Latest news with #CHOOSEAct
Yahoo
5 days ago
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Local homeschoolers, private schools continue to see effects from CHOOSE Act
Jun. 5—Nearly half of students awarded an education credit from the CHOOSE Act in Morgan, Limestone and Lawrence counties will use it for homeschooling expenses. According to the Alabama Department of Revenue (ADOR), of the 817 students approved in the area, 386, or 47%, are homeschooled. The concentration of CHOOSE Act credits for homeschool in this area is higher than the statewide amount. Of the total students approved in the entire state, 30% are homeschooled, based on ADOR data. Meanwhile, local private schools are already at near capacity and looking to the future, as families submit proof of enrollment to receive a financial credit on July 1. An additional 390 CHOOSE Act recipients living in Morgan, Limestone and Lawrence Counties have plans to attend a private school in the fall, according to ADOR. Decatur Heritage Christian Academy and Lindsay Lane Christian Academy in Athens have multiple grades that are full. Both have opened additional kindergarten or pre-K units to address the need. "I'm very curious to know, in subsequent years, will we see even greater involvement because people are coming to know what this is about, and they're starting to understand it, and they're starting to figure it out?" said Steve Hall, head of schools for Decatur Heritage. "Or have we in one year gotten ourselves to a place where people get it, and the people who want it are doing it?" The Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students' Education (CHOOSE) Act is an education voucher program for lower-income families, which will award financial credits for the first time with the 2025-2026 school year. ADOR spokesperson Frank Miles said 23,465 applicants statewide were approved to receive this credit. Eligible families can receive $7,000 per student enrolled in a private school. Homeschooling families can receive $2,000 per student, or a maximum of $4,000. Families have until June 30 to provide proof of enrollment at a participating school to receive this credit, Miles said. The consensus from private school leaders is that the CHOOSE Act has brought some growth within its first year but not an unexpected or overwhelming amount. "We have been growing steadily since the COVID shutdown in 2020," said Limestone Christian Academy Academic Administrator Corey Patton. "The upcoming school year's growth is mostly in line with what we have experienced year over year the last three years. I wouldn't say the CHOOSE Act has affected our enrollment in a huge way, though it certainly has played a small role." Private schools saw some increased traffic around the application due date. Hall believes the school will continue to receive calls from both CHOOSE Act recipients — as the deadline to submit proof of enrollment approaches — and other prospective families through June and July. Hall is interested to see if the CHOOSE Act has a larger impact in coming years. He doesn't think knowledge of the voucher program was widespread, particularly in Morgan County, within its first year, he said. Although its student population has increased in the last five years, Hall said Decatur Heritage continues to be intentional with its growth. "Suddenly education was thrown in the laps of parents (during COVID-19), like, 'I can't get away from it. I can't just turn my kid over to a school; I'm overseeing it,'" Hall said. "They couldn't help but be intricately invested in it. ... It's been different. This has been a very impactful moment in history as it relates to education in America." Decatur Heritage broke ground on an expansion project in 2024. Original estimates gave a completion date in January of 2026. As of Wednesday, Decatur Heritage had about 380 confirmed students for the 2025-26 school year, plus an additional 25 that listed it on their CHOOSE Act but haven't contacted the school yet. Hall said the school could serve a maximum of 425 — 450 within its current space. Decatur Heritage would have space for an additional 80 — 100 students with this expansion, Hall said; however, he emphasized that the project's purpose was not to grow quickly, but rather to expand programming the school offers. Lindsay Lane Head of Schools Robby Parker said his district is also examining growth. He has started to discuss what this growth could mean for the future with the school board. "At this point, we're at the initial stages of seeing where we're at as we grow and as we fill," Parker said. "As the Lord blesses us, we've got to continue to look at where we're going." The school recently hired Brie Hollander as a director of admissions because it needed a dedicated contact for prospective families. With private schooling and homeschooling on the rise, Morgan County Schools Superintendent Tracie Turrentine said their student population hasn't declined. "In Morgan County Schools, our enrollment fluctuates slightly from year to year, but these changes are minimal and have not led to significant shifts," Turrentine said. "We have not seen any downward trajectory in enrollment, and as a result, maintaining and even adding teachers continues to be a priority." — or 256-340-2437
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Kay Ivey signs 2026 ETF, General Fund budgets
