During Tuesday's annual State of the State address, Gov. Kay Ivey announced the CHOOSE Act, her version of the long-debated school voucher program.

Ivey said passing the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Student Education (CHOOSE) Act will be a top priority for Congress. SSponsor and education budget chair Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) and Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville) introduced the bill Tuesday.

“Improving our state’s education system is a process and must meet the needs of all students. As governor, I believe the way to achieve that is by ensuring the opportunities available to our children. I am aware of it,” Ivey said. “For some families, that means having the opportunity to send their child to a charter school, magnet school, private school, or to homeschool them. There is a wide range of school choices. Last year, we recognized that to expand options in Alabama, we must first improve existing options – Charter
Schools and the Alabama Accountability Act. You achieved it – thank you.
“Our next step is to offer education savings accounts, starting with parents who are most in need. This will further our journey to becoming the most school choice-friendly state in the nation.”

The CHOOSE Act program would provide up to $7,000 per child enrolled in an eligible participating private or public school through an education savings account funded by a new refundable earned income tax credit. Additionally, families who choose to homeschool can receive up to $2,000 per homeschooler (up to $4,000 for families with two or more homeschoolers) for eligible education expenses. As the governor outlined in his State of the State address, families will begin participating in the program during the 2025-2026 school year.

“Governor, Ivey and her team have been very receptive to and collaborative with feedback from Congressman Garrett and me as they drafted the CHOOSE Act,” Orr said. “That's why we believe we have created a school choice and education savings account bill that addresses an important part of the needs of schoolchildren while preserving the fiscal health of our public schools.”

The initial rollout during the first two years will target households with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level. Starting in the third year, all Alabama families will be eligible, putting the CHOOSE program on the path to becoming truly universal as the program grows.

“We must leave no stone unturned when it comes to providing the next generation of Alabamans with the opportunity to follow the educational path that best positions them for success,” Garrett said. “I want to commend Governor Ivey for proposing a plan to take school choice in Alabama to the next level. The CHOOSE Act gives hardworking parents a tool that has the potential to change the future trajectory of their children’s education. We provide.”

The CHOOSE Act directs the Legislature to appropriate $100 million annually to the CHOOSE Program Fund, and the Governor has already set aside $50 million for this fund as a supplement to the Education Trust Fund for fiscal year 2024. I am.

The CHOOSE Act already has support from legislative leaders, with interim president Greg Reed and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter as co-sponsors.

“Children are a gift from God and the future of our great nation. One of our greatest responsibilities as legislators is to ensure that the children of our community have every opportunity to succeed and achieve their dreams. It's about allocating resources in a fiscally responsible way to ensure that we get what we get,” Reed said. “A home’s ZIP code should not be the primary indicator of a child’s educational outcomes, and we are committed to helping Alabama families make the best decisions about their children’s education.”

“My priority with the School Choice Act was to provide additional options for parents without negatively impacting Alabama's public education system,” Ledbetter said. “After working collaboratively with the Governor’s Office on the CHOOSE Act over the last year, we feel we have come up with a strong bill that accomplishes just that. We are grateful for Governor Ivey’s leadership on this important issue and we hope that the House will I am proud to co-sponsor the bill.”

The CHOOSE Act includes testing requirements, which Ivey's office calls “simply standardized assessments tailored to participating schools' curricula, achievement assessments referenced to national standards, or national It is characterized as “an internationally recognized aptitude assessment.”

“My goal is to keep the program on track to be fully universal while maintaining full and complete support for public education. I believe the CHOOSE Act, packaged with the highest starting salaries for teachers, will help make our public schools even stronger,” Ivey said.

Alabama Democrats have challenged the idea of ​​a school voucher program, arguing that resources would be better spent on strengthening public education.

They also discuss potential disparities and whether ESAs truly benefit children from all backgrounds or are simply tax credits for wealthy families who can already afford to send their children to private schools. Concerns have also been raised.