Montgomery, Ala. (AP) – More than half of or families who applied for Alabama's New School Voucher Program Have Children Attending A Private School or are home schooling, Numbers That Buoy School Choice Advocates who Say the Flood of Applications The Approach Is What Parents Want
The office of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey released application figures for the Choose Act on Tuesday, the new program that will help to tackle state dollars in eligible to help pay for private school or home education costs. Families have submitted 22,167 applications for a total of 36,873 students.
Ivey said that the robust number of applications is a sign that “clear, tax -paying Alabama families want school choice.”
“The Choose Act, the Alabama's Education Savings Account program, will offer more tax -paying Alabama families the opportunity to choose a school that meets the individual needs of their child. We are very encouraged by the strong response in year one of the program,” Ivey said in a statement about the application numbers.
The considerable number of applications evokes the possibility that the state will exhaust the available $ 100 million in financing for the first year of the program, and that legislators will try to put extra money in the program.
The figures showed that more than half of the applications come for students who are already going to a private school or have been trained at home. Of those 36,873 students, 10,287 students from public schools, 15,436 students come from private schools and 9,070 are home schooled.
Alabama is one of the states that use vouchers, tax credits or fairs to parents to help families pay for private school or education costs outside the public school environment.
Alabama's Choose Act, or creating hope and opportunities for our students' education law, will offer eligible families with no less than $ 7,000 in state money through educational savings for tuition fees or costs of a private school at a participating school. Parents can also get up to $ 2,000 for home school costs.
The first 500 slots are reserved for families of students with disabilities. Being eligible is initially limited to families who earn up to 300% of the federal poverty area, which is around $ 77,460 for a family of three. The Income Cap will disappear in 2027, but families with lower incomes with students with disabilities would have priority for funds.
Alabama's legislators have assigned $ 100 million for the first year of the program. Gina Maiola, a spokeswoman for Ivey, said that the state will “possibly” provide “possible” from the available financing as possible.
Families will be informed from 1 May if they receive a prize.
“This surpassed what we had expected in the year one for the number of applications. The question is how much of these are eligible. How many are under the income cap of 300%?” Senator Arthur Orr, the chairman of the Senate Education Budget-Writing Committee, said.
ORR, R-Decatur, said he is looking at the possibility of a conditional or additional appropriation if the $ 100 million is not sufficient to cover the eligible applicants.
White families accounted for 58.6% of the applications, while non-white families accounted for 41.4% of the applications. The population of Alabama is around 64.1% white.
Proponents say that the programs let parents choose how to best train their children. Critics say that the money from public schools turns off to help families who may have already decided to register their children in a private school.
“I am worried about the fact that we have around 150 failing schools and those schools need extra income,” said Senator Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, referring to the designation for schools with low test scores.
“As this grows, the money will take on public education,” Smitherman added.
