BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Union County School District’s finance director told the school board that 197 students have left district schools during the current year, while 140 have come on board, resulting in a net loss of 57 since the beginning of the school year.
Renee Prevatt estimated that, based on the state’s unweighted FTE reimbursement rate of $8,987.67 per student, the net loss of 57 undergraduates cost the district up to $512,297 in funding.
The finance director estimated that of the 197 students who left district schools over the current year, 113 went to other public-school districts, 63 went into home schools, and 20 went into adult education.
Other counties losing students
Prevatt added that other Florida school districts have experienced similar student losses over the year.
“(Lake County is) estimating close to 1,600 students have been lost this fiscal year, and they’re planning for another 1,500 students to be lost next year,” she said. “Columbia County, they’ve lost approximately 3.28% this year, planning for another 3.1% to exit and leave their district next year. And then Levy County is at 1.25% (for this year) and 1.33% for the next year.”
Superintendent Mike Ripplinger added that based on a recent meeting with officials from other school districts, 47 of the state’s approximately 67 public school systems lost students during the school year.
“That’s two-thirds of your counties,” he said, “from small counties like ours to large counties like Lake County and others. So, the trend is not unique to one geographical area.”
Economic incentives
Prevatt and Ripplinger blamed the student losses on Florida’s Personalized Education Program and Family Empowerment Scholarships.
The state’s Personalized Education Program is a scholarship that funds educational savings accounts for homeschool parents. It reimburses them for money they spend on their children’s education, up to around $8,500 per student, depending on grade level.
The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options provides around $8,000 a year to families of private school students.
Ripplinger said parents have always had alternatives to public education. However, they now have an economic incentive to take advantage of those options.
“So, when a student or a parent can now receive nearly $8,500 a year to go to a private school or to homeschool or do things such as that—” he said. “We’ve always had students in homeschool. We’ve always had students that have gone to private schools both locally and in the area. Now, with the changes that have occurred over the last year, year-and-a-half, now, there’s an economic incentive to go in that direction.”
Making homeschoolers pay
The superintendent added that some homeschoolers have returned to Union County public schools this year, particularly 12th-graders who wanted to experience the traditional senior year and walk with their class at graduation.
He also said the district is adjusting to homeschooled students participating in public school activities, like clubs and sports.
Ripplinger said that the district will charge homeschool parents whose students participate in his district’s extracurricular activities, like sports, beginning next year.
Now, the state reimburses the parents of students in the Personalized Education Program for costs like private music lessons or dance studios.
The superintendent said that next school year, the district would invoice the parents of PEP students in the same way for participating in district activities, with the parents receiving a reimbursement from the state.
“Currently, the homeschool students or the PEP students that we’re collecting nothing off of, then they can take advantage of that, and there is no skin in the game, so to speak,” he said.
“So, putting something into place to where if all they do is they come and they play a sport, okay, well that’s great, that’s the parents’ choice, I support that,” Ripplinger continued. “But you’re going to have to pay X fee to help pay for that supplement that we’re paying for the coach, and those types of things. That’s only fair. And they should know that because they know as a member of the PEP program, they have reimbursements. So, we give them the invoice, they pay for the class or whatever it is, and they can turn that invoice in, and they get reimbursements from the state as long as those are allowable expenses.”
