"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead
Educating Florida’s Future to host its first Town Hall on April 30!
Thanks to all who attended the first Town Hall hosted by Educating Florida’s Future on April 30. We appreciate your interest and dedication to supporting Florida’s public schools. We enjoyed a lively session and good questions from participants.
Several attendees at the Town Hall expressed concerns about funding for PreK-12 education, which has not kept pace with inflation.
This impacts funding available for important programs, services and staffing and should be a top priority for elected officials.
When costs increase and education funding doesn’t keep pace, it has the same impact as a budget cut.
Because the state legislature has not yet passed a budget for next year – which they are required by law to do by July 1 –we encourage you to email or call your elected legislators, especially those who serve on the state’s education committees, to let them know you support public schools and want them funded adequately.
It’s important to remind them that there must be transparency and accountability for every tax dollar spent on education.
A state auditor’s report last fall uncovered millions of unaccounted for tax dollars spent on universal school vouchers.
Topics to be covered include:
- Why Educating Florida's Future?
- Third grade reading proficiency
- Benefits of full-day early childhood education for 3- and 4-year-olds
- State and local tax funding for public schools and universal school vouchers
- Accountability and transparency to all tax payers for PreK-12 expenditures
- Expansion of charter schools through Schools for Hope
- School enrollment trends and discussion of consolidating schools
Other priorities of EFF include:
- Workforce and career education that meets industry needs
- Recruiting and retaining our best and brightest teachers
- Financial and academic accountability for all tax dollars spent on education
Use this link to sign up for this informative session on April 30. We’ll share what we’re working on and hear from you about your priorities!
When reaching out to your elected officials by email or phone, here are some issues you may want to touch on.
1. Get Florida's financial house in order.
Follow the Auditor General’s recommendations to get proper accounting in hand for all tax dollars spent on education. The report states $270 million, as well as 30,000 students, cannot be accounted for on any given day.
- Recommendation: Separate the $5.5 billion spent on school vouchers from the state's $25 billion PreK-12 budget, which would improve accountability AND transparency in government spending.
- Recommendation: Require the FLDOE to verify a student's place of learning BEFORE paying out tax dollars for vouchers.
Florida is facing a deficit. Unlimited school vouchers without any income guidelines, which increased voucher spending from $1 billion to $5.5 billion since 2023, is a primary reason. The state cannot afford it.
2. Fund public schools so they can thrive.
Florida is facing a deficit. Unlimited school vouchers without any income guidelines, which increased voucher spending from $1 billion to $5.5 billion since 2023, is a primary reason. The state cannot afford it.
To counter 20 years of sub-inflation funding, the PreK-12 public education budget should be increased by 2 percent above the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for at least five years to catch up due to previous underfunding.
3. Ensure all students funded with tax dollars are learning.
Require all students who receive state tax dollars for K-12 education to take the state’s K-12 education assessment.
The assessment measures civics, reading, math, writing and science. Having all students take the test would allow for real, comparable academic accountability for tax dollars spent to educate students outside of public schools.
While voucher-funded students are required to take one of 28 varied assessment tests, the independent research organization tasked with evaluating the results holds it is not valid to compare other tests with the results of the state assessments.
We value your input and encourage you to contact EFF with your ideas and concerns. We can be reached at contactus@educatingflorida.org.
To request a Town Hall through Educating Florida’s Future:
- We request at least one partner organization to support each scheduled Town Hall.
- Partner organization(s) will serve as host and secure an appropriate-sized venue with necessary audio/visual equipment.
- Partner organization(s) will promote the Town Hall on social media and through other communication platforms.
- Partner organization(s) will coordinate with EFF to develop an agenda and presentation to guide discussion at the Town Hall.
- Partner organization(s) will assist with distributing promotional materials and tracking registrations for the event.
Please use this form to request a Town Hall in your community facilitated by Educating Florida’s Future. We look forward to hearing from you!
“Strong public education affects us all, impacting national security, economic prosperity and social vitality. Excellence across our public schools is both possible and imperative. We all have a stake in supporting and adequately funding our public schools to achieve the excellence possible for a bright future ahead.”
-– Laura Hine, executive director, Educating Florida’s Future
Why Your Voice Matters in Florida’s Schools
PreK-12 Education is a state-lead effort,bound to state law, policy, rules and funding.
This means that Florida’s legislature, governor and state Board of Education play a significant role in shaping our schools.
If possible, consider a trip to Tallahassee and ask to meet with your elected state Senators or Representatives.
Or go to an Education Committee meeting and submit a request to speak of the issues most important to you.
Giving public testimony – either written or in person – is the most effective way to be heard on the issues that matter most in public education in Florida.
A few of these individuals are educators, and some have or had children attending Florida’s public schools.
But the majority have little recent personal experience with our schools.
Therefore what these elected and appointed leaders hear from you their constituents – is extremely important.
We all pay for our schools through our taxes. What we think about current legislation, funding, leadership and policy holds weight with the decision makers.
Your local school board also matters and can make a difference If you have an issue or question about your child’s day-to-day experience, learning, operation of the school district and choices around funding, the best approach is to contact the local school board members.
Many big-picture issues that impact education statewide primary funding and policy – are determined in Tallahassee, where the decision-making process is in the hands of your elected legislators.
They need to hear from you Phone calls count. Emails count. Chain or auto-emails are less effective; a succinct personal email stating your opinion is far more effective.
If possible, consider a trip to Tallahassee and ask to meet with your elected state Senators or Representatives.
Or go to an Education Committee meeting and submit a request to speak of the issues most important to you.
Giving public testimony – either written or in person is the most effective way to be heard on the issues that matter most in public education in Florida.
State-level structure – Who should I contact?
Legislative committees
The Florida State Legislature, made up of the Florida Senate and Florida House of Representatives, appropriates tax dollars and passes laws on myriad issues in the state.
The Florida Senate and House of Representatives each have numerous committees, several of which focus on education.
Each elected representative is assigned to several committees. Bills that become law (including those affecting PreK-12 education) most often come through committees first, then go to the floor for a vote by the whole body (Senate or House).
Below are links to the full committee lists and contact information for education-related committee members. You can find other member’s contact information elsewhere online.
To contact education committees:
- House Budget Committee (all funding)
- House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee (K12 funding and much more)
- House Student Academic Success Subcommittee
- House Education Administration Subcommittee
- Senate Appropriations Committee (all funding)
- Senate Appropriations Committee on PreK-12 Education (K12 funding and much more)
- Senate Education PreK-12 Committee
- List of all Florida Senate Committees
- List of all Florida House Committees
You can also communicate with the Speaker of the House and the Senate President as well. They negotiate between their offices and the governor’s office to yield the final result.
State Board of Education
The State Board of Education is a board of seven members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Florida Senate that oversees the Commissioner of Education and therefore Florida’s Department of Education.
They have significant influence on education funding and policy and want to hear from the public on these matters.
State-level structure – Who should I contact?
Legislative committees
The Florida State Legislature, made up of the Florida Senate and Florida House of Representatives, appropriates tax dollars and passes laws on myriad issues in the state.
The Florida Senate and House of Representatives each have numerous committees, several of which focus on education.
Each elected representative is assigned to several committees. Bills that become law (including those affecting PreK-12 education) most often come through committees first, then go to the floor for a vote by the whole body (Senate or House).
Below are links to the full committee lists and contact information for education-related committee members. You can find other member’s contact information elsewhere online.
To contact education committees:
- House Budget Committee (all funding)
- House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee (K12 funding and much more)
- House Student Academic Success Subcommittee
- House Education Administration Subcommittee
- Senate Appropriations Committee (all funding)
- Senate Appropriations Committee on PreK-12 Education (K12 funding and much more)
- Senate Education PreK-12 Committee
- List of all Florida Senate Committees
- List of all Florida House Committees
You can also communicate with the Speaker of the House and the Senate President as well. They negotiate between their offices and the governor’s office to yield the final result.
State Board of Education
The State Board of Education is a board of seven members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Florida Senate that oversees the Commissioner of Education and therefore Florida’s Department of Education.
