[3] In 2006 the Florida Supreme Court ruled the Opportunity Scholarship Program violated the Florida Constitution because the private schools it supported were not part of the "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools" that the Constitution required.
In 2017–18, nearly two thirds of the recipients were on the autism spectrum and used the money to attend a private school.
[1] In 2016 the state made it easier for students to attend schools across district boundaries.
[2] As of 2023, 32 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico operated voucher or scholarship programs.
[7] There are differing opinions on the impact choice programs have on public schools that lose students.
Another question surrounds the time path of the impacts, whether they come suddenly or grow as the school choice program evolves.
Longer-term studies of Milwaukee and North Carolina students showed modestly positive effects.
[7] A study of scale up of Massachusetts charter programs reported small positive effects on test scores.
[7] A 2020 study of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program reviewed child-level data that matched birth records to school records, employing student fixed effects to analyze cognitive and behavioral outcomes and heterogeneity.
It used five separate measures of voucher competition over time including educational (test scores) and behavioral (absenteeism and suspensions) metrics.
These included lower rates of suspensions and absences and higher standardized test scores in reading and in math.