Gov. Kay Ivey delivers the State of the State address to the Alabama Legislature in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. Ivey on Tuesday said she had signed the state's two budgets into law. (Will McLelland for Alabama Reflector) Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday signed Alabama's budgets for the 2026 fiscal year. The Education Trust Fund (ETF) will provide nearly $10 billion in funding for the state's various education programs and agencies, and is a 6% increase over the previous year. The General Fund budget totals $3.7 billion for the 2026 fiscal year, a 10% increase ($347 million) over the current budget. Both budgets go into effect on Oct. 1. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ivey said in a statement that the budgets are an investment in the state's education. 'The budgets we made official this morning will continue investing in proven programs like the Literacy and Numeracy Acts. It will support our Turnaround Schools initiative to target some of our lowest performing schools. It will continue allowing these successful education reform policies to take shape while taking an active approach to do everything we can to support students, teachers and parents,' Ivey said in a statement. The ETF budget includes a $99.2 million increase for the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan. There are no pay raises for education employees in the budget. It also includes $9.6 million to support a newly enacted parental leave policy for state and education staff and $15.6 million designated for an employee injury compensation program. It includes significant funding boosts for key programs: AMSTI would increase by 31% ($32.2 million), ARI by 6.4% ($9 million) and transportation by approximately 9.1% ($40 million). The budget also provides $180 million for the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program that provides tax credits for nonpublic education expenses, including private school tuition. The program was initially slated to receive $100 million. Over two-thirds of applicants for the CHOOSE Act come from private schools or are homeschooled. The General Fund budget includes a $223.8 million (19%) increase over the current year for the Medicaid Agency, totaling $1.18 billion; a $90.1 million (11%) increase for the Alabama Department of Corrections, for a total of $826.7 million; a $4.7 million (3%) increase for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, totaling $148.9 million; and a $4.7 million (2%) increase for the Alabama Department of Mental Health, totally $244 million. Funding for the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles was reduced from $94.5 million to $90.6 million, a 4.1% decrease, in the Senate due to some lawmakers' concerns over low parole rates and responsiveness from board members. The amendment also made the board's funding conditional on the development of parole release guidelines. The board has faced criticism for significantly lower parole rates since 2017. The state is also increasing its contribution to employee health insurance. For each education employee, the PEEHIP contribution will go up from $800 to $904, and the SEIB contribution for each state employee will increase from $997 to $1,025. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
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CHOOSE Act brings increase in applications to local K-12 religious schools
Apr. 29—Local K-12 religious schools are seeing an influx of new applications due to an Alabama voucher-like program that begins in the 2025-26 school year and is funded with state education dollars. "With the families that we are interviewing for next year, a good number of them are telling us that we just were never an option until this came into play," said Steve Hall, head of schools for Decatur Heritage Christian Academy. The state Legislature passed the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students' Education (CHOOSE) Act in 2024. Qualified families can receive $7,000 per K-12 student enrolled in a private or out-of-district public school or $2,000 per student — up to a $4,000 maximum — for homeschooling programs. For now, eligibility is limited to families with adjusted gross incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level. According to ALDOR, about 75% of Alabama families meet those guidelines. For example, a family of three applying for the 2025-26 school year must make less than $77,460. Starting in the 2027 — 28 school year, those income limits will be eliminated, opening eligibility to all qualifying students regardless of household income. Applications for next school year closed April 7, and families will begin to hear if they've been awarded the credit this week. "We didn't necessarily know what to expect," Hall said. Nearly 37,000 students applied for the program statewide, including 521 Morgan County residents, 696 Limestone residents and 109 Lawrence residents. Decatur Heritage Christian Academy had 137 students list it as their school of choice in their CHOOSE Act application. Lindsay Lane Christian Academy had 244 and St. Ann Catholic School had 30. Most of the applications are from current students, but each school also saw significant growth in applicants. About 20 students not currently enrolled at Decatur Heritage listed it as their school of choice. If each of these students enrolled, it would mark a 5.3% increase of student population from the previous year. Hall said Decatur Heritage could handle this increase without too much trouble. "We do not intend to grow in a fashion that overwhelms us," Hall said. "We're going to measure our growth very intentionally." Kenneth Rolling, principal of Saint Ann Catholic School, sees the CHOOSE Act as an opportunity to recover from a decline in enrollment brought on largely by COVID-19. "I think especially as the program reaches fruition in the next couple years, it will have a