When it comes to serving Florida’s most disadvantaged K-12 students through opportunity scholarships, Step Up For Students leaders always look for ways to better serve its families, which for the 2017-18 school year means about 115,000 scholars.
So, when the nonprofit scholarship organization heard the calls of frustrated Gardiner Scholarship parents, an idea emerged to assist the nearly 10,000 children with special needs who use education savings accounts: Create a user-friendly online marketplace to make purchasing for scholars simpler.
Soon after, Step Up For Students partnered with SAP Ariba and Premikati, which combined are a powerhouse in buying power, process management and creating online purchasing systems. In January, the fruits of their labor will launch as a first-of-its-kind innovative online purchasing system specifically for Step Up Gardiner scholars who have Education Savings Accounts.
MyScholarShop will be formally introduced by Jonathan Beckham, vice president of Technology Strategy and Innovation at Step Up For Students when the nation’s leaders in education policy descend on Nashville today through Dec. 1 for the 10th annual ExcelinEd’s National Summit on Education Reform. Those leaders include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who created the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which hosts the event, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Steve Perry of Capital Preparatory Schools, Hadi Partovi of Code.org, Dr. Brooke Stafford-Brizard, Director, and Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran