Editor’s note: This news story appeared Tuesday on aldailynews.com. To read a story noting Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth’s support of school choice legislation, click here.
Sponsors of a major school choice bill in the Alabama Legislature are scaling it back significantly in an effort to secure passage in the Senate and House.
As approved in a Senate committee last week, Sen. Del Marsh’s bill would have allowed more than $5,000 per year in state support to any student attending private or homeschools. A fiscal note on the bill said that when fully implemented in the 2024-25 school year, it could send as much as $537 million from the Education Trust Fund to education savings accounts that parents could use to send their children to non-public schools.
Now, Marsh, R-Anniston, said he’s working on a substitute bill that would only apply to students entering kindergarten next year, phasing in a new class of students each year for 13 years. Marsh estimates that could be about 5,000 students a year.
“It follows the student as they go through their school life,” Marsh told Alabama Daily News on Monday.
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