By Rob Lorei
On Radioactivity Thursday our guest was Doug Tuthill, President of Step up for Students, a state-approved nonprofit scholarship funding organization that helps administer two scholarships for Florida schoolchildren: the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) for low-income families and the Gardiner Scholarship (PLSA) for children with certain special needs. Step Up For Students had $495,000,000 million dollars in annual revenue in the most recent reporting period. Tuthill explains how the tax deductible scholarships work to help low-income families have greater choice in where their children attend school and addresses criticism from education leaders, like teachers’ union leader Joanne McCall, that voucher and choice programs diverts money from struggling neighborhood schools.