Why Florida Needs to Act Now to Save School Choice Programs

In recent years the citizens and
elected offi cials of Florida have
implemented several school-choice
programs, to wit: the Voluntary
Pre-kindergarten Education Program
(“VPK”), the John M. McKay
Scholarships for Students with Disabilities
Program (“McKay”), the
Corporate Income Tax Credit
Scholarship Program (“CTC”),
the Florida Bright Futures
Scholarship Program (“Bright
Futures”), and the Opportunity
Scholarship Program (“OSP”).
In the 2005-06 school year,
more than 264,000 children
were served by the VPK, McKay,
CSP, and Bright Futures
programs.1

The First District Court of
Appeal in 2004 and the Supreme
Court of Florida in 2006 ruled that
the OSP was unconstitutional. This
article discusses the vulnerability
of the McKay and CTC programs
to legal challenge based on those
decisions.