BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – For more than a decade, Alabama lawmakers have pushed public schools for more accountability: More testing, more transparency and a sharper focus on student outcomes. But under the state’s new CHOOSE Act school choice program, that responsibility won’t apply to private schools.
Instead, the law leaves it to parents to monitor how well the independent schools – now receiving public funds – are serving their children. Supporters say the shift is intentional, reflecting a belief that parents, not government, should decide what educational success looks like.
“People today are looking at every aspect of their lives about customization, flexibility and choice,” House Education Budget Chairman Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, told Alabama Daily News. “A lot of things have driven these changes.”
“I had to get across in my mind that if a parent, a person, chooses to go a non-traditional route, that they have that freedom and that right to do that. And if they do that, and they remove themselves from under the purview of the government umbrella of public education – that’s a decision that they made.”
“And because of the changing thought about customization, flexibility and choice and the fact that their tax dollars can now be used to support these choice options, an alternative route…it’s not our responsibility now to monitor that child or that family, because they’ve made a decision to go a different direction.”
The CHOOSE Act does require private schools enrolling students with ESAs to administer annual tests and submit results to the Alabama Department of Revenue. However, there is no requirement for ALDOR to analyze or publicly report those scores.
House Education Policy Chair Terri Collins, R-Decatur, acknowledged the CHOOSE Act lacks strong accountability measures but said adding more state oversight might have discouraged schools from participating.
“Accountability is important to me,” she said. “And I think any of the ones that are doing a great job should also want good accountability [provisions].”
As of June 18, more than 14,700 students headed to private schools have been approved for $7,000 ESAs, totaling more than $103 million in public funding for private school expenses this fall. The final number may grow as applications are still being reviewed.
By comparison, Alabama’s main funding mechanism for public schools – the Foundation Program – will provide $5.6 billion for basic K-12 education in the 2025-26 school year. That works out to about $7,800 per public school student. But local school districts are required to contribute a portion of that amount, bringing the average state share to roughly $6,600 per student.
The table below shows where students were during the 2024-25 school year and where they will use their CHOOSE Act ESA during the 2025-26 school year. Click here if you’re unable to see the table.
Garrett and other proponents argue that the CHOOSE Act is focused on educational freedom, not performance measures. They say parents are best positioned to judge where a school meets their child’s needs and that accountability rests with families, not the state.
Collins, too, emphasized the role of parents in monitoring educational quality. “I do think parents need to make the right choices and need to follow up on those choices to make sure they continue to be good for the students.”
She also noted that decisions to leave local public schools aren’t always driven by academic concerns.
“They’re about bullying,” she said. “They’re about keeping the child engaged in school. Which is why choice is a positive thing in my mind, because you are able to meet each individual child at a different place.”
Still, the lack of outcome reporting has drawn concerns from education experts and public school advocates, who highlight the disparity in expectations between public and private schools receiving state money.
During a recent panel discussion about testing and accountability at a national seminar for education writers, Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment and a national expert on school accountability, said that if public money is involved, some measure of outcomes is appropriate.
“The argument that’s being made is the reason why we need this choice is because public schools are not serving these kids,” Marion said. “How do we know they’re not serving these kids? Test scores. But yet we’re going to put money into non-public schools and say that it’s fine and we don’t need test scores. I don’t understand how the argument has any logic to it.”
In a recent Alabama Daily News op-ed, Autauga County Superintendent Lyman Woodfin and Elmore County Superintendent Richard Dennis echoed the call for consistent accountability, asking for private schools to be evaluated through the same State Report Card used for public schools:
“If the State Report Card is the chosen tool to measure the effectiveness of schools, then private schools that accept public money should not be exempt from this accountability. By requiring all schools that accept public funds to be evaluated by the same State Report Card, parents will have an unbiased and equal tool to measure the educational success of any school – public, charter, or private.”
Dale Chu, a fellow at the right-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute, was also a member of the national panel and said that in recent years, some choice advocates have shifted focus from short-term test scores to long-term student outcomes.
“The argument is that there’s a difference between short-term results – state test scores – versus long-line outcomes like high school graduation, college matriculation,” Chu said.
Nationally, some studies have found that private school students may be more likely to graduate from high school or attend college, but those outcomes are not always tied directly to short-term academic performance or test scores.
In Alabama, there is limited state-level data on how private school students perform compared to their public school peers. Private schools are not required to use the same assessments as public schools, making comparisons difficult.
However, Alabama’s earlier school choice initiative – the Alabama Accountability Act – does offer a limited view.
Created in 2013, the AAA provides tax credit scholarships for eligible students to attend private schools. Unlike the CHOOSE Act, the law mandates biannual evaluation of the program’s impact on student outcomes. The University of Alabama’s Institute for Social Science Research has conducted five such evaluations since the program began.
The evaluations address three questions: How scholarship recipients perform academically, how they compare to economically disadvantaged public school students and whether longer participation in the program leads to improved outcomes.
More than 90% of scholarship recipients are considered economically disadvantaged – an eligibility requirement of the program – allowing researchers to compare their results to low-income students’ results in public schools.
One consistent finding in the reports is that comparing public school student outcomes to private school student outcomes isn’t possible when the two groups take different tests. Researchers have repeatedly noted that variations in the tests by and among private schools, particularly in the early grades, make it difficult to compare results.
Even with that limitation, across the five reports, findings have been largely consistent. Across most grades and subjects, researchers found few statistically significant differences in outcomes between low-income public school students and scholarship recipients attending private schools.
The most recent report, published last year, did note a bright spot. Proficiency rates for 11th grade scholarship students in 2022-23 were significantly higher in ACT English compared to public school peers.
Researchers cautioned, however, that variations in the tests used by private schools, particularly in early grades, limit the ability to make consistent comparisons. And the ACT difference could reflect a particular focus on college preparation in some private schools.
As Alabama’s CHOOSE Act takes effect, the question of how – if at all – to know if the public’s money is being used well remains unsolved.
Garrett acknowledged the program’s different approach to accountability.
“I think the vast majority of those parents are going to make informed decisions that they think are best for their children and probably are going to work out for the best,” Garrett said.
This article was updated at 9:30 a.m. to include the most recent CHOOSE Act award numbers received from the Alabama Department of Revenue.