop accepting new students. Although the Department of Education has proposed continuing to fund vouchers for students already in the program -- a move Congress would have to approve -- in April it withdrew 216 new scholarship offers pending for the 2009-10 school year. "Total injustice," said Latasha Bennett, whose daughter Nia, age 5, was among the 216. "They can pay for wars but they can't pay for our kids getting an education." Peter Cunningham, an Education Department spokesman, noted that research into the impact of vouchers is mixed and said the administration doesn't think paying for children to attend private schools will spawn the sort of competition that could help improve public schools. "We still don't think they are the solution to America's education challenges," he said. Many parents whose children receive vouchers say they are satisfied with the private schools they attend. During the 2008-2009 school year, about 61,700 students nationwide received vouchers, up 9% from the previous school year, according to the Alliance for School Choice, a pro-voucher advocacy group. Even so, vouchers aren't available in most states, and they have gained far less support than charter schools, which are attended by an estimated 1.4 million students. Teachers unions say vouchers are a waste of tax money that could be better spent improving public schools. Civil-liberties groups oppose their use to pay for tuition at parochial schools. In the past decade, voters in California, Michigan and Utah have defeated statewide voucher initiatives. Created as a five-year pilot project by a Republican-controlled Congress in early 2004, the Opportunity Scholarship Program is the nation's only federally funded voucher program. It is open to students who live in the long-struggling Washington school district and whose families have incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty level -- about $40,000 for a family of four. Recipients are chosen by lottery, although preference is given to those attending traditional schools deemed to be in need of improvement under federal law. Joe Kelley entered his oldest son, Rashawn, in the first Opportunity Scholarship Program lottery in 2004, fearful about violence at the public middle school. Rashawn, now 17, received a voucher, and so have his three sisters. All attend a small, private Christian academy where they have been earning A's and B's. "It's a lot of worry off of me," said Mr. Kelley, a retired cook and youth counselor. In an evaluation released in March, researchers found that in reading skills, voucher recipients overall were approximately 3.1 months ahead of eligible students who didn't receive scholarships. But there was no difference in math skills, and voucher recipients from the worst-performing public schools got no boost in either subject. A 2007 Government Accountability Office report said the Washington Scholarship Fund, the nonprofit that administers the Opportunity Scholarship Program, lacked adequate accounting controls and sometimes didn't provide parents with complete information about student achievement, teacher qualifications and tuition levels at the private schools involved. "It was a snapshot of the start-up phase of the program," said Greg Cork, the scholarship fund's president, who added that the fund has followed up with the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Education and addressed "the vast majority" of the issues raised. Backers of the Opportunity Scholarship Program are optimistic about the long-term outlook for it. "I think people are looking at it differently," said Virginia Walden Ford, executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, an advocacy group. "I feel more optimistic than I have in a long time." The Step Up For Students (SUFS)/Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship Program currently provides K-12 scholarships to over 23,000 low-income Florida students to attend eligible private schools or out-of-district public schools throughout the state. Income Eligibility Guidelines Number of people in household Total Annual Household Income for New Applicants Total Annual Household Income for Renewal Applicants 2 $26,955 $29,140 3 $33,874 $36,620 4 $40,793 $44,100 5 $47,712 $51,580 For each additional member add $6,919 For each additional member add $7,480

 

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