They have significant influence on education funding and policy and want to hear from the public on these matters.
What should I contact them about?
You can always let those who govern PreK-12 education in Florida know that you care about your schools and how your tax dollars are spent. You can express that you want your public schools funded appropriately and that any public tax dollars going toward PreK-12 education (public or nonpublic) should require academic and financial accountability.
You also can invite your representatives to attend meaningful and worthwhile events and activities at your local schools so that they have an opportunity to see first-hand and engage in your school’s programs.
In the 2026 Florida Legislative session, numerous education-related bills have been filed. Although Educating Florida’s Future does not report on and update the status of every education-related bill, we will update our followers about the priority bills listed below.
We encourage you to write/call/speak about them and any other bills that are important to you. An organization that posts weekly updates on current education-related legislation is the Florida School Boards Association.
Get our financial house in order
SB318 has passed the Florida Senate unanimously and is now being considered in the House.
This bill is in response to the Auditor General’s harsh criticism of the universal voucher program: “Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”
To learn more, you can watch the presentation given to the Senate Pre-K Appropriations Committee on the audit here.
This bill will separate voucher funding from the general public school fund, mandate annual audits by the Auditor General, create fixed application periods for vouchers, and require the state to know where students are being educated prior to approving funding.
EFF recommends that you contact the Chairs, Vice Chairs and committee members of the committees listed below, along with any of your local house members, and encourage them to support a companion bill in the House.
If they are responsible for the state’s budget, they should want to support stronger financial oversight.
Protect Our Classrooms, Not the Corporations
In 2017 the Florida legislature passed the first “Schools of Hope” law establishing that a charter company pre-approved by the state could open a school within 5 miles of a “persistently low performing public school,” which was defined as a school with a “D” or “F” grade in three of the previous five years.
While charter schools typically fall under local school board approval and review, these schools are exempt from local review.
Since 2017, 12 of these schools have opened in the state of Florida.
In the final hours of the extended 2025 legislative session, legislators approved a significant expansion of the Schools of Hope program.
This expansion redefined “persistently low performing” to the point where it now includes “A” or “B” rated schools.
It also established that charter schools can claim “vacant or under-used space” in any public school, setting up their programs in public school buildings without paying rent or operational expenses.
Local school districts would be forced to pay for the charter school’s utilities, building maintenance, janitorial services, school lunches and student transportation.
The public and charter schools would be co-mingled, creating a host of operational, security and social difficulties unnecessarily to our school campuses.
This issue has prompted bills to be filed by State Legislators and is on the agenda for rulemaking by the State Board of Education.
Legislature:
SB 424 and its House companion HB 6023 seek to delete the new provisions that require school districts to provide this space at no cost.
These bills are filled and referred to the below committees. EFF recommends that you write to the Chairs, Vice Chairs and members of the referred committees and ask them to hear the bill and engage in public discussion on this issue.
State Board of Education:
At their February 20, 2026, meeting being held in Key West, the board will vote on current proposed rules regarding Schools of Hope.
You can submit comments to the agency until the meeting commences.
EFF recommends you contact members of the State Board of Education and encourage them to support fully reversing the June 2025 expansion of the Schools of Hope program.
The program was operating as intended prior to the 2025 changes.
State Board of Education:
At their February 20, 2026, meeting being held in Key West, the board will vote on current proposed rules regarding Schools of Hope. You can submit comments to the agency until the meeting commences.
EFF recommends you contact members of the State Board of Education and encourage them to support fully reversing the June 2025 expansion of the Schools of Hope program. The program was operating as intended prior to the 2025 changes.
For both entities:
Short of reversal, EFF supports the Florida School Boards Association platform which asks that they reform Schools of Hope to ensure co-location requirements neither jeopardize safety and security nor create unfunded operational or administrative burdens for school districts. They should:
- Refine eligibility criteria, so they accurately identify underperforming schools;
- Update facility utilization metrics to reflect current classroom and building use, instructional models, and student enrollment patterns;
- Preserve the authority of locally elected school boards to manage district property and resources in fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities;
- Clarify statutory definitions to provide consistent guidance for both districts and charter operators.
