DeSantis' Voucher Program Is Letting Parents Buy Playstations And Paddleboards With Taxpayers' Money

As governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis has created a school voucher program that is sending money AWAY from public schools and into the pockets of parents who either send their kids to private schools, or who homeschool. And a new report based on data from the state has revealed that tens of thousands of dollars - of our tax dollars - has been used to buy video game consoles, treadmills, and even paddleboards for homeschooled students. This is a gross abuse of the system, but Republicans refuse to address it, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

As governor of the State of Florida, Ron DeSantis signed a new law that expanded the school voucher system here in the state. And basically, for those not familiar with school vouchers, it says, Hey, parents, if you wanna take your kids outta public school, we'll give you tax dollars from the taxpayers in Florida, and you can send your kids wherever hell, you can even homeschool them. And we'll just give you money for that. And as part of DeSantis legislation, not only do you get this money, but hey, if you have any money left over, you can use it to buy sports equipment. You can use it to buy video game consoles. You can even use it to buy tickets to theme parks here in the state of Florida. And according to a new analysis of Florida's budget, that is exactly what happened. Thanks to DeSantis new program last year, parents in the state paid $43,374 for in-home treadmills because they do have to report what they spend the money on. $30,436 to pay for indoor trampolines, $226,584 to pay for game consoles. Tampa Bay Times reported quote, theme park passes, 55 inch TVs and standup paddleboards are among the approved items that recipients can buy to use at home. The purchases can be made by parents who homeschool their children or send them to private schools, if any voucher money remains after paying tuition and fees.

So this is already money that's being taken away from our already underfunded public school system here in Florida. It's given to people who wanna homeschool their kids, and they're using it to buy PlayStations. They're buying Xboxes, they're going to Disney World with our money, with my money. And yeah, I I am going to take this story a little bit personally. Do you know why, as I have mentioned time and time again, my wife is a public school teacher here in the state of Florida. You know what I personally, me, Faron Cousins has to pay for every month. You know what I buy? I buy her printer ink for her school printer. I buy reams of paper for her classroom. I am personally footing the bill for these things because the school doesn't have money to pay for it. Meanwhile, while I'm bailing out her school, my tax dollars are being taken away from the schools so that a parent who doesn't want the woke education system getting to the kid can buy their kid a frigging PlayStation. This is

Absolutely an abuse of the system. You know, a couple days ago, uh, the Cato Institute put out a link to a report saying that 25%, 25% of SNAP benefits food stamps is being spent on junk food. How horrible is that? That poor people are buying Twinkies with 25% of their money? I can't wait to see what the Cato Institute has to say about this. You, you're buying Xboxes, you're going to Disney World, you're going to, you're going to Universal. You're getting paddleboards, you're getting TVs. Meanwhile, teachers across this state are paying out of pocket for their own supplies. This is disgusting, but this is Ron DeSantis, Florida.