Alabama Republicans Deciding School Choice Received Nearly $1 Million From Teacher's Union
State House and Senate education committees are dominated by GOP lawmakers funded by the AEA
Once belonging to the party of education reform, Republicans sitting on committees in Montgomery that are currently debating a transformative school choice bill have received a whopping $962,604 in campaign contributions from the teacher's union in recent years, according to records from the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.
A close examination of these files reveals a near-complete financial relationship between the Alabama Education Association's political action committee and the members of the Alabama Republican Party who oversee education in the legislative branch.
Republicans hold 42 of the 57 seats on the State Legislature's education committees, which include House Education Policy, House Ways and Means Education, Senate Education Policy, and Senate Education Budget.
Yet only six of these Republicans haven’t taken money from the AEA.
With that in mind, it's hard to imagine either chamber passing the Parental Rights In Children’s Education Act that’s currently being tossed around those committees like a legislative version of hot potato.
You can read the proposal here: Senate Bill 202 .
If passed, the bill would allow Alabama parents to direct $6,900 of state education budget dollars annually to cover eligible expenses should they decide it's best for their child to attend a private school, a virtual school, or be home-schooled. These funds could be used to cover a variety of expenses parents often incur, including tuition, fees, and books.
Opinion polling has consistently shown bipartisan support for school choice programs like this, and the pandemic demonstrated to many parents that virtual and home-school options were not only viable but often produced better results for certain children.
Reports from fall 2020 indicated that more than 12% of Alabama families home-schooled their children. Although that number may have decreased as life returned to normal, many parents stated they preferred their new programs and their child would not be returning to public school. This undeniable trend, coupled with the fact that around 11% of the state's children already attend private school, reveals a major shift in how education is being provided across our state.
Parents now have several options for their child’s education.
And the state now has several options for funding that education.
Sadly, some of our “conservative” Republican lawmakers don’t seem to share this view.
“We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars coming out of the education budget," said State Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, chairman of the Senate Education Policy Committee, during a recent hearing on the bill.
Right ... and those dollars are going to fund the education of our state’s children. That’s precisely why we pay taxes into the Education Trust Fund in the first place.
It’s not to exclusively fund a government-run school system, as if that’s the only way to provide an education in the 21st century.
It’s to fund education, however it can be best provided.
Think about what Chasteen said for a moment: we’ve been conditioned to think that the only way the state can ensure our children are educated is through government-run schools. That's how it's always been done, right? More than a 150-years ago, our ancestors got together and decided that, for the good of everyone, everyone’s children needed access to an education regardless of their family's ability to pay for it. So taxes were raised and the public school system was built.
But what if we did that now, starting from scratch … do you really think the only solution we'd devise would be a one-size-fits-all government school?
Of course not. We’d have some government-run schools. We'd have some corporate-run schools. We’d have some church-run schools. Probably a few service organization-run schools, too. And plenty of parents choosing to handle it themselves.
And that’s essentially what we have today, by the default of innovation. The only difference is that now, as before, the only children who have access to these many options are the ones whose families can pay for it.
It's very simple: We all pay taxes into a very large education budget. The purpose of that budget is to fund the education of our children, who now have many more options than existed 150-years ago.
So, to return to Chasteen's argument, parents aren't taking money out of the education budget, they're directing money in the education budget for their child’s … education.
Maybe these Republicans lawmakers will surprise us, vote like the reform-minded, market-driven, limited government conservatives they claim to be, empower parents to have greater control over their child's education rather than defending the status quo of the powerful special interests, and pass the PRICE Act this year.
But if they don’t, we cannot continue taking the “R” next to their names as proof they’ll represent our shared conservative beliefs.
We should replace it with an “F” and find someone else who will.
TOMORROW: The list of GOP lawmakers on these committees who have taken AEA money, and how much.
(J. Pepper Bryars is Alabama’s only reader-supported conservative journalist. You can support his writing by subscribing at https://jpepper.substack.com/subscribe.)
I was so pissed I forgot to add :
GOOD READ/WORK JPB !!
It's just down right UNBELIEVABLE that these republicans would take money from AEA when they serve on this committee! Talk about conflict of interest WOW !! I guess nobody but the students gets intercoursed, SO NO PROBLEM, THEY WILL NEVER KNOW WHO SCREWED THEM !!! Especially the poorer children with uneducated/undereducated parents.
FOLLOW THE EVIL MONEY ......