Yaffee: Is real school choice finally coming to Alabama in 2024?

Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth released his New Year’s resolutions for 2024 and at the very top of the list is passing a school choice bill.

Ainsworth isn’t the only one already putting the idea out there for the 2024 legislative session. Alabama Senate Pro Tem Greg Reed (R-Jasper) said this could be the year where lawmakers can look at more “controversial” issues like gambling and, you guessed it, school choice.

This is encouraging not only because it’s obviously on the agenda, but it seems to be one of the main priorities.

But before we start celebrating a conservative win for education, we have to remember this is Alabama, and for some reason passing school choice isn’t easy here, even if it’s a deep red state.

Late last year an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal accused Republicans in the Legislature of being too beholden to the Alabama Education Association (AEA). The op-ed claimed that even GOP lawmakers don’t want to go against one of their biggest political donors. If anyone in Montgomery reading disagrees with that, there’s an easy way to prove it wrong. Pass REAL school choice.

I like that Ainsworth didn’t just put school choice in his New Year’s resolution. He made sure specifically to call for “real” school choice. The reason that’s important is there will be an effort to water down any kind of reform package that makes it through the Legislature. If the AEA can’t kill it completely, you can be sure they will attempt to turn it into something that is either school choice lite or isn’t school choice at all.

It looks like the person who will lead the effort to pass it in the House is State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity). He is going to put forward a bill that will include Educational Savings Accounts and be based on certain pillars like including universal availability, flexibility for parents, autonomy for private schools, transparency for public school curriculum, and it must not increase the size or scope of government. This is what real school choice looks like and this is the foundation that leadership should use to move forward.

At the beginning of last year Gov. Kay Ivey issued a proclamation recognizing January 22-28 as Alabama School Choice Week.

While I’m not upset about that, I am upset it didn’t result in anything substantial passing in the 2023 session. Proclamations are nice, but actions in the Legislature are better. If the governor wants to show true leadership on this issue, she needs to use her authority to get real school choice passed.

Parents are more concerned than ever about what their children are being taught in public schools. Not only are too many schools lagging behind academically, but many of them are pushing a woke agenda. The best thing lawmakers can do to fight back against that is to break the back of the government school monopoly.

It won’t solve every problem in our education system, but it will give many students the opportunity for a better future.

Let’s hope 2024 isn’t just the year to better education in the Yellowhammer State, but is the year to pass real school choice.

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee