Step Up For Students

TAMPA, Fla. — A half-century ago, John and Cindy Ingram built a strong reputation emphasizing family. Besides their children, their children’s spouses, and their grandchildren, that definition also includes the thousands of students who have bowed at the door of Ingram’s Karate dojos since 1977. Each evening, these spaces, which some treat like holy ground, spring to life.

Maxwell “Max” Johnson knows something about you. Maybe you know it, too. Maybe not. Either way, Max wants you to know this: You are smart. He’s so sure you are that he wrote a book about it. Published last December, “Let Me Help You … BE SMART: A Kid’s Guide to Confidence, Focus, and Smart Choices” is a self-esteem book aimed at children ages 8-13 and is available on Amazon. “My goal is that every reader finishes this book feeling more confident, more smart, and more prepared for life,” Max said.

For years, critics of education choice have been saying it will unleash an educational apocalypse in Florida. But what’s unfolding isn’t an apocalypse. It’s a renaissance. “For 25 years we’ve been hearing that the sky’s going to fall,” said Ron Matus, director of research and special projects at Step Up For Students, the nation’s largest education choice scholarship funding organization, which manages 98% of Florida’s K-12 programs.

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, Step Up For Students today marks the 25th anniversary of Florida’s landmark education choice scholarship program. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) went into effect July 1, 2001, after House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay shepherded the bill through the Florida Legislature, and Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law.

A New Era of Education The Florida Story Societal Change Student and Family Stories The Future of Teaching Current Events Special Reports Podcast John F. Kirtley, Step Up For Students founder and chairman Editor’s note: Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance devoted its annual spring research conference to helping policymakers assess education choice: What is and is not working, the trade-offs involved in different programs, and the long-term effects. John F.

Nine days after the state teachers union sued to strip Florida families of the right to choose their children’s education, the pushback began when supporters of state K-12 scholarships and charter schools gathered in Tallahassee on the steps of Old State Capitol to protest.

LAUREL HILL, Fla. – Bryan and Laine Baker didn’t set out to start a school. They were focused on their kids and their up-and-coming cattle operation. But then Laine met a woman at a business conference in 2023 who was creating a hybrid homeschool 20 miles from the Bakers’ ranch. The pair kept in touch, and one day, the woman asked if the homeschoolers in her orbit could do a “ranch day” at the Baker place.

ORLANDO, Fla. — As public education has evolved from a one-size-fits-all system to one where families are empowered to choose the environment that best fits their child, everyone has been a winner: Students, parents, educators, entrepreneurs, and even public school districts. That was the message of John F. Kirtley, founder and chairman of Step Up For Students, to the roughly 1,000 people who attended the non-profit’s Navigating New Horizons conference this week.

This à la carte learning provider uses woodwork to instill deeper lessons Alex Knott, right, left a successful career in mechanical engineering to become a woodworking instructor at The Sloyd School, which he and his wife opened in 2022. (Photos by Ron Matus) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Alex Knott began to gravitate toward woodworking in 2021, first as he was remodeling he and his wife’s fixer-upper, then as he was teaching his friend’s kids how to build birdhouses.

GLEN ST. MARY, Fla. – Baker County is in a piney corner of North Florida that hugs the Georgia line near the Okefenokee Swamp. It’s part of metro Jacksonville, but on the country side, not the coastal side, still more small town than sprawl. Its biggest town, Macclenny, boasts 7,304 people. One of its top employers is a Walmart distribution center. Places like Baker County aren’t often associated with school choice and innovation, but it’s not because those things aren’t happening there. They are.