ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Central Florida school districts are starting the year with tighter budgets, despite billions in federal funds recently released after being frozen during the Trump administration’s review of the education budget.
Many say Florida public schools face another challenge: decreasing funding and enrollment.
“To say that this has been an unusual budget cycle doesn’t begin to explain what we have been dealing with over the last several months,” Orange County Superintendent Maria Vazquez said at a recent budget meeting.
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While Orange County is starting the year with a tentative balanced budget, Vazquez warned, “You are going to see that we have fewer dollars to be able to continue the great work in Orange County Public Schools.”
Orange County Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Doreen Concolino pointed out that traditional public schools are expected to lose between 2,700 and 3,000 full-time students by 2026.
A steady increase in students taking state scholarships to attend private schools is highlighted by the district’s data.
For fiscal year 2026, Orange County estimates more than 30,000 scholarships will go to private schools, totaling about $211 million.
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“That will reduce the district’s final state revenue appropriation,” Concolino said.
School board member Alicia Farrant cautioned against blaming the scholarship program for budget shortfalls.
“What we really need to do is make sure that we are not blaming the Family Empowerment Scholarship for shortcomings in our budget. That’s not what is causing it,” Farrant said.
She urged the district to “look at the root and see what is the reason parents are choosing scholarships to pull their child from their own public school.”
The debate over scholarships and dropping enrollment in public schools is playing out across Florida.
The state legislature passed a law two years ago allowing tax dollars to fund private school scholarships.
At a town hall meeting, State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith criticized the $4 billion scholarship program.
“The Florida legislature has continued to bleed money out of our public schools through taxpayer-funded school vouchers,” Smith said. “That affects the quality of our public schools. That affects the resources that our students receive. The per-student funding allocation our public schools are receiving.”
Osceola County school administrators told News 6 this school year is better than the start of last year.
“We are not starting with a deficit as compared to last year,” Dana Schafer told News 6 in an email.
Marion County Public Schools’ tentative budget is $1.285 billion compared to $1.335 billion last year, which is about 50.5 million less, according to Kevin Christian, the district’s Director of Public Relations.
“While last year’s budget was significantly larger, it included about $300 million borrowed to build three new schools and some other major construction projects, along with millions of ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) dollars, which ended Sept. 30 of last year,” Christian told News 6.
Volusia County Public Schools will draw down $8.8 million to cover the gap between revenues and expenses.
“This controlled spenddown is intended to sustain core instructional and support services and maintain a reserve level that meets state financial stability benchmarks,” Danielle Johnson said in an email to News 6.
Seminole County school officials say they are still finalizing the budget, “however we believe that we will not have a material deficit in the final budget for this year,” Katherine Crnkovich, communications officer said.
SCPS enrollment for FY 2025-26 is projected at 60,599, a reduction of 1,322 from the prior year.
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