TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — More than 100,000 Florida students are enrolled in the state’s main private school voucher program.
Step Up for Students, the largest organization that administers the program, said enrollment hit 100,238 on Thursday.
Jon East, a spokesman for Step Up, said the target enrollment for the coming school year is 102,000 and that the group expects to hit that number in the next few days.
Florida’s tax credit scholarship program is the state’s largest private school voucher program. It’s used primarily by low-income families and most families send their children to religious schools. Most of the children who receive the vouchers are black or Hispanic.
The vouchers are funded by corporations, which in turn receive tax credits. The law creating the program was first approved in 2001 under then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
