Blue-state governors weighing whether to accept the federal government's offer of billions in school choice funding should look closely at Florida's experience. The Sunshine State's universal voucher program, now costing taxpayers more than $4 billion annually, has become a case study in what happens when accountability is traded for a political sound bite.
Florida state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat who represents District 17, has watched the program expand from a modest 1990s initiative into a sprawling entitlement with virtually no guardrails. In 2023, the legislature removed income caps, making vouchers available to nearly every school-aged child. That decision, Smith argues, opened the door to widespread waste and fraud.
No accounting for billions
The program lacks basic oversight. There is no reliable data on which children receive funds, no requirement that private schools hire qualified teachers, and no standardized testing to measure student progress. Smith notes that Florida could not account for 30,000 children or $270 million in associated spending. Cost overruns have repeatedly blown past projections, forcing the state to transfer $118 million into education coffers and backfill $47 million to school districts after scholarship organizations were overpaid.
Fraud has flourished in this environment. One private school accepted vouchers for students living 130 miles away. Multiple parents have been arrested for gaming the system. In 2025, a Florida man was indicted for allegedly creating fictitious children to scam Arizona's voucher program, demonstrating that abuse can cross state lines.
Academic outcomes suffer
The promised academic benefits have not materialized. While Florida lacks comparative data because voucher students are exempt from state exams, research from Louisiana, Ohio, and Indiana shows voucher students often perform worse than their public school peers. Education researcher Josh Cowen has compared the learning loss to that seen after Hurricane Katrina.
Homeschooling, which is also subsidized by vouchers, raises similar concerns. There is no apples-to-apples evidence that homeschooled students achieve better outcomes, and no published graduation rates exist to track their progress.
A warning for other states
Smith's message to governors is blunt: Do not accept a single federal voucher dollar without demanding real accountability. The federal tax credit voucher scheme, he warns, will only deepen these problems at a greater cost to taxpayers.
The lesson from Florida and other universal voucher states is clear: when public funds flow to unaccountable private interests, both children and taxpayers lose. Smith urges lawmakers to reject this unregulated approach and insist on transparency for every dollar spent on private education.
