Tallahassee, FL – A new analysis released today by Teach Florida, a subsidiary of TeachCoalition, and Ben Scafidi, a professor at Kennesaw State University and a Friedman Fellow with EdChoice, reveals a growing funding disparity between Florida public school students and students who receive state-funded scholarships to attend nonpublic schools, with scholarship students receiving $3,738 less per child each year on average.
The report, The $3,738 Scholarship Gap: Measuring the Scholarship Funding Shortfall in Florida, finds that while Florida’s scholarship programs are designed to provide proportional funding, scholarship students are excluded from several major local education revenue streams that have grown sharply in recent years.
According to the study, in the 2023 to 2024 school year, public school students received an average of $12,115 per pupil in combined state and local funding, while scholarship students received an average award of $8,377. The difference is driven primarily by local operating and capital revenues that are raised by taxpayers but not shared with scholarship students.
Sydney Altfield, National CEO of Teach Coalition, said:
“Florida has led the nation in expanding educational choice, but this study makes clear that funding policy has not kept up with reality. As local education revenues continue to grow, excluding scholarship students from those dollars creates a widening gap that deserves serious, long-term attention.”
Ben Scafidi, Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University, said:
“This gap is not about student need or school quality. It is the result of how local education revenues are structured and distributed. When large and fast-growing revenue streams are reserved for only one group of students, inequities are inevitable and they compound overtime.”
Danny Aqua, Director of Special Projects for Teach Coalition, said:
“Florida has made historic progress expanding educational choice, but this analysis shows that proportional funding has not kept pace with rapidly rising local revenues. This gap was not created intentionally, but it is now significant, measurable, and growing.”
Gabriel Aaronson, Director for Policy and Research at Teach Coalition, said:
“This study is about fairness and long-term sustainability, not short-term budget pressures. If local funding continues to grow while scholarship students remain excluded, the gap will widen every year. The sooner the state begins planning, the easier it will be to address.”
Between 2018 and 2024,local school tax revenues in Florida per student increased by 52percent, driven by rising property values and voter-approved education infrastructure taxes. Over the same period, the average scholarship amount increased by only 24 percent, roughly keeping up with inflation but falling far behind local revenue growth. If property values continue to rise, this gap is projected to grow even wider.
The report identifies a long-term structural issue in how local education dollars are allocated. As local revenues grow, scholarship students are increasingly left out of funding streams available to their public school peers. It points to the need for policymakers to examine and fix the education funding formula so state and local dollars are distributed more fairly. Without action, the funding gap between scholarship students and public school students will continue to widen.
The analysis suggests potential policy approaches modeled on Florida’s phased rollout of capital funding for charter schools, including gradual implementation and hold harmless provisions to ensure that no school system loses funding in the process. The report is intended to inform a broader conversation about the future of education funding in Florida as the state continues to balance accountability, affordability, and educational choice.