Alabama Education Association calls for end to state’s ‘Failing Schools List’

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The Alabama Education Association (AEA) —  statewide professional organization that represents public school employees in the state of — is asking state lawmakers to repeal the Alabama Accountability Act (AAA), a law that allows parents to transfer students from schools that have been placed on the state’s “Failing Schools List” to other schools not on that list.

The AEA published their call to lawmakers in the latest edition of the Alabama School Journal.

The issue: the AAA creates a refundable income tax credit to reimburse Alabama taxpayers who are the parents of students enrolled in or assigned to attend a failing K-12 public school to offset the cost of transferring the student to a non-failing public or nonpublic school of the parents’ choice. The AEA says this is taking money from cash-strapped, failing schools.

“Since its inception in 2013, the Alabama Accountability Act (AAA) has directly siphoned more than $140 million from Alabama’s cash-strapped K-12 classrooms,” wrote the AEA. “The mounting reports of ineffectiveness of the program come as no surprised to education officials who correctly warned of the AAA’s flaws in 2013.”

AAA totals
[Photo Credit: Alabama School Journal]

“AEA encourages educators to share the data list in the chart [above]with all concerned citizens… talk to your community leaders about the financial losses to your school district due to the AAA,” the AEA added in the article.