In her Sept. 13 column (“Are we headed toward privatizing education in Florida?”), June S. Neal writes that “As of Aug. 18, 2023, school vouchers, officially the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, siphoned off 407,000 students from our public schools while the rest of the 430,000 applications were being reviewed and more were coming in.” She misunderstands the numbers.

First, school vouchers are not just officially the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program or FTC. They also include the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO) and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA).

Next, 407,000 students have not been “siphoned” from public schools. Those 407,000 students applied for and were found eligible to receive an education choice scholarship. However, not all of them will use the scholarship and therefore will be funded. Every year there are more awarded scholarships than are enrolled or funded.

So far for the 2023-24 school year, Step Up For Students, which administers about 99% of all state scholarships, has received applications from 353,425 students to the FTC and FES-EO programs. Step Up has awarded scholarships to 340,731 students under these programs. It has received 79,527 FES-UA applications and awarded 72,049.

So far, 242,929 students have enrolled in 2,098 private schools under FTC and FES-EO (FES-UA students are not required to be enrolled full time in a school). Of the 242,929 enrolled FTC/EO students, 122,895 are new to the programs.  Of the 122,895 new students, only 16,096 (13%) previously attended public schools the prior year. Of the remaining, 84,505 (69%) were already in private school, and 22,294 (18%) are entering kindergartners.

Scott Kent, St. Petersburg

The writer represents Step Up For Students.

A forceful case

My thanks to both the Sun Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel for publishing this spot-on op-ed by June S. Neal of Delray Beach. In one word, yes — we are headed to precisely that end if our autocrat of a governor has his way.

Thankfully, Ms. Neal, whose own background in journalism is so apparent, is one very prominent and particularly eloquent voice among those many who stand in opposition to our would-be leader of the free world: an ambition that has now played out as a pipe dream at best.

My wife and I count ourselves among the others and we are enormously heartened to have had Ms. Neal make our case so forcefully. Kudos to the author!

Brian Patrick Clarke, Orlando

A shakedown in Tamarac

I applaud the editorial in the South Florida Sun Sentinel about the ethically challenged dealings of Tamarac City Commissioners Marlon Bolton, Kicia Daniel and Morey Wright.

This trio originated the shakedown of Tamarac taxpayers with a cockamamie real estate deal that personally benefits Bolton, his church and his Shaker Village neighbors. Not surprisingly, this “deal” has been vetted, supported and protected by the Tamarac city attorney, the well-traveled Hans Ottinot, whose motto seems to be “no matter how bad, we can always shove it down the taxpayers’ throats.”

And yet, we must still wait for the somnolent Broward County Office of Inspector General to do something, anything, about this blatant misuse of taxpayer funds. It also occurs to me that County Commissioner Michael Udine, who represents Tamarac, is not taking an interest in this controversy. What’s up with that?

Barney Agate, Tamarac

A sad disregard for us

You remember our governor’s glad-handing surgeon general; you know, the anti-vaxxer who has overseen the COVID-related deaths of 77,000+ Floridians; yup, that one. He’s now saying, don’t get the latest vaccine; the one the CDC and FDA say targets the latest COVID variants and is recommended for people aged 6+.

COVID cases are rising again, as is the ignorance of our governor and his “yessirs.” A sad state. A sad state of intellectual affairs. And a sad disregard for our state’s citizens.

Randy Lifshotz, Fort Lauderdale