Florida has long been at the forefront of education reform. From early experiments with charter schools to the creation of tax-credit scholarships, the Sunshine State has consistently pushed the envelope when it comes to giving parents more say in their children’s education. But in 2023, Florida made history. With the passage of House Bill 1, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida became the first state in the nation to offer universal school choice—an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that made every K–12 student in the state eligible, regardless of income.
It was heralded as the boldest expansion of educational freedom in the country. And rightly so. Florida parents now enjoy one of the most expansive menus of options anywhere: public schools, charter schools, private schools, virtual programs, homeschooling, and—through ESAs—direct control over state dollars for tuition, tutoring, therapies, and transportation stipends.
The legislature and Governor DeSantis deserve real praise. They didn’t just nudge the system forward; they cracked it wide open. They sent a clear message: parents, not bureaucrats, should direct their child’s education. And families responded in droves. In just two years, more than 500,000 Florida students are enrolled in state scholarship programs, with tens of thousands more using transportation stipends or New Worlds Scholarship Accounts for reading support. Florida has become the national model for what educational freedom looks like in practice.
But as with any bold reform, the story doesn’t end at the bill signing. Passing universal school choice was the easy part. Implementing it fairly, smoothly, and consistently—that’s where the hard work begins. And right now, families across Florida are running into barriers that threaten to undermine the promise of the system.
This article takes a closer look: where Florida’s school choice revolution is thriving, where it’s breaking down, and—most importantly—how to fix it so that families get the educational freedom they were promised.
The Promise of Florida’s School Choice Expansion
Florida’s universal school choice program rests on a simple but powerful principle: funding should follow the student, not the system. For decades, parents frustrated with public schools had only two options—move to a new neighborhood or pay out-of-pocket for private school. Both were luxuries beyond the reach of many working families.
HB 1 changed that. Every child in Florida, regardless of income or background, is now eligible for the Family Empowerment Scholarship – Educational Options (FES-EO) or the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC). These scholarships can be used not just for tuition, but for tutoring, online learning, textbooks, and more. Families even receive a $750 transportation stipend if they choose to attend a public school outside their zoned district.
That flexibility matters. A low-income family in Miami can now send their child to a specialized STEM academy across town. A student with dyslexia in Orlando can use ESA funds for a reading tutor. A military family in Pensacola can enroll their child in a private school without worrying about fluctuating income eligibility.
In short: Florida put parents in the driver’s seat. And families wasted no time seizing the opportunity.
- Over half a million students are enrolled in scholarship programs as of early 2025.
- More than 32,000 students left traditional public schools in the first year of universal eligibility to attend private or home schools using scholarships.
- Thousands of families tapped into the new transportation stipend to exercise open enrollment options.
For many, this was nothing short of life-changing.
Where the System is Breaking Down
And yet—beneath the headline numbers lies a more complicated reality. The law is strong, but implementation has been uneven. Parents have the right on paper, but exercising that right can feel like running an obstacle course. The barriers fall into three categories:
1. Payment Delays and Bureaucratic Friction
The state relies on Scholarship Funding Organizations (SFOs) like Step Up for Students to process applications, manage accounts, and distribute payments. But in both the 2023–24 and 2024–25 school years, these groups struggled to keep up.
Parents reported weeks or even months-long delays in receiving reimbursements for tutoring, therapies, and curriculum purchases. Private schools reported late tuition payments, putting them in financial limbo. Therapists turned families away because reimbursements were too unpredictable.
In fact, a 2025 operational audit confirmed what parents were saying: Step Up for Students “did not timely process” payments, leaving families caught in the middle. For a program serving hundreds of thousands of students, those delays aren’t just a nuisance—they’re a deal breaker.
2. Transportation: The Hidden Barrier
School choice means little if you can’t physically get your child to the school of your choice. Florida lawmakers recognized this by creating a $750 transportation stipend. But it comes with two glaring flaws:
- It’s capped per household, not per student. A family with three children gets the same stipend as a family with one.
- It stops at 8th grade—high schoolers are excluded.
Add to that the reality of Florida’s sprawling geography and rising gas prices, and $750 doesn’t come close to covering real costs for many families. Without stronger transportation support, choice risks becoming a privilege for those who can afford the commute.
3. District-Level Gatekeeping
Even with universal eligibility, many families still want to stay within public schools but outside their assigned zone. Florida’s Controlled Open Enrollment law requires districts to post school capacities, accept out-of-zone students where space exists, and use fair lotteries and appeals.
But in practice, some districts quietly underreport capacity, open application windows for only a few days, or drag their feet on paperwork. Parents often don’t even know their rights under the law.
And then there’s extracurriculars. By statute, open-enrolled students should have immediate access to sports and clubs. Yet families continue to report districts sidelining their kids from teams, hoping to discourage transfers.
These are not minor glitches—they’re deliberate barriers erected to preserve the old system.