significant impact, most especially (because of our) reliance on the parish for so much of our financial aid," Rolling said. St. Ann has 67 current students, many of whom receive financial aid of some sort, such as scholarships or parish member discounts. Rolling said having the CHOOSE Act shift the financial burden from the church to the state and will allow it to provide programming it couldn't previously afford. "One of the limitations that we've always kind of had in the competition for students, so to speak, against the public schools is that they've always had significantly more funding, obviously," Hall said, "and they often have, as a result of that, many programs that we can't afford, whether those be extracurriculars or additional services provided for students who have special learning needs." Critics of the CHOOSE Act are concerned about the damage that it will inflict on public schools. The act was originally funded with $50 million, and another $50 million was added this year, revenue pulled from the Education Trust Fund. A pending House education budget bill would add $80 million from an education reserve fund after a higher-than-expected number of students applied. "We value the importance of parental engagement in shaping their children's educational path," said Tracie Turrentine, superintendent of Morgan County Schools. "The Morgan County School System is committed to being that choice by providing great academic programs, career and technical opportunities, and a thriving athletics program. "However, we are concerned that the CHOOSE Act may redirect critical funding away from our schools." Robby Parker, who previously worked at Bob Jones High School in Madison for 33 years and is now head of schools for Lindsay Lane, has experience in both the public and private realms. "I don't think the CHOOSE Act is a scary thing," Parker said. "I don't see that it will hurt public schools, but I think that it will certainly help people who choose to come to a private school." The 244 CHOOSE Act applicants that listed Lindsay Lane as their choice represent a mix of current students and new applicants. Parker said the school has seen a significant increase in new applicants in the last two months. Lindsay Lane is near full capacity, though, and is even considering adding an additional kindergarten unit to meet the demand. Parker said that as the CHOOSE Act attracts more students to Lindsay Lane, the school will continue to be a Christian school. "We welcome everybody," he said. "We welcome diversity. We want diversity. But we do preach Jesus every day, and we want to share the gospel. ... We want to prepare our students to go anywhere, and be able to share Christ in whatever setting they're in." Hall said the CHOOSE Act aligns with Decatur Heritage's mission as a religious school. "We're a Christian school, and the kingdom of God is made up of people of all different races and ethnicities and socioeconomic positions, so our heart has always been, 'How do we look like our community? How do we bless the fullness of our community?'" Hall said. "And one of the greatest hurdles to doing that has been the financial limitations that some of our families face. (The CHOOSE Act) allows us to actually pursue the mission of our school and what we do more fully, so we're very excited about the opportunity to do that." Contact me at or 256-340-2437.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alabama House passes $10 billion education budget
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, presents the proposed 2026 Education Trust Fund budget in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 24, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The budget passed the chamber on a 103-0 vote. It will next go to the Senate, which approved the budget earlier this month, for concurrence with House changes or a conference committee. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House of Representatives passed a package of education funding bills Thursday, including a nearly $10 billion 2026 Education Trust Fund budget (ETF). SB 112, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, allocates $9.9 billion for K-12 schools and higher education, a 6% increase over the current budget. The House Ways and Means Education Committee approved the budget on Tuesday. 'This was an important budget. I think the members understood it, but the work got done,' Garrett said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The budget also includes $135 million for the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program that will award students with funds to be used for education-related expenses, including private school tuition. The program was initially slated to get $100 million, but Garrett said that because of the nearly 37,000 applications there needed to be more money for qualifying students. 'We have had such an enormous response to the application process. So there were a lot of moving pieces here,' Garrett said after the House adjourned. The program is currently limited to special needs students and those making under 300% of the poverty line, about $79,950 for a family of three. The program will be open to all applicants starting in 2027, without any income limits. About two-thirds of the 37,000 applicants for the program this year are already in private school or homeschooled. The budget also includes a $99.2 million increase for the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan. There are no pay raises for education employees in the budget. Garrett said they also had to allocate funds for educator workmen's compensation and paid parental leave. 