NOTE: This was a long summary and our forum wasn't allowing me to post, so I've broken it into two parts. This is Part 1! (You can find Part 2 here.)
Hello, everyone!
Brenda, Jason, and I all watched the Choice & Innovation Subcommittee meeting, and we thought it might be helpful to provide a summary and some notes about that meeting here.
If you'd like to watch the full (2-hour) meeting for yourself, you can find the replay on the House website here: https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/VideoPlayer.aspx?eventID=9182
Summary of the meeting:
The purpose of this subcommittee meeting was to discuss the implementation of HB1 and to provide some clarity on how the DOE and SFOs have been handling the implementation of HB1 and the challenges they have faced in doing so. The information covered was somewhat basic, however, it did give some insight into how the individual SFOs are approaching their administration of the scholarships, what accountabilities are in place, and what the intents might be moving forward.
The DoE was asked to give a presentation on the implementation of HB1 and of HB3C from the special session in November. Following that, there was a panel discussion involving representatives from the Scholarship Funding Organizations.
There was allowed time at the end of the meeting for visitors to speak, however, the meeting itself ran so long that the Chair ended up only giving each visitor about 30 seconds to 1 minute to speak, and asked them to simply state "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" for HB1. All the visitors (some parents, some educators in private schools or home education communities) were in favor of HB1 and the choices and options it has provided parents.
It became clear in the meeting that many of the representatives on the subcommittee, as well as John Kirtley (who was present as part of the Step Up for Students board), were very in favor of empowering parents and preserving parent choice and freedom to utilize the scholarships as they believe best fits their individual children--but also aware of the need for fiscal responsibility in how those funds are administered. This is the reason that Step Up has interpreted the statutes broadly and allowed so many categories of purchases to fall under "instructional materials." AAA took a very different perspective and seems to be interpreting the statutes very narrowly.
AAA and Step Up will need to agree on a unified purchasing guide for the scholarships by December 31, 2023. The DoE is overseeing this process.
Attendees of the meeting:
Subcommittee members:
Chair: Rizo
Vice-Chair: Michael
Ranking Member: Valdes
Representative Altman
Representative Baker
Representative Bankson
Representative Basabe
Representative Chambliss
Representative Dunkley
Representative Garcia
Representative McClain
Representative Nixon
Representative Persons-Mulicka
Representative Porras
Representative Roach
Representative Stark
Representative Waldron
You can see more info about this subcommittee's members on the House website here: https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Committees/committeesdetail.aspx?CommitteeId=3243
AAA Scholarship Foundation representatives:
Patricia Froebel (Director of Operations for Ability-Based Scholarships at AAA)
Kayla Filipponi (Personalized Education Program and FES-UA Scholarship Processing Specialist at AAA)
Step Up for Students representatives:
John Kirtley (Chairman of SUFS)
Joe Pfountz (Chief Financial Officer at SUFS)
Ruth Rose (Chief Customer Experience Officer at SUFS)
Detailed Notes from the Choice & Innovation Subcommittee (12/13/2023):
(NOTE: These notes are not necessarily completely in order of the video of the meeting. Some may have been grouped/rearranged by topic for clarity.)
The meeting began with a presentation by Adam Emerson from the DoE.
He stated that he is Executive Director for School Choice at the Florida Department of Education
He mentioned that the statutes afford PEP students the "same flexibility as any home education student"
There are currently approximately 92,000 students on the Unique Abilities scholarship.
There are currently 134,031 students on the Educational Options (private school) scholarship, and 4,499 students on the EO transportation scholarship.
There are currently 146,000 students on Florida Tax Credit scholarships.
These scholarship programs we have in Florida are the largest programs of their kind in the nation.
The DoE does have reviews and accountability in place for the SFOs.
There is currently a third SFO that has applied and is being considered for the state of Florida.
Step Up for Students representatives presented some info on measures they took to ensure they were able to adequately manage the administration of scholarships from HB1.
