Florida Parent Network

Florida tax credit scholarship program:this past school year, 106,548 underprivileged students attended 1,818 private schools on a step up for students scholarship. The scholarship program was created to help alleviate the enormous educational challenges faced by children who live in poverty. The scholarship gives parents with limited financial means the freedom to choose the school that best meets their children's learning needs from kindergarten through 12th grade. It is the largest scholarship program of this nature in the united states.for the 2018-19 school year, approved students could choose between scholarships worth up to $7,111 for private school tuition and fees or up to $750 in transportation costs to attend an out-of-district public school. Since its creation, the Florida tax credit scholarship program has awarded 686,257 scholarships. For 2018-19, the average income for participants was 9.6% above the federal poverty guidelines, and 55% of the students were from single-parent households.standardized test ...

Research on student outcome:each tax credit scholarship is intended to provide a low-income or working-class student in Florida with a viable learning option that can make a difference in his or her educational life. Toward that objective, step up is building tools to assess academic progress in a robust way. The state already collects standardized test scores every year for all students in grades 3-10 and in its most recent report determined that scholarship students achieved the same academic gains in reading and math as students of all income levels nationally. Step up is going further. It has completed a data warehouse that pulls together student academic and demographic information across 16 years. Further, step up has invited research organizations to mine student data and in the fall of 2017, the urban institute released a report finding that students on the scholarship at least three years are 40 percent more ...

Alabama opportunity scholarship program:the Alabama opportunity scholarship fund (alosf) is a scholarship granting organization formed to implement the Alabama acountability act. Alosf awards scholarships to eligible low-income students with priority given to children who are zoned to attend a failing public school. The scholarships pay for private school tuition or transfer fees to a non-failing public school. The first scholarships were granted for the semester starting january 2014. Alosf has awarded nearly 9,300 scholarships over 4 years representing 45 of the 67 counties in Alabama. The scholarships are funded by donations of income tax liability from individuals and corporations who receive an Alabama state income tax credit.