The Alabama House of Representatives approved major expansions to the state’s school choice policies last week with the CHOOSE Act, which would create a voucher-like program offering up to $7,000 per student for education expenses.

The bill has been a priority for Republicans since Gov. Kay Ivey expressed her intention to make Alabama “the most school choice friendly state in the nation,” during her State of the State address last month. The House’s advancement of the CHOOSE Act was the first major step in achieving that goal.

The bill would allow for up to $7,000 in public funds per student in the form of an education savings account which could be applied toward private school tuition and other eligible expenses such as out of district fees with a participating public school. Homeschooling families would also have access to $2,000 per child, but no more that $4,000 each year.

ESAs will be available to students from low-income families — defined as having a combined household income below 300% of the national poverty line or $93,600 for a family of four — for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years. The following years the program would be opened to all families. The first 500 credits of each year would be given to disabled students.

Cullman Christian School Headmaster Heith Yearwood said he has been on both sides of the school choice debate. During his 31-year career in public education the former West Point High School Principal said he was familiar with the impact of funding shortages and the frustrations from parents who felt as though their local tax dollars were not proportionately benefitting their children.

Yearwood said since he accepted the headmaster position at Cullman Christian in 2022, he has learned that parents who choose to enroll their children in private schools are no different. It is not that they want to divert funding away from public schools, they would just like for their tax dollars to work for them.

“When I came to Cullman Christian, I had a misconception of private school. I thought that most private schools were filled with wealthy parents that could afford to send their children to where they wanted. Boy, was I wrong. I realized many of our parents simply want a Christian education for their children. I saw them coming to school in older vehicles and sacrificing other conveniences to pay the cost of sending their children to a private school,” Yearwood said.

Yearwood said the bill would offer those parents some assistance, but he did not believe it would cause an exodus of students from Cullman’s public school systems. His previous position has given him first-hand experience in the quality of local public education.

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette said he also believed the bill would help those families who chose to enroll their children in a nonpublic school. He showed an equal level of respect for his former colleague Yearwood and the quality of Cullman County’s private schools.

Both administrators said the bill’s effects would be somewhat mitigated locally, although Barnette was concerned over the funding structure for the program.

“What worries me is not that there is a $100 million minimum in funding for the program. It’s that there isn’t a cap on how much funding will go to it in the future,” Barnette said.

For all future years of the program the Alabama Commissioner of Revenue would be allowed to increase funding to the program if more than 90% of the previous year’s funds were used. Any unused funds would roll over and while the CHOOSE Act Fund would not be allowed to accumulate more than $500 million, there are no restrictions on how much funding could be allocated to it.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Danny Garrett (R-District 46), previously told the House General Fund committee that no money from the state’s Education Trust Fund would be used to fund the program, but revenue from the state’s general fund could be used before it reaches the ETF.

Barnette said state funding to local school systems are already not enough to fully fund its intended uses. Out of the district’s fleet of 150 school buses, Barnette said only around 82% were funded from state allocations. He said limiting the amount of funding available to the ETF would hurt school systems equally throughout the state regardless of their performance.

“The way they do the state budget is they take so many things off the top and then they divide what’s left between the different departments and so forth. That’s just going to be less money statewide that they will have to divide up between the different districts,” Barnette said.

The bill is scheduled to appear before a senate committee Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Cullman City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff did not respond to The Times request for comment.