On Wednesday, the Senate Finance, Taxation, and Education Committee held a hearing on the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Student Education (CHOOSE) Act of 2024. The Choose Act makes Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) available to parents of children. We provide educational services to these children.

Senate Bill 61 (SB61) is introduced by Chairman Arthur Orr (R-Decatur).

Orr and state Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville) said they were asked in October to work with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on an education savings account format. It took until January to arrive at a bill the group felt comfortable sponsoring.

“A lot of changes were made between October and January,” Orr said. “You know that this committee introduced a bill last session that, in my opinion and in the opinion of many of you, was a very large and expensive bill. We were really concerned that we were going to have a hard time keeping the education budget afloat. This bill will continue to be much more moderate and sustainable.”

Orr, who said his interests in public education align with his own, expressed concern about the fact that the bill would cost at least $100 million a year and there is no cap on that amount. Orr said there was general agreement on that point. However, he said he does not yet have an alternative bill to introduce in that regard.

The governor's education policy advisor is Nick Moore.

“Since Kay Ivey became president, the ETF itself has grown by $2.5 billion, or more than 40%,” Moore said. “At the same time, we must also recognize that the K-12 public school population declined by 1.2% during the Ivey administration.”

“The governor believes in parallel investment in traditional public schools while also being the state that recognizes the most educational freedom and choice for families,” Moore said. “What the Choose Act does is identify if there are students who have some kind of special circumstances. They just don't fit in their current environment and their needs aren't being met by the schools in their district. This may also apply to some of the other traditional school choice options we've perfected over the last year, like charter schools and the School Accountability Act. It's about maximizing the choice of schools at your disposal.”

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“As you will see, this bill is also a bill that balances the policy considerations of many stakeholders, many of whom are vocal supporters of universal school choice. , both at the same time as people who want to ensure that we have sensible policies, academic and financial measures to ensure that a balance is maintained,'' Moore continued. “This bill would provide an upfront refundable tax credit of $7,000 to eligible participating students at eligible participating schools,” Moore said. “Schools eligible to participate may be public schools that choose to participate.”

“If a public school wants to admit out-of-district students, as some schools do, they can do so, and students can use this to pay for out-of-district tuition,” Moore said. he explained. “Schools that choose not to advertise do not have to do so under this bill, which means $7,000 for students enrolled in participating public or private schools and $2,000 for homeschooled students. , or $4,000 for families with two or more homeschool students, so if they have two or five, they would get four in that situation.”

“This program will be a Choose Act fund,” Moore said. “At least $100 million will go to Choose Act program funds.”

Moore said he also has concerns about accountability.

“The big conversation around this is around evaluation and accountability, and accountability is important,” Moore said. “If Choice Act were to become a reality, some of the schools that would participate in it would not be teaching the Alabama Curriculum Standards, but they would have very high quality courses of study.”

Moore said participating schools will be required to complete assessment tests. However, that does not necessarily result in the same rating as the one used by the country.

“The real comparison is to see if the school is rated according to that standard,” Moore said. “No one here is trying to say that the state is trying to tell school systems what curriculum they should teach. And you've all been very clear about that.”

“Make sure your assessments align with the curriculum you're teaching,” Moore says. “We have a standard-based achievement or aptitude assessment, and AAA has precedent for that. Certainly, the Department of Revenue was able to provide the results of that assessment to parents.”

Sen. Roger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) asked, “Can you tell me right now how much the state will give per student?”

“This year it's $6,900 per student, which will likely rise to $7,100 next year,” Moore responded.

Moore explained that for the first two years, the program will be means-tested only for households with household incomes of less than $90,000. The program will then be open to all families.

At the public hearing, there were an equal number of speakers for and against SB61.

Ashley McClain works for the Alabama School Superintendents Association. She previously served as president of the Alabama Education Association, Alabama's largest teachers union.

“While you have addressed many of the concerns that the superintendent has, we still have some concerns,” McClain said. “From a superintendent perspective, we have consistently talked about two things: financial and academic accountability. This is especially necessary to protect the resources of the majority of Alabama students and to ensure that the money is actually used as intended. This is a major concern of ours in not sending money directly to parents. It will be sent to an accredited private school or educational service provider, so that's great. But what this bill doesn't have is that there's no dollar limit on the program. It says you're going to spend over $100 million a year. You've given us a voice. But there's no ceiling.”

McClain wants to force private schools to take the same tests as state schools.

“Academic accountability, that's the test,” McClain said. “If we don't do something because we're always being attacked about our academic performance. We need to know when we're playing against each other, and we can't do that unless we know their test scores, and we can't test like-minded people. I have to.”

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Terry Lathan is a former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. She is also a former 5th grade and her 6th grade school teacher.

“I stand up in support of SB61,” Lathan said. “I think this bill actually brings great news.” “This bill does not contradict the great educators who are the angels in our classrooms. is.”

“Only 2 percent of public school students in states with school choice relocate,” Lathan said. “That means 98 percent don't move. They love school and that won't change.”

“There is no question that Alabama is ready for this strong school choice bill,” Lathan said.

Sally Smith of the Alabama School Boards Association spoke out against the bill.

“It's no wonder the school board hasn't really been enthusiastic about supporting this bill,” Smith said. “We want to protect our ETFs over the long term.”

“We've all been told there's a cap on spending, and I'm glad to hear that's not the case,” Smith said.

Smith predicted this would lead to future budget battles as more and more private school parents ask for $7,000.

Orr said in the event of a recession or proration, “the amount could be lowered to less than $100 million.”

Dr. Allison King is the president of the Alabama Education Association (AEA).

“Our concerns center around the lack of a cap,” King said. “This could easily reach $400 million, $500 million or even $600 million a year.”

“There is a lack of accountability,” King continued. “There's no need for this money to stay in Alabama. It could be used for online schools in Las Vegas.”

There was no vote in committee on the bill Wednesday. They plan to address the issue at the next committee meeting.

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