President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit a Catholic school in Orlando on Friday, according to the White House.
Trump will attend a "listening session on school choice" at Saint Andrew Catholic School in the Pine Hills neighborhood, Sarah H. Sanders, White House deputy press secretary, told reporters Tuesday.
Friday’s session will likely focus on the Florida Tax Credit scholarship, said Jon East, a spokesman for Step Up For Students, a non-profit organization that administers the program. St. Andrew serves 295 students on the scholarship, which is awarded to students from low-income families. Across the state, 97,926 students receive the scholarship.
“I think it’s heartening that people want to see what’s happening in Florida and also take a look at this scholarship program, the tax scholarship program,” East said. “Because it does serve the kids, the most disadvantaged students in Florida.”
East said Friday’s session could provide a “a window into what school choice can mean broadly.”
St. Andrew serves students in preschool through eighth grade. Students there are predominately black and poor, East said. The school was awarded the U.S. Department of Education’s Blue Ribbon of Excellence award in 2009.
The White House put the eight states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use on notice.
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The website says, “Our goals are simple: College and heaven.”
Started in 2002, the tax credit program allows businesses to bypass state coffers and funnel the tax money they owe to private schools, including many religious ones. The scholarship provides up to $5,886 per student annually. In the zip codes where St. Andrew is located and one directly adjacent, a total of 1,209 students receive the tax credit scholarship, one of the largest concentrations in the state.
As for the location, Central Florida has been a popular destination for Trump.
His one rally in Florida during his post-election “Thank You Tour” was at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando — despite Orange County going overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in the November election.
Trump flew Air Force One from Palm Beach to Melbourne and back on Feb. 18, pulling up to a hangar holding 9,000 people despite initially denying the plane would be used as a “prop.”
Trump would visit Orlando on his way to a weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, where he would be spending his fourth weekend since taking office in January.
Staff writer Brian Bennett with Washington bureau for the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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