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Statement

TVs, Paddleboards, and Theme Park Tickets?? Florida Moms Want Our Hard-Earned Tax Dollars to Support Public Schools

September 7, 2023

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of Nina Perez, the Jacksonville-based National Director of Early Learning at MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, including thousands in Florida, on the Step Up for Students purchasing guide released this summer:

“Florida moms support public education. We want our tax dollars to support strong public schools that welcome all students, teach honest history, recognize the strength in our diversity, and provide essential resources to the teachers who work so hard to help our children learn and grow. 

“It has, however, become increasingly clear that Florida lawmakers have a very different agenda. They are working in myriad ways to undermine public education in this state. The latest example, and one of the most egregious, is the recent purchasing guide that allows parents who home-school their children or send them to private school to use voucher money left after paying tuition and fees for a host of noneducational items, including 55-inch TVs, game consoles, kayaks, and passes to Busch Gardens and Disney World.

“Moms are fed up with the misuse of Floridians’ tax dollars, and the diversion of funds our public schools badly need. The state must use its education dollars more responsibly and wisely. Allowing them to be used for luxury items is simply unacceptable.”

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, stop discrimination against women and moms, and build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: www.MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.