October 11, 2011

The Walton Family Foundation invests in organizations that expand parental choice in education, especially for low-income families. With a $1.4 million investment in Step Up For Students, more than 50,000 students in Florida will receive a Tax Credit Scholarship to attend a high-quality private school by 2014.

The Tax Credit Scholarship Program is providing a publicly funded choice in education for Florida’s families that are underserved by the traditional public school system. More than 35,000 students currently participate in this program, receiving a $4,011 scholarship to attend one of 1,329 eligible private schools in the state.

The Tax Credit Scholarship Program receives overwhelming bipartisan support from Florida legislators. Revisions expanding the program passed in 2010 with all the Republicans and nearly half of the Democrats in the legislature supporting the effort. Initially, the program passed in 2001 with the support of just one Democrat.

An August 2011 report showed that students that participate in this program are found to make modestly larger gains in reading and math than other low-income students in public schools, even those these students were among the lowest performers in their previous public schools.

By creating broader access to high-quality schools for Florida’s low-income families, Step Up For Students is working to ensure that every family in the state has access to the highest-quality publicly funded education for their child.

More than 5,500 parents, students, educators and community activists marched on the state capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., to rally for an expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. Ultimately, the Legislature gave the scholarship substantial bipartisan backing and voted overwhelmingly to strengthen the program. The video below recaps the rally: