Dear Speaker Renner, Speaker Designee Perez, Chair Massullo, Chair Tomkow, Chair Rizo, and Representatives,

I am writing to urge you to keep the Hope Scholarship FS 1002.40. You will recall it was Speaker Corcoran’s HB1. This is currently included in HB 1403 to be repealed.

It is a victim’s law and is important for THREE reasons:

1. It provides an immediate out for a parent whose child is being bullied by other students or, more importantly, threatened or intimidated by a teacher, administrator, or anyone on school property. 
 
2. The Hope Scholarship is available immediately at the time of the incident. The parent doesn’t have to wait for Step Up’s window of application.

3. It holds teachers and administrators accountable for their behavior. Commissioner Corcoran used to say frequently that every parent who pays attention can qualify their child for the Hope Scholarship on a daily basis. Examples include teaching or using Critical Race Theory (CRT), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), obscene materials, and sexual orientation despite Florida laws prohibiting them.
 
The key argument for repealing it seems to be the low usage. This is true because school districts hide it. Prior to COVID, there were approximately 55,000 SESIR incident reports. In 2021-22, there were over 108,000 SESIR reports. Every one of these has at least one victim, some many more, and the districts have an affirmative duty to offer the parent of each victim the Hope Scholarship.
 
Even when the School Choice HB 1 from last year becomes widely used over the next 3-5 years, there will still be 40-50% of our 3 million kids stuck in public schools, and parents will need and deserve a way to hold them accountable on a realtime basis for their threatening and intimidating behavior.

The focus in HB 1403 should be penalties for NOT offering it rather than repealing it. The Hope Scholarship is an important tool to hold teachers, administrators, and all school employees accountable for their behavior. Please don’t allow it to be repealed.
 
Thank you,

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