Building on CHOOSE Act’s initial success
Beginning in January 2025, Alabama’s leaders enacted the Creating Hope and Opportunity for our Students’ Education (CHOOSE) tax credit program.
Alabama became the 11th state in the nation to pass a universal school choice bill.
Legislators initially approved a $100 million funding floor for the program — enough for around 14,000 students. After applications opened, more than 36,000 students applied. The demand was so overwhelming, legislators increased the scholarship funding by $85 million for the first year, and $530 million over its first three years.
On July 1, 2025, more than 23,000 students across Alabama received CHOOSE Act funds for the 2025-26 school year.
Gov. Kay Ivey called the CHOOSE Act “a wonderful opportunity to make the future of Alabama stronger than ever.”
“To sum it up, the CHOOSE Act is putting Alabama parents in the driver’s seat of their child’s education,” Ivey said in June of last year. “I believe it will be one of the most successful school choice programs in the country.”
To be honest, the CHOOSE Act has generated criticism mostly from the public education sector, whose leaders were quick to point out it is siphoning money from public school systems that are struggling to provide a growing list of programs necessary to meet the demands of their students.
While the criticism overall has merit, it downplays the struggles faced by families whose children are attending public schools that are failing to adequately prepare their students for the future.
The state has categorized those schools as “priority” public schools, and for the 2024-25 school year there were 124 such schools earning a “D” or “F” on the most recent state report card.
Sheffield High School was the only school in Franklin, Lauderdale and Colbert counties to be named a “priority” public school in the 2025 state report card.
The CHOOSE act gives parents of students in these “priority” public schools a choice: They can leave their children in those schools, or they can apply for CHOOSE Act funding to move them to private schools in their area which have signed up to participate in the program. Franklin County has not had any private schools sign up to participate in the program.
Applications for the CHOOSE Act opened Dec. 26 for new families who want to participate in the 2026–27 school year.
Families using CHOOSE Act funds for this school year may renew their applications now with all applications and renewals closing March 31.
To qualify for the upcoming school year, a student must be an Alabama resident, a dependent of an activeduty military member, or zoned to attend a “priority” public school.
To be eligible to participate in the CHOOSE Act program, household adjusted gross income cannot exceed 300% of the federal poverty level, or about $96,500 for a family of four.
Under the law, eligible families may receive up to $7,000 per child to attend a participating school, or $2,000 per child for homeschooled students, capped at $4,000 per family.
Funds can be used for a range of educationrelated expenses, including tuition, textbooks, curriculum materials, school fees and certain educational services such as occupational or speech therapy.
The initial success of the CHOOSE Act seems to support the state’s belief that parents should have more educational choices. That’s the positive aspect of this shift in policy. But it’s far too early to say what challenges the move will create for the public side of education.
