{"id":389191,"date":"2026-09-03T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389191\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:30:08","slug":"commentary-look-at-the-whole-picture-of-school-choice-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389191\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Look at the whole picture of school choice \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nathan Hoffman\u2019s response (\u201cSchool choice isn\u2019t to blame for teacher pay. Bureaucracy is.\u201d)<\/a> to teachers\u2019 union president Andrew Spar\u2019s Aug. 30 commentary<\/a> is notable for what it leaves out.<\/p>\n

Hoffman accuses Spar and the teachers\u2019 union of ignoring reality in favor of \u201ca more politically convenient argument\u201d about school choice. Yet Hoffman largely ignores the solutions Spar actually proposed: increase public-school funding by at least $1,000 per student, eliminate laws that disadvantage public-school students and educators, and establish consistent standards across schools so parents can make informed choices.<\/p>\n

Instead, Hoffman reframes the argument as an attack on parents, claiming that Spar\u2019s narrative \u201cpaints parents choosing the best school for their kids as villains.\u201d<\/p>\n

But who is blaming parents?<\/p>\n

Parents should choose the educational setting they believe is best for their children. Spar\u2019s argument was about the policies Florida has created around those choices \u2014 not the parents making them.<\/p>\n

That distinction is particularly relevant because Hoffman is senior legislative director for the Foundation for Florida\u2019s Future, an organization that advocates for expanding school choice. The report Hoffman cites to support his claim that \u201cthe money is there\u201d was published by his own organization.<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with advocating for school choice. But Hoffman criticizes Spar for choosing a politically convenient argument while responding to Spar\u2019s substantive concerns with the all-too-familiar rhetoric of the movement he represents.<\/p>\n

Hoffman celebrates choice because it allows parents to find the school that best meets their child\u2019s needs, while sidestepping Spar\u2019s call for the consistent information and standards parents need to evaluate those choices.<\/p>\n

Hoffman also attempts to settle the funding question with his organization\u2019s report showing that inflation-adjusted public-school spending per student increased 11.9% between 2019-20 and 2024-25. From that, he concludes, \u201cThe data show the money is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report demonstrates no such thing.<\/p>\n

An increase from a chosen baseline does not establish that funding is adequate. Look back to 2007-08, Florida\u2019s pre-Great Recession funding high-water mark, and the picture changes considerably. Adjusted for inflation using the same methodology employed in the Foundation\u2019s report, current expenditures per student in 2024-25 were only about 6% higher than in 2007-08. Meanwhile, the average 2024-25 Florida teacher salary was about 15% lower in inflation-adjusted dollars \u2014 roughly $10,000 less in purchasing power.<\/p>\n

There is certainly a legitimate question to ask about where education dollars go. School districts should answer it. Their budgets, expenditures, salaries, staffing and academic outcomes are public precisely so taxpayers can ask those questions.<\/p>\n

But if \u201cWhere did the money go?\u201d is the standard for public schools, it should also be the standard for the billions of public dollars Florida spends on vouchers. And if rigorous academic accountability helps parents choose schools, comparable information should be available for all publicly funded schools.<\/p>\n

Hoffman is free to disagree with Spar\u2019s proposals. But celebrating school choice does not answer them, and asking those questions does not make parents \u201cvillains.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real question isn\u2019t whether parents should have choices. It is whether Florida will adequately fund its public schools and hold all publicly funded educational choices to meaningful, comparable standards.<\/p>\n

That is not an attack on school choice. It is a call for accountability\u2014and for parents to have the information they need to make those choices wisely.<\/p>\n

Sue Woltanski is a member of the Monroe County School Board and author of the education blog Accountabaloney. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Hoffman\u2019s response (\u201cSchool choice isn\u2019t to blame for teacher pay. Bureaucracy is.\u201d) to teachers\u2019 union president Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[483,482,139,141,140,109,76410],"class_list":["post-389191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-commentary","tag-opinion","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}