MIAMI — A newspaper study says more than a fourth of the Florida students who accepted vouchers to pay for tuition at private schools this semester have transferred back to the public school system. In a Nov. 3 story on the study, The Miami Herald found that 170 students out of the 607 statewide who in the summer had requested vouchers for the fall 2002 semester had already returned to public schools.
Florida’s voucher program — one of only three publicly funded voucher programs in the country — gives students in public schools the state deems to be “failing” scholarships that may be spent on tuition at private schools, including religious ones.
Voucher opponents say the practice is unconstitutional, although the U.S. Supreme Court has recently upheld an Ohio voucher program. Voucher supporters say many students who are “trapped” in underperforming public schools get a better education in private schools.
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