Alabama House education budget committee members had a lot of questions for Chairman Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, during his presentation of the latest configuration a bill that would create education savings accounts, or ESAs, for eligible students at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

HB129 would provide eligible families $7,000 in state tax dollars per student to pay for the cost of educating their child in a participating school or for other eligible expenses. Low-income families and students with disabilities would become eligible for money first. All families become eligible at the start of the 2027-28 school year.

“The purpose behind this legislation is to provide opportunities that are not currently available to parents,” Garrett said, “to use a portion of their tax dollars to choose a school that best meets the needs of their child, whether that be for academic, social, emotional, environmental, mental health, or perhaps bullying reasons.”

Families who homeschool their children could receive $2,000 per child, up to $4,000 each year, for eligible expenses.

Related: What is an ESA? Is Alabama going to get new school choice option?

Rep. Debbie Wood, R- Valley, asked Garrett if participating private schools would have to accept students who have an Individualized Education Program requiring specialized instruction and services.

Gov. Kay Ivey’s education policy advisor Nick Moore answered the question saying no, private schools are not required to provide specialized services to students with disabilities. Families will have to make a decision based on the child’s needs.

Other committee members showed concern about accountability for the state tax dollars that will be used.

“Three years from now,” Rep. Cynthia Almond, R-Tuscaloosa, asked Garrett, “how will we analyze whether this program has been successful?”

Garrett said they’ll look at how many people use an ESA and whether ESAs were ultimately helping to move the needle in public schools.

Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, asked how they can objectively evaluate the program’s effectiveness. “I feel like there needs to be a uniform system of testing or for there to be some type of evaluation for us as policymakers,” Baker said.

Baker pointed to the Alabama Commission on Evaluation Services as a state agency that has the ability to evaluate the state’s return on investment in the ESA program.

The CHOOSE Act requires participating private schools to test students, but does not dictate which test the school must use. Opponents speaking against the bill last week in the Senate Education Budget committee said they want all students using ESAs to take the standardized test public school students take. Supporters of ESAs say participating schools should test students based on what their standards and curricula are.

Alabama does not regulate what private schools or homeschool educators teach.

“I think that’s where the free market and the market kind of comes in to take control over how we give information to the parents to make the choices best for their child,” Garrett replied.

Read more: New school choice option a ‘top priority’ for Ivey: What’s the impact on public schools?

Baker said he is concerned about the possibility of giving taxpayer money to parents who claim to homeschool their children but don’t actually educate them. Baker said he has seen multiple instances where homeschooled students re-enter public schools and are one or more grade levels behind.

“I guess I’m a little concerned about taxpayer dollars going out because it’s hard for us to distinguish who are the responsible parents and who are the irresponsible parents,” Baker said. “And so to me, if there’s not some type of testing for student outcomes, then we really don’t know if these dollars are being squandered.”

Garrett said guardrails on how the money can be spent should catch whether ESAs are being used for appropriate and eligible expenses.

Baker also expressed concern about allowing unaccredited schools to participate and obtain ESA money. The bill allows unaccredited schools to participate and gives them three years to go through the process of accreditation.

Garrett said that amount of time would allow private schools time to get set up in areas where there are few private schools for students to attend. According to a map assembled by the Alabama Association of School Boards, at least a dozen counties have only one private school in the county and five counties have no private schools.

Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, said she is concerned about the quality of education provided by a participating private school. “Will certified teachers be required at those private and home schools?” she asked.

There are no requirements for public school alternatives to employ certified teachers in the bill, Garrett said.

Drummond also expressed concern about parents not knowing enough about their choices because there is no requirement for private schools to provide testing or other information to parents.

“When you talk about school choice,” Garrett responded, “you’re giving authority to parents, and it’s incumbent upon those parents to do their diligence.”

“All we can do is guarantee that where they go meets requirements and these standards,” he continued. “Whether or not that’s the best school for their student…that’s really upon the parent. We have to trust the parent to make that decision.”

One concern raised by opponents in last week’s Senate Education Budget hearing was whether lawmakers should continue to allocate funding if no one uses the ESAs. Garrett said the new version limits the annual funding for ESAs to $100 million if 90%, or $90 million, has not been used in the previous year.

Lawmakers can allocate more than $100 million, with no upper limit, if 90% or more of the $100 million is used, he said.

The committee held a public hearing where five supporters, one opponent and four who said they were “neutral,” spoke about the bill.

The committee plans to vote on a new version of the bill tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. The new version introduced during the committee was not available online prior to publication of this article.