Some Alabama lawmakers want to nearly double funding for the state’s new school choice program to meet heightened demand from families.

A House committee on Tuesday approved an amended budget proposal that included new measures for funding the CHOOSE Act, a program that provides up to $7,000 in tax credits for students to use toward private education.

The $100 million program has attracted more than 36,000 applicants since it opened in January; the program can support an estimated 14,000 students. To avoid turning eligible families away, lawmakers want to give the state department of revenue up to $80 million more to cover additional accounts. The Senate, which previously approved a $35 million increase, would have to greenlight any changes before the governor signs off.

“There’s a significant part of our population that wants customization, flexibility and choice,” Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, told reporters after the vote. “We’re trying to accommodate that and at the same time, we have an obligation to have strong public schools, and we don’t right now.”

In the program’s first three years, first priority will go to students with disabilities, followed by military and low-income families. Garrett said the $80 million in extra funding would come out of a reserve account, and any money that isn’t spent will go back to that fund.

Alabama families should find out soon whether they will get CHOOSE education savings accounts. More than 200 schools have applied to participate (see the list here).

Updates to school funding

Lawmakers also are considering a $375 million program to overhaul the way public schools are funded. Under the RAISE Act, schools would be funded based on specific student needs, rather than headcount alone.

Starting in the 2025-26 school year, the state will provide up to $100 million more to schools that serve large populations of English learners, students with disabilities, gifted students and children from low-income families.

In total, the state plans to send $9.9 billion to public schools and colleges this year. Other big-ticket items include:

• a $100 million effort to create regional career tech centers in public school districts that aren’t able to provide CTE courses,
• increases to the state’s literacy, numeracy and afterschool efforts,
• and new benefits for parental leave and workers’ compensation.

“I realize that there’s different opinions about school choice,” Garrett told the committee Tuesday. “We have the CHOOSE Act, and we’re committed to that. But we are committing more than that funding into the public schools. And I think that what we’re doing, especially looking at student needs, is very, very important.”

Earlier this year, state financial experts warned about possible budget shortfalls. Garrett said the state is lucky to have several reserves that can help the legislature weather the storm.

Teacher raises unlikely

Teacher pay raises, however, are unlikely this year, he said. Starting pay for Alabama teachers is currently among the highest in the region at $47,600 for new teachers with a bachelor’s degree only.

Spending adjustments will be directed toward benefits and rising health insurance costs, he said.

“What we were hearing from the education community was that they really wanted that PEEHIP increase covered, and that’s almost $100 million out of the budget,” he said. “That was very important to them, so we heard that more so than raises.”

State Superintendent Eric Mackey said he hopes the budget makes it smoothly through the rest of the approval process. He said he feels good about the current proposal. Eventually, he’d like to see students get at least $1,000 more.

“I think that they really did their homework,” he said of the funding commission. “We had two years of talking about this, and a year of the commission working together, and they found the right balance.”

Garrett said he’s optimistic that the state is “on a good road forward” despite economic uncertainty. Future budgets will have to be dynamic to meet changing needs of families and schools, he said.

“If the RAISE Act is as popular, as impactful, and there’s as much demand for that as we see with the CHOOSE Act, we may see additional funding for that,” he added. “But student needs are something we really want to accommodate.”