This report analyzes whether Florida scholarship students are receiving their proportional share of K–12 education funding compared to public school students. It examines how funding is calculated for both groups and quantifies the resulting funding gap.
Florida’s scholarship programs (FTC, FES-EO, FES-UA) are designed to provide proportional funding to scholarship students who generally attend nonpublic or home school. Scholarship funding is tied to the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) formula.
However, scholarship students do not receive funding from major local revenue sources, including: Capital Outlay Millage (up to 1.75 mills); Voter-Approved Operating Millage (up to 1.0 mill); Local sales surtaxes for education infrastructure (up to 1.5%); and Developer Impact Fees.
In the 2023–2024 school year, public school districts received: $11.93 billion in state operating revenues ($4,186 per pupil); $14.43 billion in local operating revenues ($5,063 per pupil); and $7.30 billion in local capital revenues ($2,867 per pupil). These state and local dollars total to a statewide average of $12,115 per public school student. Districts also receive funding from the federal government as well – since that is supposed to be shared equitably with scholarship students, we did not consider federal dollars.
The main findings of this report are:
• The average funding for public school students from state and local sources was $12,115 per pupil
• The average award for scholarship recipients was $8,377 per pupil
• This leaves a funding gap of $3,738 per student in 2023-24
• The funding gap has grown over time, and will likely continue to grow wider in the future
• The state should begin a process to identify policy options to close the funding gap
Read the full report here: https://teachcoalition.org/content/uploads/sites/9/2026/01/FL-Scholarship-Funding-Gap-Report-December-2026_Final-Version.pdf