Bills to allow up to $6,900 in public money to help a student attend a private school and expand a major 2013 school choice law received favorable votes in an Alabama Senate committee Wednesday.
Senate Bill 202 by Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, would create education savings accounts funded by tax dollars that families could use in private settings, including homeschools.
Separately, Senate Bill 263 by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, would expand the 2013 Accountability Act, allowing more students to participate and receive more in state-funded scholarships to attend private schools.
Meanwhile, a new school choice and scholarships bill was introduced this week by education committee leaders in the House.
PRICE Act
Wednesday’s vote was the first for the Parental Rights in Children’s Education Act, known as the PRICE Act. Stutts amended the bill in committee to cap its impact on the Education Trust Fund to $50 million per year in the first three years. The bill originally had a potential impact of $576 million per year on the ETF, according to a fiscal note.
Senate education budget committee chairman Sen. Arthur Orr R-Decatur, said more changes may be needed on the bill, including possibly lowering that cap on scholarships, as it moves forward.
“Before it hits the (Senate) floor, we still have a lot of work to do,” Orr told Stutts.
Stutts agreed.
“This is the next step in an ongoing debate,” he said. Stutts has argued that parents are best equipped to make education choices for their children and the state should help support them.
The legislative session is now expected to last until early June and there are up to 11 legislative days to pass bills. Proponents of the bill have said this is the school choice bill Alabama families want and deserve. Opponents have said it will harm public schools that are held to testing requirements the private schools wouldn’t be.
Democrats on the committee reiterated those concerns Wednesday.
“We’re getting ready to flunk third graders — we’re holding them to high standards — we’re going to send these people ($6,900 with no standards)?” said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. He was referring to the Literacy Act, which will require starting next school year public school to hold back third grade students who are not proficient in reading
Orr said he wanted to compare the PRICE Act to another recently filed school choice bill, House Bill 442, by Reps. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, and Terri Collins, R-Decatur.
That bill also allows for $6,900 per year for private and home-based educations. It requires students to complete a yearly portfolio describing their “educational opportunities and achievements” that year.
That bill has been assigned to the House Ways and Means Education Committee, which Garrett chairs.
AAA expanded
The 2013 Accountability Act allows families leaving the state’s lowest-performing public schools to receive tax credits for costs related to attending private schools. Separately, there is a $30 million-per-year scholarship fund for private school tuition. Businesses and individuals who donate to the fund receive income tax credits. Scholarship Granting Organizations, or SGOs, collect and distribute the money to low-income families. While priority is given to students coming from failing schools, the law says no more than 25% of first-time scholarship recipients may have already been enrolled in a private school the previous year.
Chesteen’s Senate Bill 263 would remove the long controversial term “failing schools” and would instead create “priority schools” that receive a “D” or an “F” on the state’s school report card. Students in those schools would be eligible for scholarships if they meet an income requirement. Chesteen said that change will make the pool of schools and potential students larger. Currently about 70 schools are “failing” and his change would label more than 200 “priority.”
Under current law, elementary school students can get up to $6,000 per year in scholarships. Middle school students can get up to $8,000 and high school students can get up to $10,000.
Chesteen’s bill would allow all students to get up to $10,000 per year.
Under current law, families receiving the scholarships cannot make more than 185% of the federal poverty level, about $55,000 for a family of four. The bill changes that to 250%, about $75,000. The bill also says once a family begins receiving a scholarship, they can remain eligible until they’re earning 350% of the federal poverty level — about $105,000 for a family of four.
The bill also increases the amount in tax credits that can be obtained under the act from a total of $30 million a year to $40 million with the option of future increases up to $60 million.
“This will allow more students the opportunity of school choice,” Chasten told Alabama Daily News. He hopes to get the bill through the Senate by early next week.