The legislative effort to expand parental involvement in student education faces an uphill battle due to opposition from various interests in Montgomery, according to State Sen. Del Marsh (R-Anniston).
His bill, “The Parents’ Choice Act,” seeks to create an education savings account which would follow students to the schools of their parent or guardians’ choice. Marsh’s legislation aims to expand schooling opportunities afforded to students with the intended goal of enhancing education quality.
During a Thursday interview with WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” Marsh outlined the resistance his legislation faces from what he referred to as the “monopoly” currently enjoyed by public education.
“[T]he bottom line is this: The education community, the public education community is never going to support anything dealing with parents’ choice or school choice because they have a monopoly,” proclaimed Marsh. “They like the monopoly so you continuously get things thrown up, ‘Well, if you’ll do this… this might work.’ It never ends. And so, at the end of the day, I believe in parents’ choice. I think it’s the right move for the state. I think it will bring accountability to the public system and improve it over time.”
While opponents have expressed their dissent with the bill, Marsh advised that no alternatives have been offered that seek to address the issue.
“The people in the legislature have to ask themselves, ‘Are we satisfied with these test scores and the direction of education in this state?’ Which I’m not,” he added. “And if so, what are we going to do about it? If you don’t like this plan, show me another. And thus far, I’ve not heard of another plan anybody’s considering.”
Marsh made a public plea to students’ family members encouraging them to apply pressure on their elected representation and advocate for the bill’s passage.
“What needs to happen are parents, individuals, grandparents need to be calling these legislators saying, ‘Hey, we want parents’ choice. We want to participate in our child’s education and have decisions.’ And that’s what’s going to have to happen,” continued the senator. “There’s going to have to be enough groundswell from the public, and, unfortunately, I just don’t know right know if it’s there.”
“You’ve got lobbyists here representing these big organizations. You know, as legislators we are actually truly the lobbyists for the people of Alabama,” declared Marsh. “They don’t have paid lobbyists. We’re supposed to represent them.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
