On January 19, more than 350 students, administrators, staff, and parents from the Diocese of St. Petersburg attended the “Rally in Tally 2016.” Rally participants marched to support parental empowerment in education, arguing that an end to the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program would harm Florida’s low-income and minority students. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program is subject to a pending lawsuit (McCall v. Scott).

The rally featured keynote speaker Martin Luther King III, as well as families who benefit from the scholarship program. Participants marched from the Civic Center to the Capitol. The rally was coordinated by Florida Voices for Choices. See photos from the rally here.

Participating schools from our diocese included:

• Bishop Larkin Catholic School
• Cathedral School of St. Jude
• Clearwater Central Catholic High School
• Corpus Christi Catholic School
• Nativity Catholic School
• Notre Dame Catholic School
• Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School
• St. John Paul II Catholic School
• Joseph Catholic School
• Peter Claver Catholic School
• Petersburg Catholic High School
• Stephen Catholic School

How You Can Help

Pray. Pray that the lawsuit will be dropped and for all who are tirelessly advocating for that to happen.

Advocate.

• Show your support on social media by posting a picture or selfie. You can download our selfie template here. Post it with the hashtag #dropthesuit.
• Email your pictures to the Diocese of St. Petersburg at socialmedia@dosp.org. Please note that we must have parental/guardian permission to post any photos of minors.
• Email us your testimonial following these guidelines.
• Learn how you can help Florida Voices for Choices, the organization helping to spearhead the effort to drop the lawsuit here.

Background about the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (PDF)