{"id":205062,"date":"2025-04-25T16:14:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/house-approves-12-1-billion-education-budget-nearly-doubles-choose-act-funding\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T16:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:14:43","slug":"house-approves-12-1-billion-education-budget-nearly-doubles-choose-act-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=205062","title":{"rendered":"House approves $12.1 billion education budget, nearly doubles CHOOSE Act funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Alabama House of Representatives approved a $12.1 billion education budget package on Thursday, including $180 million toward funding private school scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>The Legislature originally planned to set aside $100 million for the program in its first year, but education budget chair Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, said those numbers were based on expectations of 15,000 applications in its first year.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, more than 36,000 applications were submitted with up to $7,000 per student eligible for reimbursement. Homeschool students are capped at $2,000 per year and families can only claim up to $4,000 per year for homeschooling.<\/p>\n<p>For the first two years, only families with incomes under 300 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible to apply for the program. That threshold opens the program up to 3 in 4 Alabama families.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Alabama continues to make remarkable strides in public education, it\u2019s vital that lawmakers in Montgomery remain committed to equipping our school systems with the necessary resources to help students thrive,\u201d said Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville. \u201cThis year\u2019s ETF is significant for several reasons. It funds paid parental leave for teachers, expands summer and afterschool programs, and increases funding for the Alabama numeracy act, which has been a catalyst for our state\u2019s nation-leading gains in 4th grade math. We\u2019re making another strong investment in the CHOOSE Act, Alabama\u2019s school choice program that is proving to be in high demand. Finally, we are creating the RAISE Program, a student-weighted funding model that funds schools based on their specific needs rather than headcount.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democrats criticized the funding, arguing that the program diverts funding that could be used to better public schools.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time in years, the budget does not include a pay raise for teachers. The state instead upped its contribution to the Public Education Employees\u2019 Health Insurance Plan from $800 to $904 per employee, which will cost the state about $100 million.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The budget also includes funding for new programs approved by lawmakers this year offering teachers paid parental leave and a worker\u2019s compensation program.<\/p>\n<p>The state will draw $375 million out of its Education Opportunities Reserve Fund to implement a new funding formula based on student need rather than enrollment.<\/p>\n<p>The new funding formula has received bipartisan support with the hopes that struggling schools will get the resources needed to improve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ETF\/Supplemental highlights include:<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">$27 million increase for the Numeracy Act<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">$14.4 million increase for Summer\/Afterschool Programs<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">$9.6 million for Paid Parental Leave<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">$15.6 million for Teachers Workman\u2019s Compensation<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">$58 million for the RAISE Act<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">$80 million increase for the CHOOSE Act<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI\u2019m proud to have passed another strong Education Budget that positions our school systems for success,\u201d said Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, who chairs the House Ways and Means Education Committee. \u201cFor the first time ever, we are funding schools based off the needs of the specific students they serve instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach and funding on headcount alone. We\u2019re also making significant investments in programs supporting teachers and students. Public education is on the rise in Alabama, and I believe that the passage of this budget will help us continue moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s3\">The ETF now returns to the Senate for concurrence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Alabama House of Representatives approved a $12.1 billion education budget package on Thursday, including $180 million toward funding private school scholarships. The Legislature originally planned to set aside $100 million for the program in its first year, but education budget chair Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, said those numbers were based on expectations of 15,000 applications [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[7622,18212,11043,4995,3036,64792,38232,7415,43285,76869,15075,594],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-205062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-act","tag-approves","tag-billion","tag-budget","tag-choose","tag-choose-act","tag-doubles","tag-education","tag-education-funding","tag-education-trust-fund-budget","tag-funding","tag-house"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>House approves $12.1 billion education budget, nearly doubles CHOOSE Act funding - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=205062\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House approves $12.1 billion education budget, nearly doubles CHOOSE Act funding - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Alabama House of Representatives approved a $12.1 billion education budget package on Thursday, including $180 million toward funding private school scholarships. 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