It’s been nothing but lawsuits and ugly back and forths between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for well over a year now (here's a timeline), as both sides have dug in their heels and battled it out in both the media and various courtrooms. At this rate, most expect the two sides to be filing legal briefs for years to come, which is why it came as quite a shock to many when Florida’s new rules for how parents can spend their leftover school voucher money came out, and they included an unexpected win for Disney World.
In Florida, parents are allowed to choose between sending their children to public school or receiving a voucher from the state that helps them pay for private school and/ or buy materials in order to homeschool. Most families receive around $8,000 per student, and much of this money is administered by Step Up For Students, which is a scholarship funding organization. Governor DeSantis has been a very vocal supporter of the voucher program and enacted a law earlier this year to expand it. Every year, the state puts together a list of what families can and cannot purchase with the school voucher money, and this year, to the surprise of many, Disney World tickets were on that list.
More specifically, a single Disney World ticket or a single ticket to another theme park is on the list. The Tampa Bay Times spoke to a representative of Step Up, who said the ticket must cost less than $300 and can only be used to pay for the student themselves. Advocates pointed out this is no different than a child attending a field trip or going to a museum, which is why Disney was added to the approved list this year. Critics of the change in policy are arguing public school classrooms are underfunded as it is, and taxpayer money should not be spent on homeschooled children going to Disney.
Perhaps the loudest voices, however, have been those that are merely surprised at Disney getting a nice little win here through the State Of Florida, a win that assumedly came with at least the tacit approval of Governor DeSantis. He hasn’t been eager to extend the olive branch to Disney at all over the last year, but given his recent comments that he was ready to move on, maybe this is further evidence he’d rather deescalate the issues with Disney than escalate them.
The problems started well over a year ago between the two sides when Governor DeSantis signed into law a controversial bill that critics derisively called Don’t Say Gay. It limited what teachers could or could not say about sexuality in the classroom, among other things, and Disney, under the leadership of previous CEO Bob Chapek, released a statement saying it disagreed with the law. Not long after, Governor DeSantis appointed a new oversight committee to run Reedy Creek, which governs the land Disney World sits on. A series of lawsuits then followed, along with comments from new Disney CEO Bob Iger that strongly implied he disagreed with his predecessor’s decision to put the statement out but will vigorously defend Disney from what he sees as an illegal campaign of retribution by Florida.
Maybe this is the first step toward both sides finding some sort of compromise. Or maybe this is merely a momentary reprieve from a longer war that will only continue. We shall see.