The Solutions Florida Needs
Florida’s lawmakers accomplished something extraordinary in passing universal school choice. But a law without enforcement is a broken promise. To secure the revolution they started, here’s what Florida must do next.
1. Put Teeth in ESA Payment Standards
It’s not enough to authorize scholarships; they must function like clockwork. Parents should not have to chase down reimbursements for months or wonder if tuition will be paid on time.
Florida should impose clear service-level standards on SFOs:
- 95% of tuition invoices paid within 10 business days.
- Reimbursements processed within 15 business days.
- Public dashboards showing average payment times and backlogs.
If SFOs can’t meet these standards, families should have a clear avenue to escalate complaints directly to the Department of Education. Without accountability, the bottlenecks will only grow worse.
2. Fix Transportation Gaps
Transportation is the Achilles’ heel of choice. Lawmakers can fix it by:
- Making the stipend per-student, not per-household.
- Extending eligibility through 12th grade, not cutting off at middle school.
- Indexing the stipend to mileage rates or inflation so it keeps pace with costs.
- Allowing direct-pay partnerships with school districts, rideshares, or micro-transit providers to stretch every dollar further.
Parents shouldn’t have to choose between gas money and groceries to give their child a better education.
3. Enforce Open Enrollment
Controlled Open Enrollment is already law. The problem is enforcement. Here’s how to fix it:
- Require districts to use a uniform statewide calendar for open enrollment windows.
- Mandate audited capacity reports so districts can’t fudge numbers.
- Create a DOE complaint portal with 30-day resolution timelines for families denied transfers.
- Publish transfer and appeal outcomes quarterly for public accountability.
The law is clear: if a school has seats, parents have a right to apply. Enforcement should make that more than a suggestion.
4. Streamline Curriculum Transparency
Florida’s push for curriculum transparency—requiring districts to post instructional materials and allow objections—was a win for parental rights. But it’s also become a bureaucratic mess. Districts are drowning in paperwork, and teachers fear retaliation for even assigning mainstream books.
The solution isn’t to roll back transparency, but to modernize it. Every district should maintain a real-time, searchable online catalog of materials with a one-click opt-out feature. Parents shouldn’t have to attend a three-hour board meeting to exercise their rights.
5. Protect Teachers and Academic Freedom
Universal choice doesn’t just empower parents—it should empower teachers too. Right now, confusion around “what’s allowed” has created a chilling effect in classrooms. Teachers need clear, viewpoint-neutral protections:
- No retaliation for teaching state-approved standards in good faith.
- Transparent review timelines for challenged materials.
- Due process for educators accused of policy violations.
Choice should create space for innovation, not silence the very educators tasked with delivering it.
6. Increase Transparency for Voucher Schools
Critics of the scholarship program argue that private schools accepting public dollars aren’t transparent enough. They have a point. While accountability shouldn’t mean turning private schools into government clones, parents deserve basic information:
- Accreditation status.
- Teacher qualifications.
- Fiscal audits.
- Student outcomes measured by norm-referenced tests or agreed-upon metrics.
Publishing this information in plain-English profiles would strengthen confidence in the system and silence critics who claim choice lacks oversight.
7. Protect Special-Needs Families
Finally, the most vulnerable families often face the steepest barriers. Parents of children with disabilities report providers turning them away because ESA payments are unreliable. Florida should require SFOs to offer direct-pay pipelines to therapy providers, with invoices processed within 15 days. A “continuity of care” waiver could ensure no child loses services due to administrative delays.
Why Fixing These Problems Matters
Some may ask: Why not let the system shake itself out? Why rush to pile on more reforms?
Because every barrier we leave in place is a family denied the education they were promised. A scholarship delayed is a scholarship denied. A school with phantom “no capacity” is a door unfairly closed. A stipend that doesn’t cover costs is choice in name only.
Florida proved to the nation that bold school choice is possible. But if we let bureaucracy, bad actors, or inertia undermine it, the backlash will come just as quickly. The enemies of educational freedom are watching closely, eager to point out every flaw as proof the system doesn’t work.
The best defense? Make it work.
A Revolution Worth Protecting
Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature made history with the largest school choice expansion in America. They gave families more power over education than any state before. They did the hard part—breaking the monopoly and declaring that parents, not systems, come first.
But now the job is to finish what they started. That means holding SFOs accountable for timely payments. Fixing transportation gaps so families can actually reach the schools they choose. Enforcing open enrollment with real teeth. Streamlining transparency without drowning teachers in paperwork. Protecting academic freedom. Demanding light-touch accountability for voucher schools. And ensuring that special-needs families never fall through the cracks.
Florida has already built the strongest foundation for school choice in the nation. Now it must refine, enforce, and improve. If lawmakers and the Governor act with the same boldness in implementation that they showed in passing HB 1, Florida will not just lead the nation in school choice—it will become the gold standard for how to do it right.
The revolution is here. Let’s make sure it works.
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