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API report reveals hurdles, hope for universal school choice in Alabama

New API Report Reveals Hurdles and Hope for Universal School Choice in Alabama

The Alabama Policy Institute released its 2023-2024 Education Freedom in Alabama report. Part of the data compiled, according to the organization, demonstrates why implementing and attaining universal school choice within the state has proven difficult — but a challenge worthy of solving.

The report showed that traditional public schools, a significant portion of which are failing or close to it, are still by far the most popular form of schooling in Alabama with 735,884 students in 1,360 schools.

This, according to the API, is partly due to the “slow rollout” of charter schools (17 within the state since 2015) and also to magnet schools not being universally accessible to district restricted students effectively limiting their school choice.

There are also currently only two private school choice programs offered within the state, the Alabama Accountability Act (AAA) and the Education Scholarship Program.

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The AAA is a refundable tax credit program but is restrictive to students who transfer from or are assigned to a failing public school to a non-failing public or private school.

The Education Scholarship Program is also a tax-credit scholarship program. While 2,611 scholarships were awarded in the 2021-2022 school year, and 2,829 scholarships were awarded in the 2022-23 school year, less than one percent of AL students used a scholarship.

API explained why universal school choice is so central to its mission.

“Alabama’s public schools continue to rank below the national average. Our leaders have incorrectly believed that increasing state funding( K-12 funding statewide has grown by almost 15% in the past five years), would be the solution to academic success.”

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“One of the tenets of the Alabama Policy Institute’s mission is to promote and defend families as the primary foundation to society,” the group said. “Therefore, school choice initiatives that acknowledge and strengthen the role of parents in their innate responsibility to educate and raise their children are a priority for API.”

“Regardless of the tools involved, the goal of school choice is to give parents agency to educate each of their children as they see fit,” the organization continued. “Further, the re-introduction and expansion of free- market principles have and will continue to improve the station of education in our state.”

“API believes that universal school choice is paramount to ensuring that every child in Alabama has a chance to flourish.”

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.

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