When the State Legislature left town for the year on Tuesday, they left a lot of bills on the desk for Governor Kay Ivey to consider. Ivey signed into law a handful of bills on Thursday that she says deliver on her promises and will benefit Alabamians now and in the future.
During the governor’s inaugural and state of the state addresses, Ivey promised that more parents in Alabama emphasized the importance of improving school choice in Alabama.
Ivey said that those efforts must begin with improving the school choices that Alabama already has: Public charter schools and the Alabama Accountability Act scholarship program.
The Legislature responded by passing both House Bill 363 and Senate Bill 263. Upon signing those bills in her office earlier today, the governor then issued the following comment:
“While some parents in other states are finding themselves being forced aside, here in Alabama, we believe strongly that a parent should be able to decide what is best for their own child’s education. To help support high-quality education and create more choices for parents, I have prioritized improving school choice. Both HB363 and SB263 will certainly help us make progress, and the bill sponsors, Representative Terri Collins and Senators Donnie Chesteen and Will Barfoot did yeomen’s work in getting this needed legislation across the finish line. I am proud to put my signature on these two bills so that more students have an opportunity for a strong educational experience.”
SB263 is an expansion of the landmark 2013 Alabama Accountability Act, which created a mechanism for scholarship granting organizations to award scholarships for students in Alabama’s most dreadful public schools.
Chesteen said that in the old bill, students from just 79 failing schools can apply for scholarships to leave their failing schools. This will open it up to students from a school with a D or an F on its report card – 212 schools. SB263 would open up to 25% of the scholarships for students who live outside of those targeted D and F-scoring schools if they meet the poverty thresholds. It also raises the poverty thresholds for children to be eligible for the scholarships and changes the name the state uses for its most dreadfully performing schools from failing schools to priority schools.
Collins explained that HB363, the Alabama School Choice and Student Opportunity Act, changes the appointment process for the Alabama Public Charter School Commission; authorizes the Commission to hire staff; requires commissioners to receive annual training; provides additional guidelines for the authorizing and application review process; provides further for the operational and categorical funding of public charter schools in their first year of operation; and clarifies the per pupil federal, state, and local funding of conversion public charter schools during their first year of operation.
“All charter schools are public schools,” explained Rep. Collins. “We have three conversion schools in Montgomery, Mobile, West Alabama, Birmingham has a few, Fairfield, and there are a couple more in Montgomery.”
The current law allows a public school system to convert an existing public school into a charter school. It also allows nonprofit groups that recognize a need to take their own funds to build and operate a charter school and apply for permission from the local school authorities to open a charter school. If that application is denied, that organization may submit its request to the Alabama Public Charter School Commission for review.
Governor Ivey also successfully championed funding charter schools in addition to this needed legislation.
A much more vigorous expansion of school choice – the PRICE Act – was never considered on the floor of either House. SB202/HB295 was carried by Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Sheffield) and Rep. Ernie Yarborough (R-Hartselle). It would have allowed education dollars to follow the child and was not limited to just poor children or children zoned to the worst schools in the state. It was not regulated by a state commission as to whether an alternative was needed or not. Every child in the state would have been given $6,900 in an education savings account that could have followed the child to another public school, a private school, a church school, or even to cover the expenses of home school. That legislation was strongly opposed by the Alabama Education Association (AEA) and the Alabama School Superintendents.
Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) told reporters moments after the regular session ended on Tuesday that more school choice bills will likely be passed in future legislative sessions.
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