Florida voucher schools fail, stiff teachers — and get more money to try again - Orlando Sentinel

Florida voucher schools fail, stiff teachers — and get more money to try again - Orlando Sentinel

Florida voucher schools fail, stiff teachers — and get more money to try again

Two years ago, the Beta Preparatory school in Orlando was being run — with your tax dollars — inside a commercial complex on South Orange Blossom Trail, alongside eight bail-bonds businesses and a drug-testing company.

With no outdoor space for recess — and fellow tenants such as “Drug Tests R Us” — it wasn’t most parents’ vision of an ideal learning environment.

Apparently Beta wasn’t an ideal tenant either. The private school that takes state vouchers was evicted for not paying its rent.

Yes, the entire taxpayer-subsidized school. (Class, the words of the day are: “Final notice.”)

So last year, Beta moved to a new locale — a church campus in Orlando, where it continued to take more of your tax dollars … until things went south there, too.

Teachers filed formal complaints about a “lack of basic school supplies,” academic “irregularities,” student safety, inadequate staffing and a “lack of professionalism.” Multiple teachers said the school stiffed them on salary. The church said the school stiffed it on rent.

Ultimately, the school shut down for good.

You might think that would be the final chapter in this sorry story.

But not in Florida.

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As Sentinel reporter Annie Martin reported last weekend, the owner of the Beta school simply opened another school a few weeks ago with a new name; this time in Volusia County … once again with your tax dollars.

Court records show the school’s owner filed the application for the new school the same Continue reading: Florida voucher schools fail, stiff teachers — and get more money to try again - Orlando Sentinel