Is everyone thinking of moving to Florida?

Ema of 5

Tue, Mar 28 2023, 11:14 pm

amother Mint wrote:

And a lot of us do!
Not sure how these vouchers will work in Florida, but if similar to the Ohio vouchers (where if a family is income eligible the school isn't allowed to charge them the remainder of tuition) I can assure you that tuition will definitely increase as it has for us.

These vouchers are supposedly NOT income related.

amother

Cobalt

Tue, Mar 28 2023, 11:25 pm

amother Banana wrote:

That's just so unfair. Why does it matter to schools who they get their money from, parents or government?

We're talking about a hypothetical situation here, but there are a number of reasons why it might make sense to raise tuition:

- If tuition has never been enough, leaving teachers underpaid and the building falling apart, but they could never ask for more because parents can't afford it

- If it brings more families to FL then the schools need to expand, a very expensive proposition that needs to be covered

- If this can enable the school to raise salaries for the teachers, at a relatively small cost to parents (because remember that a big chunk of tuition is covered by the government), either so they are fair or to make them competitive (if needed)

- If the school has been struggling to fundraise (unsuccessfully) and is in a lot of debt, raising tuition to be able to function properly might make sense

amother

Offwhite

Tue, Mar 28 2023, 11:58 pm

DH went to yeshiva there and has been trying to convince me to move for years. I finally agreed to plan for moving when our oldest is starting high school, because I’m not sending her to our local BY, and now this comes out!

Great, nice to know it’s there, but at the same time, we’ll never be able to afford real estate if it causes an even bigger influx.

amother

Aqua

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:40 am

For those saying it's too hot. Yes, but Winter. Winters are beautiful, it might hit the low 40s a few days. No need for winter coats. Never have to worry about shoveling snow, icy sidewalks, letting the cars warm up. No need for gloves.
Oh, and parking lots. How many snow days did I give up shopping because piles of shoveled snow took up spots and there was nowhere to go?? Just park in the lot, and walk into the store! Then when you're done, the bag boy will help you to your car and unload your groceries, no tips expected!
(Full disclosure. I live in NY but grew up in Florida. Feeling nostalgic.)

amother

Amber

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:22 am

No. I live in Cleveland and we have vouchers BH.

I WILL say that the schools here constantly raise tuition or create fees that aren't covered by the educational voucher.
It is still much cheaper than elsewhere, but say elementary tuition used to be 7K, but the vouchers are approx. 5500,. By now tuition is around 10k.I

I assume the tuition in Miami starts higher.

Hashem_Yaazor

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 6:28 pm

amother Amber wrote:

Ytcte Miami https://www.ytcte.org/admission/tuition/

Tuition isn't cheap.

Vouchers help schools more than parents.
Parents who are poor(like me) wouldn't be able to pay the reg tuition amounts per kid, so at least the school gets 5500 each! That's more than if I was really paying tuition.

Depends on the voucher system.
Ohio's guidelines of not charging more tuition to parents below 200% of the FPL really hurts schools.

amother

Nasturtium

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 6:58 pm

I have lived in Florida for several years (came from the Midwest, btw, before the mass migration from NY. However I love it here and don't feel like it is New Yorky at all in my neighborhood.)

The thing that you all don't seem to understand is that is not really a new bill. We have had school vouchers for a while already, 7.5K per kid. The difference is that now there is no income eligibility requirement so now even the wealthy will benefit. However my tuition in Florida is no less than it was in the midwest, because that 7.5k just went toward the scholarship I would have anyways had. So I didn't feel the difference. The school benefited because instead of that money coming from their own scholarship fund it came from the state. With this new bill the school benefits only marginally. The wealthy families who had until now paid full tuition will have 8k covered by the state, but the school gets the same amount (unless it raises tuition, which it can legally do). The families that can't afford full tuition were already receiving the vouchers so that is no different than before (maybe it is more now, but only by a few hundred dollars). The only families that the school really benefits from are those few families that couldn't afford full tuition but weren't income eligible for the voucher. So now the voucher will complete their tuitions. But there aren't many families like this because the eligibility limits previously were pretty high anyway so for the most part if you weren't eligible you likely paid full tuition. Makes sense? So please don't come to FL thinking you'll get free tuition or that the schools are all of a sudden raking it in. And don't forget that the price of living here right now is very high (don't expect to find a small house in the poorest frum neighborhood for less than 1 million).

amother

Gray

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 7:12 pm

amother Nasturtium wrote:

Quick question; how could a family with an income that’s just a bit over cutoff for scholarship pay full tuitions for many children, at Florida level?

amother

Amber

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 8:07 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

Depends on the voucher system.
Ohio's guidelines of not charging more tuition to parents below 200% of the FPL really hurts schools.

I'm the ohio amother.

I have 4 kids who qualify for edchoice, BH.
If I was paying full tuition, I would be posting about 40K for those 4.

Our annual salary would absolutely not cover 40k. I don't want to name our salaries because I'm going to get lots of negative comments, but let's just say I wouldn't be able to cover it by a long shot.
So if we'd be paying with a school give scholarship no way would I be paying more than 12-15k. Instead , the school gets over 20k.

Hashem_Yaazor

Wed, Mar 29 2023, 9:03 pm

amother Amber wrote:

Yes and no.

It does help the school for those that are partial payers. And it helps with collection to get something for every student.... But the cost of educating a child in a quality school these days is way higher than the voucher amount and there are many, many families who qualify for low income and the school can't ask those parents to make up that difference.

amother

Nasturtium

Thu, Mar 30 2023, 11:56 am

amother Gray wrote:

Quick question; how could a family with an income that’s just a bit over cutoff for scholarship pay full tuitions for many children, at Florida level?

Because the eligibility criteria were pretty high to begin with. Most families qualified. Way more than would qualify for any other government programs. And once you qualify you never had to be recertified. So if you qualified as a young start up business man with a medium income even if your business boomed and you became super wealthy you would still get the vouchers. So like I said, the vouchers did change the situation all that much.

amother

Buttercup

Sun, Apr 09 2023, 4:43 pm

amother Nasturtium wrote:

I have to comment here about most people qualifying for the government subsidy prior, which was called step up for students. Yes, many people did qualify. However, many did not. For living in south Florida, I don’t think the threshold was very high. It was $168,000 for a family of 7 last year. If living in Miami with the costs as they’ve been, a family bringing in $170,000 is not able to pay 5 tuitions at all. Just housing costs alone (even prior to the interest rate hikes) would make this prohibitive in the popular frum areas. Therefore, this new bill is a very welcome help, even though it will inevitably come alongside a rise in tuition cost.