'So we had a lot of things in the budget, but the good news was we had adequate reserves. We had limited our budget growth every year for the past several years,' he said. The budget passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute. It moves to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. The Senate approved the budget on April 10. Garrett said one of his priorities in the budget is continuing to invest in public education in the state. SB 305, also sponsored by Orr, allows the Legislature to appropriate additional funds to schools based on student needs. The House added an additional $58 million to begin the transition to the new model. The bill passed 103-0. It goes to Gov. Kay Ivey to be signed into law. SB 111, also sponsored by Orr, would appropriate $375 million over three years for that transition, which aims to get more money to students with particular needs, including children in poverty and English Language Learners. 'Every district can report how many students they have that are in the poverty definition, how many are in special education, how many are English as a second language,' he said. 'And what we will do is allocate this additional pot of money to those districts based upon that weight.' Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, supported the weighted funding model. Under the legislation, Montgomery County Schools will receive $7.7 million with most coming from the 2.5% weight for poverty. 'I know students in Montgomery Public Schools are going to be better off because of this,' Ensler said. The bill passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute that added $80 million to the Education Opportunity Reserve Fund for the CHOOSE Act. It goes to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. The Senate adjourned Thursday before final approval of the budgets, so its consideration was not possible Thursday. The House also passed SB 113, also sponsored by Orr, which is the $524 million 2025 supplemental appropriation for education. It passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute that added funds for various needs. It also passed with a floor amendment from Garrett that changed language to clarify funding for dual enrollment programs. It moves to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. The House also passed SB 114, also sponsored by Orr, which is the $1.25 billion supplemental appropriation for the Advancement and Technology budget. It passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute that added a $100 million grant to create career technical programs in areas of the state that do not have one already. It moves to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. Garrett said that he hopes the creation of the programs will improve Alabama's labor participation rate. The state ranks 47th in labor participation at 57.8%, according to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee. 'These initiatives that we've undertaken, through improving education, through increasing the Career Tech opportunities and collaboration with community colleges, all of that,' he said. 'If that drives that labor participation rate up, the state is in a really good position.' House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, commended the budget committee and Garrett for their work on the budget. 'This was a great deal. Chairman Garrett did outstanding. His committee works hard, and the work showed that today,' Ledbetter said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alabama House of Representatives passes Education Trust Fund Budget for 2026
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — The Alabama House of Representatives has passed the Education Trust Fund (ETF) Budget and its supplemental appropriation for Fiscal Year 26. 'As Alabama continues to make remarkable strides in public education, it's vital that lawmakers in Montgomery remain committed to equipping our school systems with the necessary resources to help students thrive,' said Speaker Ledbetter (R-Rainsville). 'This year's ETF is significant for several reasons. It funds paid parental leave for teachers, expands summer and afterschool programs, and increases funding for the Alabama numeracy act, which has been a catalyst for our state's nation-leading gains in 4th grade math. We're making another strong investment in the CHOOSE Act, Alabama's school choice program that is proving to be in high demand. Finally, we are creating the RAISE Program, a student-weighted funding model that funds schools based on their specific needs rather than headcount.' ETF/Supplemental Highlights Include the following: $27 million increase for the Numeracy Act $14.4 million increase for Summer/Afterschool Programs $9.6 million for Paid Parental Leave $15.6 million for Teachers Workman's Compensation $58 million for the RAISE Act $80 million increase for the CHOOSE Act 'I'm proud to have passed another strong Education Budget that positions our school systems for success,' said Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville), who chairs the House Ways and Means Education Committee. 'For the first time ever, we are funding schools based off the needs of the specific students they serve instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach and funding on headcount alone. We're also making significant investments in programs supporting teachers and students. Public education is on the rise in Alabama, and I believe that the passage of this budget will help us continue moving in the right direction.' The Education Trust Fund will now return to the Senate floor for concurrence. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
