Testimony in Support of SB 61 Before the Alabama Senate Committee on Finance and Taxation Education 

Tim Benson, Senior Policy Analyst 

Heartland Impact 

February 14, 2024

Chairman Orr and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for holding this hearing on SB 61, the Creating Hope & Opportunity for Our Students’ Education (CHOOSE) Act, would create an education savings account (ESA) program that would be open to all Alabama children by the 2027–28 school year.

My name is Tim Benson, and I am a policy analyst with Heartland Impact. Heartland Impact is the advocacy and outreach arm of The Heartland Institute. Both are independent, national, nonprofit organizations working to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Heartland specializes on providing state lawmakers the policy and advocacy resources to advance free-market policies towards broad-based economic prosperity.

The accounts provided by the CHOOSE Act would cover tuition, fees, and curricula for children at private and parochial schools, as well as textbooks and uniforms, private tutoring services, educational therapies, online courses, computer software, extracurricular programs provided by public schools, and transportation costs. Funds could also be used to cover the fees required to take national standardized achievement tests, such as the SAT, CLT, ACT, or AP examinations.

For the 2025–26 and 2026–27 school years, the program would be open to children from families whose family household income does not exceed 300 percent of the federal poverty level, as well as to children with special needs. Starting in 2027, the program would be available universally to any Alabama child. The program’s budget would be $100 million, with each individual account being worth up to $7,000, provided through a refundable tax credit.

Copious empirical research[i] on school choice programs[ii] like what would be established under the CHOOSE Act makes clear these programs offer families improved access to high-quality schools that meet their children’s unique needs and circumstances, and that these programs improve academic performance and attainment and deliver a quality education at lower cost than traditional public schools. Additionally, education choice benefits public school students and taxpayers by increasing competition, decreasing segregation, and improving civic values and practices.

Research also shows students at private schools are less likely than their public school peers to experience problems such as alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, fighting, gang activity, racial tension, theft, vandalism, and weapon-based threats.[iii] There is also a strong causal link suggesting private school choice programs improve the mental health of participating students.[iv]

Further, Alabama’s public schools are habitually failing the state’s children. In 2022, only 27 percent[v] of public school fourth-graders and 19 percent[vi] of eighth-graders tested “proficient” to grade level in mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) examination, colloquially known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Just 28 percent[vii] of fourth-graders and 22 percent[viii] of eighth-graders tested “proficient” in reading. Essentially, and embarrassingly, the state’s public schools are failing to educate roughly eight out of ten Alabama children to grade-level proficiency in reading and math.

It is probably these dismal results, and also because teacher unions have repeatedly played politics with school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic in direct conflict with students’ best interests, that education choice programs like ESAs are more popular with parents than ever before. Polling on this issue in Alabama from EdChoice’s “Public Opinion Tracker,” last updated on February 6, finds 67 percent of all Yellowhammer State adults and 76 of parents with school-aged children are in favor of school choice programs such as educational savings accounts (ESAs).[ix]

The goal of public education in Alabama today and in the years to come should be to allow all parents to choose which schools their children attend, require every school to compete for every student who walks through its doors, and make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school that best fits their unique needs and circumstances. Passing the CHOOSE Act will go a significant way toward meeting that goal. There has not been a time when providing these opportunities has been more urgent and more needed than right now. The CHOOSE Act deserves every legislator’s support.

Thank you for your time.

Heartland Impact can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Cameron Sholty, at csholty@heartlandimpact.org or 312/377- 4000.

[i] EdChoice, The ABCs of School Choice (2024 Edition), November 13, 2023, https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2024-ABCs-of-School-Choice.pdf.

[ii] Greg Forster, A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Choice (Fourth Edition), EdChoice, May 18, 2016, https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/A-Win-Win-Solution-The-Empirical-Evidence-on-School-Choice.pdf.

[iii] M. Danish Shakeel & Corey A. DeAngelis, “Can private schools improve school climate? Evidence from a nationally representative sample,” Journal of School Choice, Volume 12, Issue 3, August 8, 2018, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15582159.2018.1490383?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=wjsc20.

[iv] Corey DeAngelis & Angela K. Dills, The Effects of School Choice on Mental Health, October 29, 2018, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3272550.

[v] National Center for Education Statistics, “2022 Mathematics State Snapshot Report – Alabama – Grade 4,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2022/pdf/2023011AL4.pdf.

[vi] National Center for Education Statistics, “2022 Mathematics State Snapshot Report – Alabama – Grade 8,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2022/pdf/2023011AL8.pdf.

[vii] National Center for Education Statistics, “2022 Reading State Snapshot Report – Alabama – Grade 4,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2022/pdf/2023010AL4.pdf.

[viii] National Center for Education Statistics, “2022 Reading State Snapshot Report – Alabama – Grade 8,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2022/pdf/2023010AL8.pdf.

[ix] EdChoice, Public Opinion Tracker – Alabama, February 6, 2024, https://edchoice.morningconsultintelligence.com/reports/alabama.pdf.