They have increased the number of reimbursement processors from 40 to over 100 (possibly 150, given a comment made later), to handle the increased volume from the expansion due to HB1. They have also increased their EO team from 12 to 25, and have hired 50 new application specialists.
They changed "customer experience" companies prior to the implementation of HB1, because their previous "customer experience" company was struggling to keep up with the current volume, even before the increase. They switched in February 2023 to a new call & chat center for customer support--one which they said is a reputable company that also provides "customer experience" services for AT&T and Amazon. Step Up also scaled their internal customer service department from 70 employees up to 300 employees, including escalation teams and various other functions, in preparation for the new volume of participants they were anticipating from HB1.
From May 2 to September 1, they processed just under a half-million students' applications for scholarships, and 93% of those were processed by July 1st, when HB1 went into effect.
AAA representative Patti Froebel presented some info on measures they took to ensure they were able to adequately manage the administration of scholarships from HB1.
She said they work personally with parents on the phone or via email and that they prioritize this personal experience.
They did implement a software program to handle the applications and increased volume of reimbursements, etc., but their software had bugs, so they allowed paper requests.
They have tutorials, links online, and suggestions to help parents navigate the use of the scholarships
"Everyone answers phones" -- their entire team is hands-on with customers.
They have some issues with their online system they implemented, but they are working on those with an IT team weekly.
Step Up representative John Kirtley spoke about the School Choice options in Florida versus in other states.
He said Florida is wonderful because of the empowerment of parents, and he isn't recommending any changes that reduce parents' flexibility of choice. He spoke in favor of "parents having more empowerment and flexibility of choice."
Compared to Iowa (where Kirtley is from), Florida is much more empowering of parents. (Iowa does not allow reimbursements.) Arizona is closer to Florida in how much they empower parents' choices. Some other states' ESAs are fairley new still. West Virginia has one a few years old that is perhaps more empowering than Florida, but without the balance of fiscal responsibility (they require no credentials for tutors)--not that he recommends this action for Florida. Florida has a careful balance of parent empowerment and fiscal responsbility, which creates a natural tension at times.
To compare scale: W. Virginia has about 60,000 to 70,000 kids on ESAs. Florida has 370,000 kids on ESAs.
Assorted other notes from this part of the meeting:
The DoE confirmed that private schools can be removed from the approved provider list for scholarships if they're found to be noncompliant with the criteria.
The DoE can take 2-3 weeks to vet & verify a student's application before it's approved for funding and sent to the Financial Department to officially allow those funds to be released to that student by the SFOs. Step Up has made their internal processes more efficient and has reduced the time from 9.7 days (average) to 2.5 days (average) for approval time for funds to be released to private schools once all other vetting steps(by the DoE, etc) are complete.
John Kirtley advocated for change that would allow the whole process of vetting/funding to begin sooner in the year so that private schools could get their funds by the start of the actual school year.
AAA spoke further.
Patti Froebel stated that their application process is done carefully to avoid confusing parents by stating they're awarded before AAA knows for sure the student will be approved for funds. (This seemed to be an implied criticism of how Step Up handled their applications.)
She said that sometimes AAA is criticized for delay in releasing funds to schools or parents, when in reality, the reason may be that schools or parents may not have complied with AAA's expressed guidelines by the provided deadlines (shifting responsibility for the delays to the schools and parents, rather than an issue with AAA's processes)
When asked about the delays in private schools receiving funding:
John Kirtley from Step Up explained their internal process and the timelines involved, then said they processed about 290,000 invoices for private schools in Q1, and they processed all but 65, which had some issues they needed to work out. They processed 99.9% of the Q2 invoices. But that less than 1% remaining are real families with real students, and they are still working diligently to get those all fixed. "We will keep working very hard until every single one is fixed.
Patti Froebel from AAA said: "We feel the same way."
Notes are continued in Part 2 post!