HB1 A bill in Tallahassee regarding school choice

Several have asked for commentary on House Bill 1 that is under consideration in Tallahassee now. Note that this is a bill. It is not a law. It could possibly be a law in the future but will likely undergo revisions before that happens. Currently Brenda Dickinson and HSLDA are working to change it to get rid of provisions that would negatively impact the parental rights of homeschooling families who choose to use a new option for funding for homeschoolers.

Note that nothing in this bill affects those homeschooling without using a state scholarship. But that doesn't mean that those not using scholarships shouldn't pay attention to this as sometimes these things later impact others.

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Text of HB1

What is HB1? It's a bill about school choice as related to the Family Empowerment Scholarships that would, if made law, expand some of the scholarship programs and make them available to home education families. The text of the bill can be found using the button above.

From what I've heard so far, Brenda Dickinson is working behind the scenes to change this bill. She's the watchdog in Tallahassee for homeschoolers--she and her late husband wrote our original home education laws in the 1980s and she's worked since then to keep our freedoms, occasionally working to update our home education laws or to fix bills before they become laws, in order to keep the freedoms she and her late husband worked so hard to accomplish. If she doesn't like it, it's not good for homeschoolers.

From what I've seen, this is very difficult to read through. On first reading it appears to add additional requirements for homeschoolers. Additional oversight. They call it a "choice navigator." Which doesn't seem like a good thing. But that seems to be for homeschoolers who are being allowed to use forms of the FES scholarships which weren't previously available for home education students.

Currently, the FES:UA (otherwise known as the Gardiner Scholarship) is the only FES scholarship open to home education students. This is a scholarship from the state for students with certain special needs. See here for more information on it and other resources available to homeschooled students with special needs. This bill looks to change this and make other forms of the FES scholarships available to homeschooled children.

For these other FES scholarships, some parts make ineligible private school students who aren't having regular contact and direct contact with the private school teachers--I'm not sure if that will affect umbrella school students, but it sounds like it might. The part about private school students being required to meet with the school's principal or principal's designee to review the school's academic programs and policies, customized educational programs, code of student conduct, and attendance policies before prior to enrollment might have some effect on private school students as well. Brenda Dickinson does look out for the needs of private school students as well as home education students so those using private schools should consider signing up for her newsletter too.

For the FES program as a whole, this bill seems to have some good aspects such as removing some of the waiting period requirements and some might consider them removing family income caps as good (though lower income students are still given priority with the FES scholarships).

For all but the FES:UA, this bill requires testing of all students--either state testing or a norm-referenced test. These would not be the testing that comes with a curriculum, but either testing done at a public school (such as the B.E.S.T. testing now done or in the past it would have been the FSA or before that the FCAT) or formal achievement testing. Home education parents would have to provide educational records and the testing results to a "choice navigator" and discuss the student's academic and progress of the student with that person. The bill doesn't describe how this choice navigator is selected and does not say that the parent has any right in choosing this person. That means that the choice navigator could be someone who is not homeschooling friendly. And then it seems that the choice navigator gets a say in the educational options chosen for that student. And that would seem to remove the right of a parent to direct a home education student's education as far as choosing curriculum or learning programs. That seems to me to be the worst part of this bill.

The student's test scores are then reported (whether a home education student or a private school student) to a university by the choice navigator or school. They say the results will be kept anonymous though.

The bill specifically limits some funding of home education students to 10,000 students though says that number may increase by 20,000 each year. I didn't see a limit on the number of private school students, though I might have missed it--the bill is quite long and very repetitive.

I highly recommend subscribing to Brenda Dickinson's website at FLHEF.org to get updates from her about this or other matters. She rarely emails, but when she does see a need for action (such as calling legislators), being on her email list is the fastest way to be in the know. https://www.flhef.org/newsletter/

Subscribing to HSLDA.org is another option for information but they email a lot more and may be a bit more dramatic about issues.

Cheryl Trzasko

Some other sources to look at include
Flagler Live

FL House of Representatives Staff Analysis