Appeals Court Dismisses Legal Challenge to Florida Tax Credit Scholarship

On August 16, a panel of three judges unanimously dismissed the lawsuit McCall v. Scott, which was originally filed in 2014. The suit alleges that the Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship Program violates the Florida Constitution.
 
Declaring, “Indeed, Appellants failed to allege any concrete harm whatsoever,” the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld an earlier decision by the Circuit Court that found the Florida Education Association and other plaintiffs lacked standing in the case. Additionally, the plaintiffs could not show that the program harms public school funding or quality of education.
 
Through FTC scholarships, economically disadvantaged families and children have access to educational choices that would otherwise be unattainable. Since enacted by the Florida Legislature in 2001, the FTC Scholarship Program has been providing hope and opportunity to thousands of students from low-income households. During the 2015-2016 school year, Florida's Catholic schools served 13,369 students in the program, which represents 15.6% of the 85,539 students attending Catholic schools in our state.
 
The FCCB supports the FTC program as a proven method of contributing to the common good and the education of all Florida students. As such, we applaud the court’s dismissal and will continue to carefully monitor developments in the case. The Florida Education Association says it has yet to decide whether it will appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court.