Exposing an Error‐Filled Editorial against Educational Choice
Over the weekend, Florida’s Sun‐Sentinel editorialized against Florida’s scholarship tax credit law. But, as I detail at Education Next today, the editorial was rife with errors, distortions, and omissions of crucial context. Here’s just one example of many:
Rather than put the scholarship tax credit law in the context of Florida’s overall education spending, the Sun‐Sentinel compares it to… Iowa.
“No state has a bigger voucher [sic] system. Last year, Florida spent $286 million on just 2.7 percent of all students. Iowa spent $13.5 million on 2.6 percent of its students.”
Setting aside the fact that the state of Florida did not “spend” even one red penny on the scholarships, this comparison is misleading. Do the editors at the Sun‐Sentinel really believe that Iowa has as many students as Florida? If so, why haven’t they decried the fact that Florida spends more than $25 billion on its public schools while Iowa spends barely $5 billion? Perhaps because Florida has more than five times the number of students?
Comparing apples to apples, fewer than 10,500 students received tax‐credit scholarships in Iowa last year compared to more than 69,000 in Florida. And while the tax‐credit scholarships are larger in Florida than Iowa – about $4,660 on average versus about $1,090 on average – they are dwarfed by the more than $10,000 per pupil spent on average at Florida public schools.
The Sun‐Sentinel owes its readers and the public a full and detailed retraction.
