In response to the Orlando Sentinel’s investigative reporting that many private schools participating in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program have “anti-LGBTQ” policies, some lawmakers have been actively using social media to attack companies that donate money to fund private school scholarships for low-income students in the state. Two lawmakers are even congratulating companies for pulling scholarship funding from these disadvantaged families because, according to State Rep. Anna Eskamani, the private school choice program is a “discriminatory anti-LGBTQ voucher program.”
Her statement is incorrect, and her efforts are unintentionally hurting the very children she is claiming to help. First, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program awards scholarships to students regardless of their sexual orientation. Families can use those scholarship dollars to attend a wide array of religious or nonreligious private schools in the state. Calling the program “discriminatory” and “anti-LGBTQ” is disingenuous.
