According to a report by WSFA, the Montgomery County Board of Education on Wednesday passed a resolution calling for the repeal of the Alabama Accountability Act by the state legislature.
This act allows students in a failing school to transfer to a non-failing school using state tax dollars.
In a 5-1 vote that was supported by the Alabama Education Association (AEA), Montgomery Public Schools’ board said that it “strongly recommends to the Alabama legislature that the Alabama Accountability Act be repealed when the legislature meets in regular session in 2019.”
However, the lone dissenting voter and board vice president Lesa Keith expressed how misguided that recommendation is.
“When you have a government giving you a chance to come out of poverty to be a part of the learning system, would you not buy into that? And why would a board of education try and stop that?” Keith asked.
She affirmed that parents should have the choice of where to send their kids when the public school in an area is failing.
“And for us to try and take that away, an education that is offered, is criminal,” Keith said.
The 2018 list released by the Alabama Department of Education showed that 11 out of the 75 failing schools in the state are in Montgomery County.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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