Scholarship Program Expansion Passes Final Committee in Senate

One of the FCCB's key legislative priorities for the 2021 Legislative Session is eliminating the prior-public-school attendance requirement in the Family Empowerment Scholarship and the McKay Scholarship while also continuing to promote educational pluralism and parental empowerment. SB 48 (Diaz) addresses both of these issues and is strongly supported by the FCCB. The bill streamlines and consolidates Florida's five K-12 scholarships into two programs, removes all existing requirements for students to be enrolled in a public school before participating in a scholarship program, and gives parents greater flexibility as to how they use scholarship funds to meet the particular needs of their students' education. You can read more about the measure on the  FCCB Education Policy Team blog,  Education and the Common Good.

Mike Juhas (pictured above), superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, offered testimony in support of SB 48 at this week's meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee.The bill was reported favorably by the committee (11-8) and goes next to the full Senate.