By Josh Robertson
Everyone deserves a choice in education. But the facts tell a different story about Alabama’s new CHOOSE Act. Roughly 5,000 public school students applied for funding under the program this spring, yet fewer than half of them activated their accounts. Even more telling, nearly 70 percent of applicants were already enrolled in private schools. In other words, most parents had already made their choice.
As someone who has spent 15 years in public education as a district administrator, principal, teacher, and coach, I know firsthand the power of strong public schools. I am also a proud product of Alabama’s public schools, which gave me the foundation to reach many of my own goals. That is why I am deeply concerned about what the CHOOSE Act means for our students and communities.
On paper, the law was marketed as school choice. In practice, it threatens to drain the Education Trust Fund, leaving fewer resources for classrooms that serve the overwhelming majority of Alabama children. Rural districts such as Dale, Geneva, and Houston counties will, in particular, struggle to continue doing more with less, even though these systems have performed extremely well over the past five years.
The law set aside the first 500 Education Savings Accounts for students with special needs, which sounds good on the surface. Yet the state has not released any data showing what percentage of those funds actually went to students with disabilities. If the goal is to better serve special needs students, families and educators deserve transparency on whether those promises are being kept.
Even more troubling is the scale of what could come. Once the income cap is lifted, all current private school students, more than 81,000 across Alabama, would be eligible for CHOOSE Act funding. That would represent over 570 million dollars in taxpayer money going to families who already made their choice long ago, without a single student moving schools. That is not school choice. That is a massive transfer of public dollars to private institutions.
The CHOOSE Act also creates loopholes for homeschooling with little to no oversight. Families can receive Education Savings Account funds while facing almost no accountability for how those dollars are spent. As a district administrator, I have seen firsthand what happens when some of those same students return to public schools. Many come back without having participated in any accredited program, leaving them academically behind and in need of significant support.
Then there is athletics. The Alabama High School Athletic Association has faced criticism for interpreting Education Savings Account funds as financial aid, which affects transfer eligibility. I support the AHSAA. For decades, they have protected fairness in high school sports, ensuring the playing field stays level no matter where a student attends. When lawmakers push policies that blur those lines, it creates chaos for schools, coaches, and families and undermines the fairness that athletics are built on. Sports should be about teamwork, discipline, and character, not loopholes that favor a few.
Some argue that the CHOOSE Act empowers parents. Real empowerment does not come from siphoning money out of public schools, creating financial windfalls for families already in private education, or sparking lawsuits over who can and cannot play sports. Real empowerment comes from strengthening public schools in every community so all students, regardless of zip code, income, or ability, have access to great teachers, safe facilities, and fair opportunities to learn and compete.
Instead of gambling with voucher schemes, Alabama should invest in proven solutions: raising teacher pay to recruit and retain talent, funding facilities that inspire learning, and providing equitable resources for both rural and urban schools.
The CHOOSE Act was sold as a promise of opportunity. But opportunity without access is empty, and choice without accountability is unfair. Alabama’s future depends not on weakening our public schools or undermining fair play in athletics, but on investing in them.
The Dale County Chronicle would like to thank Josh Robertson for this opinion piece. If you would like to submit an article for consideration, please email us at [email protected].
