Supporters Rally for School Choice As Alabama Waits for AAA Ruling
As the state legislature prepares to take up the subject of charter schools and the state supreme court readies a ruling on the controversial Alabama Accountability Act, thousands are expected to gather in Montgomery on Wednesday to rally for expanded school choice.
According to representatives from the Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which grew out of the Alabama Accountability Act (AAA), organizers are billing the event as the largest-ever school-choice gathering in Alabama to date. With well over 2,000 students, parents, educators, and activists expected to gather on Wednesday, the focus of the rally will be swaying lawmakers to expand K-12 educational options in the state.
The gathering is part of National School Choice Week (NSCW), a self-described annual celebration of expanded school choice for parents and their children.
School choice is the subject of ongoing debate across the state. In 2013, Alabama Republican lawmakers made an effort to, among other things, expand school choice by implementing the AAA, which grants tax breaks to both families and corporations with the intent of giving low- and middle-income families access to private schools and public schools considered “non-failing,” based on controversial criteria laid out in the law itself. But since its inception, the law has faced fierce legal opposition.
In August 2013, state senator Quinton Ross, Alabama Education Association President Anita Gibson, and Lowndes County School Superintendent Daniel Boyd filed a lawsuit to overturn the act. Montgomery County Circuit Judge Gene Reese ruled last May that the AAA violated the state constitution because it contained more than one subject and lacked a two-thirds vote by the House and Senate. AAA proponents appealed, and the case is currently under the review of the Alabama Supreme Court, which could rule any day.
Those in favor of the AAA say it has helped families access quality educational options. According to Lesley Searcy, Executive Director of the Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund, “We hope that leaders from around the state will see the demand and know there is a desire by low-income parents to provide the best possible education for their children through school choice.”
Critics of the AAA say that it deprives the public school system of drastically needed public funds. According to independent education analyst Trisha Powell Crain, “those who work in the public schools form the largest opposition to school choice because it diverts money away from the existing school systems.”
There will likely be a similar heated debate assuming the state legislature takes up a charter school bill this spring.
Nancy Guthrie search enters its second week as a purported deadline looms
"This is very valuable to us, and we will pay," Savannah Guthrie said in a new video message, seeking to communicate with people who say they're holding her mother.
Immigration courts fast-track hearings for Somali asylum claims
Their lawyers fear the notices are merely the first step toward the removal without due process of Somali asylum applicants in the country.
Ilia Malinin’s Olympic backflip made history. But he’s not the first to do it
U.S. figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin did a backflip in his Olympic debut, and another the next day. The controversial move was banned from competition for decades until 2024.
Japan’s Takaichi to pursue conservative agenda after election landslide
Japan's first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, brought the ruling Liberal Democratic Party its biggest-ever electoral victory, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she says could "split public opinion."
Olympic COVID restrictions are gone, but some athletes are still self-quarantining
For most people, the pandemic days of masking are behind them. In certain corners of the Winter Olympics, though, things still look a lot like they did in COVID times. Some athletes are taking extreme measures to stay healthy.
Mikaela Shiffrin has battled grief, PTSD and freak injury. Now come the Olympic Games
Shiffrin became a celebrity at 18 years old after becoming the youngest-ever skier to win Olympic slalom gold. Since then, she has faced grief, PTSD and freak injury — yet she is ready to bounce back.
