Dive Brief:

• As the 650+ charter schools in Florida continue to gain both popularity and numbers, controversy around how the schools are funded and how well they educate students remains a central focus of the state's dialogue over education policy.
• One particularly divisive issue is the use of taxpayer money to fund construction and capital costs for charters.
• The current 2016-17 budget proposal for the state would fund both charters and traditional schools equally with $75.2 million dollars worth of public funding each. 

Dive Insight:

Further along than Florida is Nevada, which is close to rolling out a new plan for funding school choice. The new Education Savings Account program allows Nevada families to use a majority of their share of per-pupil state education funding for "qualified expenses," which includes private school tuition. 

Nevada governor Brian Sandoval has been described as having an "aggressive school choice agenda," a phrase that could also describe Florida's pro-business, Republican-majority school choice advocates. Nevada's school choice funding plan is unique and, as-yet, untested.