It’s not about the money
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
The Alabama Legislature is now in session for 2025. They have quite a number of bills already pre-filed on their agenda covering many topics and issues. If you are interested you can go to the website for the Alabama Legislature for more information.
But I want to give an update on the Choose Act that was approved last session and the ways our education system is being improved by returning the ability for parents to be involved in the education of THEIR children.
The Choose Act enables parents to apply for Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) through the Department of Revenue to receive some of their personal state tax money for the type of education they want their children to receive. Registration was opened on January 2, and by January 10, 6,979 family applications for 11,916 students had been received.
The application period runs through April 7, and is for the 2025-26 school year. If approved, the parents will be notified sometime in May.
The money deposited in the ESA can be used to help pay for tuition at a private or religious school, tutoring assistance, educational therapies, and other educational expenses that are covered by the service providers (schools, etc.) located around the state. The program is currently limited to K-12 students.
The main purpose is to give parents the options to send their children to schools, other than public schools, which might offer a curriculum more suited to the child’s needs. It also provides for more ability to utilize a public school other than the one they are assigned to (if they have room and services).
In the 2025 edition of the “Index of State Education Freedom: A 50-State Guide to Parental Empowerment,” Alabama scored eleventh in the country – up from twenty-second last year. The Choose Act here in Alabama took several years to pass out of our legislature, and many other states are still working towards programs at this time. They will be aided by President Trump’s effort to make this nationwide for all parents.
Education (or lack thereof) has become a huge issue since the creation of the U.S. Department of Education by President Jimmy Carter. Decisions for how our children are educated were removed from the state and local school boards and moved to Washington, D.C. – along with a lot of our tax dollars.
Education employee unions were established to provide enormous benefits to the educators and staffs at all levels. Here in Alabama it was a REQUIREMENT to belong to the Alabama Education Association that was the local partner of the National Education Association. By requiring union membership these associations made sure the employees voted to improve their work environment, but not necessarily improvements in the education of the students.
Who is the education system meant to support – “educators” or students/parents? Our society is based on the educational level of each generation of high school students to be prepared to join the work force, continue with their education for better employment, or be trained in a trade.
Back in my day elementary through high school was a gradual movement through learning to read, write and do arithmetic. History, science, civics, home economics, wood or mechanical shop, and other options were added along the way. We were not taught about sex, 57 genders, political stances, or technical issues. We were required to read books about history and the founding of our country. The addition of Common Core requirements changed all of that.
Of course the addition of computers, laptops and Chromebooks also changed so much of how our children are taught. No more cursive writing, holding a book in their hands, turning the pages, and going back and forth. These “upgrades” also took the parents out of being able to know what their children were being taught and/or how to help them with homework.
Parents were not welcome in the educational arena anymore. But hopefully that will change this legislative session with a bill entitled “Transparency in Education” that will provide for parents to be allowed to see the curriculum in their child’s school.
Every child learns at a pace and in a manner that fits them. There are four main ways children learn – visual, audible, kinesthetic, and reading/writing.
Visual students learn by seeing and observing how something is done – with pictures, diagrams and written instructions. Audible students learn best by listening – lectures, discussions, even reading aloud. The kinesthetic students learn easier if they are allowed to move around while they are listening or are performing hands-on projects. Then there are the students who learn best from reading and writing (with listening thrown in) so they can memorize, research and investigate.
Public schools provide some of each of these methods, but are limited because of the diversity of the student body.
This is where the opportunity to send your child to a school more specialized in the way your child learns comes in. Private schools can offer more options geared to several different teaching methods. Public schools teach in a more general way that overlaps the different methods and are great for children who can learn by a mix of the methods.
And again, it comes down to the type of education parents want or need for their child. The Choose Act provides that freedom without the issue of how families can afford the school best for their child.
If you are interested in more information, please look up “The Choose Act – Alabama.” If you are interested in applying for an ESA, go to https://classwallet.com/alchoose. Don’t continue to struggle just because of your economic situation – you do have options.
