New Alabama Education Law Represents Small But Significant Advance

The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is hallowed ground. Just a block from the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, it is where, from 1954 to 1960, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as pastor and, in 1955, where he organized the Montgomery bus boycott from his basement office. And it sits just blocks from the seat of Alabama’s state government, where in 1965, after helping lead thousands of people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, King made his “How Long?” speech from the steps of the state capitol:

“I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’… I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long…

“How long? Not long.”

More than 50 years later, across the street from the church and concerned with declining education and the pace of social change, brothers Anthony and Fred Brock founded Valiant Cross Academy, an all-male academy aimed at “helping boys of color become men of valor.”

Valiant Cross embodies King’s hopes, pursuing the dream that its students will be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, and working to ensure that they are well prepared for productive lives filled with accomplishment and purpose.

“We’re out to prove that it’s an opportunity gap, not an achievement gap” says head of school Anthony Brock. And they have. In 2022, 100 percent of Valiant seniors graduated from the academy, pursuing post-graduate options, enrolling in either four- or two-year college, or established career-training programs.

This would not be possible without the benefit of a publicly supported, privately, funded tax-credit scholarship program that funds a substantial cost of a student’s education, which is currently available to approximately 3,000 underserved students throughout the state. Available in 20 states, these programs are lifelines for thousands. But they have serious limitations.

First, tax credit scholarship programs depend on private donations that must be solicited, and a private scholarship granting organization that must collect and distribute the funds. This means the enterprise depends on the donation interest and capacity of the givers, and the fundraising ability of hopeful recipients. Second, such programs depend on state lawmakers to authorize a ceiling on tax credits available. As a result, a tax credit scholarship program, while laudable, is neither a fair nor predictable way to fund new education opportunities for students.

To address this challenge, on January 14, 2024, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey appeared at Valiant Cross – a fitting backdrop – to announce her support for a more predictable and more equitable program to fund opportunities for students.

“We need more Valiant Cross Academies, and that will happen when we give parents the freedom to choose the best learning path for their child. As we begin a new legislative session in less than a month, I’m equally committed to continuing to make it easier for Alabama families to send their children to the best school of their choice.”

Nearly two months later, on March 7, the Governor’s proposal became a reality when she signed the state’s CHOOSE Act dubbed “landmark legislation” and a “significant win” by advocates.

Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, CHOOSE establishes education savings accounts (ESAs) of $7,000 for low-income and special needs students, which will grow until all students are eligible to use their tax dollars at their school of choice, as long as funds are appropriated to make that possible.

While enacting such a measure is no small feat, the state’s initial appropriation of approximately $100 million limits opportunities to roughly 3,000 students in the first year and further growth will depend on new and higher appropriations. These ESAs are funded outside of traditional school funding mechanisms, a move that can garner the votes needed and assuage concerns – often unfounded – about public schools schools “losing” funding. While such bargains may get choice programs across the finish line, if laws are written to utilize different funding streams than that which fund traditional public schools, they will always be more politically challenging to maintain or expand.

Conversely, some states have enacted programs which have defied political challenges precisely because they treat all students equally. Take Arizona, for example. In July, 2022, then-Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed into law the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, providing all students the same $6,000 the state allocates for every student, regardless of the kind of school they attend. Within a year, more than 70,000 students began utilizing an ESA for their education. The predictability and parity of the funds ensures schools rise to meet demand. That demand – and the sheer volume of participants – are like a prophylactic to oppositional politics when new leaders who may be predisposed against a choice program are elected. When states create strong programs from the start, education equality becomes a reality and not a dream for kids.

If the goal is to create new pathways for students, states should support those pathways with the same state funds allocated for education, and eventually, local funds as well. While Governor Ivey and others deserve credit for sparking the fire of education freedom, particularly for less-advantaged students, until such programs are part of existing, sustainable, and equitable student funding streams, supply will grow neither to meet all students’ needs, nor their parents’ demand.

Like Dr. King, we should ask, “how long will it take” to provide all students access to a great education? The answer we should expect is, “Not long.”