The watchdog for the Florida Legislature says a state program that diverts corporate taxes to private school vouchers saved the $38.9 million in fiscal year 2007-08.
The Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability says nearly 21,500 low-income students were able to attend a private school in 2007 through Florida's corporate tax voucher program.
Researchers estimate that taxpayers saved $1.49 in state education funding for every dollar lost in corporate tax revenue.
The report assumes that nearly all students who got vouchers would have gone to public schools. Each voucher cost $3,750 in 2007, compared with about $6,100 the state spent on each public school student.
The program's supporters say the findings weaken the argument that vouchers undermine financing for public schools.
"We certainly want taxpayers to know we are saving them money, and we hope that our partners in public education benefit from our savings," says John Kirtley, a Tampa businessman and Florida School Choice Fund chairman, in a written statement.
Some Democrats, however, questioned the report's accuracy.
The Democrats' Senate leader, Al Lawson, who said he supports the corporate tax scholarship program, said the study was "narrow and limited."
"By not spending any education funds as a result of the scholarship program, public education is and will continue to be adversely impacted and result in an outcome which we cannot afford in these difficult economic times," Lawson says in a written statement.
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