Florida releases nearly $60M to cover missing, frozen voucher funds

Tampa Bay Times | By Jeffrey S. Solochek | November 6, 2025

The state ran out of money for the program during the last school year.

Florida government officials hope nearly $60 million in payments to families and schools will put to bed the financial troubles the state faced last year in its education voucher program.

But lawmakers stressed Wednesday that fixing the underlying situation has yet to occur, as some fundamental changes are needed in the way the state and its scholarship funding organizations do business.

“It is my sincere hope that through the work of this subcommittee, together we can explore ways to improve the implementation and administration of our state scholarship programs to ensure that what happened in fiscal year 2024-25 is not repeated going forward,” said Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, chairperson of the House PreK-12 Budget subcommittee.

Her panel has held three hearings in recent weeks to discuss concerns with the voucher program. Last year, the House rejected Senate efforts to reform the funding model that is now under scrutiny.

The problems that arose last year centered on two key issues.

First, school districts faced a $47 million shortfall in state funding as students who claimed voucher awards attended public schools. Second, about 22,000 voucher recipients had their accounts frozen after being identified as being enrolled in public education.

“The Department (of Education) has come to us, the Legislature, the appropriators, to help resolve those issues because there were no funds left in the (Florida Education Finance Program) for fiscal 2024-25,” Persons-Mulicka told her subcommittee.

The fix now appears to be in hand, she said.

The department and scholarship funding organizations Step Up for Students and AAA spent months determining which students had their accounts improperly frozen, she said. On Oct. 29, $16.9 million was released to the organizations for students who were owed money.

As of Wednesday, almost all the money had been distributed to about 3,700 of those initially identified 22,000 children, Persons-Mulicka said.

“For those families and for those schools that accept scholarship funds,” she said, “I encourage you to all check your scholarship accounts as of today.”

For the school districts, she added, the Legislature advanced a $47 million budget amendment on Wednesday.

“This amount will be released to school districts to make them whole for fiscal year 2024-25,” Persons-Mulicka said.

She said the department informed districts that the money should come next week.

After announcing the funding fixes, the subcommittee held a lengthy discussion about the continuing concerns regarding how students are identified so their vouchers can be properly assigned. It also discussed problems families have raised regarding how they get reimbursed for their voucher-related expenses, an issue that has caused complaints for a couple of years but blossomed as the program has expanded.