JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Angela Schminke was on the verge of losing her school in Orange Park due to a state funding delay.
Last week, she contacted the Ask Anthony team for help because she couldn't pay rent, her employees, or buy books for her students.
"Right after that interview on the news, the next day, I received an email from Step Up for Students that funding will be sent. I did receive it the very next day," Schminke said.
Schminke is the leader of Faith Christian Academy. It's a small school with 44 students, most of whom are special needs or need more assistance than the average student. When we spoke with her last week, she didn't know if she could keep the doors open.
"I'm happy to say that we are moving forward. Our staff has been paid and we are in a comfortable position right now," Schminke added.
Schminke says her school is fully funded by a program called Step Up for Students, which is actually based in Jacksonville. It's a state approved non-profit scholarship funding organization that was designed to give money mainly to lower to middle income students, so they could attend a school that benefits their educational needs.
Last year, under new legislation, the school voucher program expanded allowing more families, regardless of income, to take advantage of the program. State Representative Angie Nixon believes that's the root of the funding issue.
"Which was in essence, a universal voucher program, that not only opened up vouchers to what was normally children with disabilities, learning disabilities, or children in low-income areas. Now, they opened it up for millionaires and billionaires or whoever else wants to subsidize private corporate schools, those people can now tap into that funding," Rep. Angie Nixon explained.
The day our story aired, a Step Up for Students representative reached out to Anthony Austin after seeing a post he made on social media. The spokesperson said they researched Faith Christan Academy's problem and it was due to a tax form being filled out incorrectly.
"It's still an issue for other schools. I think because of being put out in the forefront with our interview that it may have jump started the funding. I believe other schools will start to see their funding as well. I'm hopeful that they'll start to see their funding. As usual, when you ask Anthony he's going to get the answers," Schminke said.
Rep. Nixon had a meeting with Step Up after our story aired. She said she was told that money was coming in on somewhat of a rolling basis and she learned that vouchers for students with disabilities may potentially have a waiting list.
Statement from Step Up for Students
This year, all scholarships are Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). So student accounts must be funded first, then schools invoice Step Up For Students (SUFS), then SUFS sends payment to schools.
The accounts of all 145,000 Florida Tax Credit (FTC) students (including 15,000 students in the new Personalized Education Program) have been funded. Of the FTC student accounts that have been properly invoiced by schools, funding for roughly 94% has been sent to schools. The remaining 6% have either only recently been invoiced or have issues such as improper banking information, missing tax forms, students on more than one program or on VPK, and other issues.
The accounts of roughly 98% of the 85,000 students who have been awarded Family Empowerment Scholarships for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA) awarded by SUFS have been funded. The remaining student accounts have issues that are currently being researched and resolved. Roughly half of UA students are enrolled in private schools. SUFS has received invoices for approximately 42,000 of them, and expects to have at funds for at least 94% of those students sent to schools by the end of this week. The remaining students have issues such as those described above, which are being researched and resolved.
The accounts of over 93% of students awarded Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO) by SUFS have been funded. As of today, SUFS has received 93,000 invoices for the roughly 126,000 EO students. Funding to schools for these students has begun, and by the end of this week funds for 90,000 of these students will have been sent to schools. Receipt by school usually takes one to two days. We are waiting on the remainder of the invoices from schools and will process them promptly upon receipt. As with the other programs, there are about 5% of students where issues need to be researched further.