A recent look into taxpayer-funded scholarships revealed how many theme park tickets were purchased with education vouchers.
State-funded vouchers given to the families of students granted school choice scholarships can be used to purchase some unexpected items, including theme park tickets.
WESH 2 Investigates recently took a closer look at the guidelines for how Florida’s school choice scholarship money can be spent. In addition to items like TVs up to 55 inches, the Nintendo Wii, and in-home internet, tickets to some of Central Florida’s theme parks can also be reimbursed.
According to purchasing guides from Step Up For Students, the nonprofit that administers nearly all the scholarships, tickets to Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld are eligible for reimbursement. One theme park ticket or pass per student can be reimbursed up to $299, plus tax. To receive the reimbursement, families must fill out a form answering the question, “What is the Educational Benefit of this item?”
According to the Step Up purchasing guides for the 2024-2025 school year, “Only the actual cost of the basic admission for the student will be covered. Additional services (such as parking, food and beverage packages, photographs or souvenirs, or premium access) are not eligible expenses.”
In their research, WESH 2 Investigates learned that more than 8,400 students had theme park ticket reimbursements paid or approved for this school year. Most of them — nearly 6,000 — have Personalized Education Plan (PEP) scholarships for homeschooling, as opposed to scholarships for a private school.
There are also more than 5,400 reimbursements for Florida theme parks that are currently in a status of either submitted, denied, or on hold. Some of the requests that are on hold or denied were missing appropriate documentation or were submitted for an unapproved park, like a water park.
Last year, Florida lawmakers considered more restrictions on scholarship money spending, but the changes weren’t approved. According to Step Up, many families contacted lawmakers to argue that restrictions on education savings accounts “would limit their ability to provide arts and other enrichment opportunities to their children.”
The Step Up representative also said that families argued that theme parks contribute to their students’ customized learning plans, for example, including history and culture lessons available at Disney World. “Parents point to how the parks tie directly into curriculum: If they’re doing zoology, they go to Animal Kingdom; if they’re doing marine biology, they go to SeaWorld, etc.”
Step Up’s 2025-26 purchasing guides will be released on July 1st.
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nintendo wii??!? Is this 2006?
Well GOOD for them! Kids on IEPs prob aren’t going to be competing for many other scholarships, so glad they and their families got to have a little fun!!
I think this sucks. This helps people that could afford private school or to homeschool their children because they don’t have to work. With this now they get part of their tuition paid. When all of the parents of these children had to pay the full tuition of private school all the government money went to the public school where they really need the money unless you live in a very wealthy community. Now they’re taking away parts of the money that would go to the public school and so if there’s half poor kids and half rich kids that means half the money that would go to the public school now goes to the rich kids family so they can have 55 inch.TV and theme park tickets. The other half of the money goes to the public school so they don’t have as much things for the kids to have. My grandson’s in public school. When they had a class trip to SeaWorld the children in the class had to come up with the money to pay for their share of the bus and to pay for the tickets each child paid their own way, but the rich kids get the government to pay for their trips.
No kidding, this has been happening for at least +15 years and it’s the entire family, not just the schoolchild, because they can’t go alone
This is absolutely ridiculous if public schools can’t be reimbursed the same. If they aren’t, then this appears as another misuse of our taxpayer money that helps the rich while hurting the middle and less wealthy.
I have a PEP account for my daughter, but we have not used it for a theme park ticket or TV. However, my desire to use the funds for a computer were denied. I don’t think that is right.
That being said, the theme park has been justified by many I know as this: in public school they often get to take a big field trip once a year, and that is often offset by taxpayer dollars. It is not different here. I agree.
How about museums and congressional libraries, state parks, etc? Stop spending our tax money on garbage!!
Lmao just say you hate poor people. There’s plenty of HORRIBLE THINGS tax payer money is being spent on. I literally don’t care about some kid getting a tv or a day of enjoyment after the state tries to put people in a vicious cycle, blue collar workers to students. Give them a break. Worry about billionaires not people who barely can afford life. Poor people deserve things too.
If they are so poor how can they afford to stay home and homeschool their children?
Seriously. This is totally unacceptable wate of educational funds.
Catherine Anderson
California
And they deserve it. Where’d you think they’d go a crack house. These kids rarely ever get to vacation. I’m glad this is what they choose to do with the few opportunities they have.
It’s a great way for kids to socialize and also meet their favorite characters and have fun with their family and also learning especially Epcot and the Animal Kingdom
Just one reason why state-funded school vouchers shouldn’t be a thing.
What a crock. If you’re studying history taking your kids somewhere like St Augustine is far more educational than the theme parks. What an abuse of funds that are making it harder for public school teachers to manage their classrooms because you’re sucking all the resources off and giving them to cousin humpers so they can take their kids to the theme park.
I did some research and it was not hard to find that the kids being funded are not enrolled in public school. So what happens is the money that would go to the school for that specific child will actually go to their education elsewhere. So field trips, school materials and everything else a regular public school student has access to, a child holding a scholarship is also allowed to. So the tv a student watches educational stuff in school, a homeschooler also can buy one to watch at home etc. It seems fair to me.
Florida public Schools take trips to SeaWorld/Disney/aquariums/zoos/museums…. So allowing private/homeschool to do the same thing using less tax payer dollars is perfectly acceptable
I enjoyed hearing about the characters 💕.
Seems reasonable. Public schools are so horrifically poor at spending education funds it is very plausible you can educate kids much better and do some fun activities.
This seems more like concern from basic suburb people that all kids can go to Disneyworld now. If poor kids can go too, they can’t show that trip off on social media like before.
Good for homeschooling parents!
Sure, educational enrichment is museums, aquariums, planetariums, etc, not theme parks
Meanwhile,public school teachers pay for their own copy paper, etc….
Where is the proof that this is tax payer funded?
Good for them! Those kids are getting a real world education that will help them to really hone in on their interests!
Haha….what a joke?! Talk about misappropriation! I’m sure you really are learning about zoology while on that Rollercoaster!
My children’s small public elementary through middle school might loose their band program to pay for school vouchers. Reading this really makes me upset.
After thinking about this, I’m sure I would have used it for my kids had I known about it. Going to Disney isn’t a childhood necessity. But some of my family’s best memories were created there.
Funny really funny, My wives and I (2),worked nd sved to bring ourselves s well s 5 kids beteen us to Orlando, and we worked hrd ll those yers to do it. Now?? Just slp us in the face with entitlements. I for one m sick of the freebies in this system.
Children enrolled in FL public schools also attend theme parks on field trips, paid for by the school district funding. Many of these parks also offer special homeschool day programs for extra educational benefit. These scholarships are funded by private corporations across the state. Public schools lose funding based on enrollment numbers declining, not from the money being rerouted to SUFS scholarships. Public schools have internet, TVs and plenty of audio/visual equipment. Denying the necessity of them for homeschooling essentially denies the necessity of them in any public school. Public education spends an enormous amount of money on these items every year. Side by side comparison of spending per child would be a wiser comparative analytical approach. There seems to be an increased interest in vilifying these scholarships, without accurately representing the situation.
I agree with using it for Internet, but public schools have TV’s and audio equipment that gets shared by 100’s of kids over many years, not by 1-2 kids and their parents. I don’t see how it’s the same to spend $700 on a tv for many people, over many years as it is to buying an individual a tv only used by their household?