Education, election bill fights looming for Alabama lawmakers

Alabama Republicans and Democrats are so far apart on one of the big issues looming for the legislative session that they cannot even agree on the appropriate term for the subject.

Republicans call it school choice. Democrats call it a voucher scheme.

Gov. Kay Ivey said expanding school choice with an education savings account bill is her top priority for the session, which starts Tuesday at noon. Education savings accounts, or ESAs, allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school, home school, and other education purposes.

“I look forward to signing this landmark bill into law, granting parents more rights in the education of their children,” Ivey proclaimed in January on the Capitol steps.

The governor has not released a bill and has promised to reveal more during her State of the State speech, which she will deliver Tuesday night.

Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, speaking at an event Friday at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, said she wanted to clear up what she called confusion about what Republicans call school choice bills.

“They’re not choice, y’all,” Drummond said. “They’re vouchers. Let’s be clear about our position. The Alabama House Democrats support increased investments in public education because it is the greatest and most equitable and proven path toward lifelong achievement, greater earning potential, and overall well-being.”

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said he expects the debate on the education savings accounts to come early in the session, along with debate over a Republican-backed bill to add new restrictions to helping voters cast absentee ballots. He said both bills are important to the Republican caucus and reflect differences in Republican and Democratic positions that will be heard in national campaigns. Alabama’s primary is March 5, a month after the session starts.

“They want to get started on some of these issues right out of the gate when we start the legislative session,” Reed said. “And I think that’s going to be supported by a narrative of some of these issues that are national topics that are going to be on a national stage because of the presidential election and the congressional elections. We’re going to be talking about them at the State House big time.”

Other topics for the session are expected to include proposals to increase Alabama’s workforce participation rate, one of the nation’s lowest, and a bill from House Republicans to regulate gambling statewide and possibly allow voters to decide whether to approve a lottery, sports betting, and casinos. That bill is still in the works and GOP lawmakers have released few details.

Education savings accounts

Republican lawmakers tried bills to create education savings accounts (ESAs) last year. Under those bills, parents could have received $6,900 annually, which is roughly the state’s per-student cost for public education, to pay for private school, home school and other education-related purposes.

Last year’s bills did not come close to passing. But Republican leaders in the House and Senate support the idea this year. Republicans hold roughly three-fourths of the seats in the State House, and with Ivey spearheading the effort, momentum is growing.

Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, sponsored one of the ESA bills last year and said he is working on a similar one this year. Yarbrough said he believes a true school choice bill must make the ESAs available to all parents and contain no restrictions on private schools, such as requiring the same standardized tests given in public schools. Testing was a point of contention last year. Yarbrough said he expects multiple school choice bills this year.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said he plans to support the bill that Ivey will support. Ledbetter said Alabama has already taken important steps toward giving parents more school choice over the last decade, such as the Alabama Accountability Act, which provides scholarships funded by donors who receive credits on their state income taxes, and the authorization of charter schools.

Ledbetter said he sees ESAs as an important addition. But he said lawmakers have to be careful not to cripple funding for public schools. Last year’s bills would have funded ESAs with money taken from the Education Trust Fund.

“We’ve got to do it without gutting public education,” Ledbetter said. “It’s easy to have a press conference and talk about what you’re going to do, but you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to pay for it.”

Ledbetter said one possibility is to start an ESA program using funds the Legislature has held in reserve because of strong budgets in recent years, including a large surplus last year.

Drummond, speaking at Friday’s event at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church event, which was to announce the House Democrats’ agenda for the session, said lawmakers need to focus on public schools, not using tax dollars to provide alternatives.

“We steadfastly oppose unaccountable school choice voucher schemes that seek to defund public education and use taxpayer dollars to increase the profit of private schools,” Drummond said, drawing applause. “These schemes are there to award those who can already afford private education while they ignore the needs of the rural Alabama children with disabilities, financially struggling families, and the commonsense, critical necessity for standardized benchmarks to accurately gauge academic performance. If we have to do it in public schools, they need to do it in private schools.”

Read more: New school choice option a ‘top priority’ for Ivey: What’s the impact on public schools?

Absentee voting

Republicans and Democrats also disagree sharply over a bill to criminalize helping voters with absentee ballots, with some exceptions.

Republicans say it is to prevent ballot harvesting, or the collection of absentee ballots by a third party, because they say that can increases the likelihood of fraud.

Democrats say the bill will outlaw the work of advocacy groups, churches, volunteers, and friends who help elderly or homebound voters who might otherwise find it difficult to obtain or mail in their ballots absentee ballots.

Similar bills were proposed last year but did not pass. Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, has filed a bill for this year, listed as Senate Bill 1. Reed said Gudger’s bill would be the platform to start the discussion and that it would come early in the session.

“There’s been a good bit of diligence on this legislation to make sure it was ready for prime time,” Reed said.

Gudger’s bill, as introduced, would prohibit any person from ordering, requesting, collecting, prefilling, obtaining, or delivering an absentee ballot application or absentee ballot for another voter. Violations would be a Class A misdemeanor, which can carry up to a year in jail. Family members and people who live in the same household for more than six months as the person they are helping would be exempted. Also exempted would be someone who helped a voter who requested help and was blind, disabled, or unable to read or write.

The bill would impose felony penalties if a third party is paid to help with distributing, ordering, collecting, completing, prefilling, or delivering a voter’s absentee ballot application.

The bill passed the House last year after a contentious debate but died in the Senate after a public hearing that filled a committee room.

Workforce participation

Bills aimed at raising Alabama’s low rate of participation in the work force, which ranks 47th among states, are more likely to attract bipartisan support. The bills have not yet been introduced but several groups have studied the issue.

“I don’t think those issues are Republican or Democrat issues,” Reed said. “I think they’re across-the-board Alabama issues.”

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth led a task force that released a report on the problem in January. It said that although Alabama had a record low unemployment rate, 2.45% in November 2023, the state’s workforce participation rate, 57%, was below the national average of 62% and ranked 47th among states. The rate measures what percentage of the working-age population is working or looking for work.

The task force recommendations included more collaboration with industry to determine jobs that are in demand and making sure young people have a way to pursue the skills and credentials they need.

“Whether they want to be a doctor or a lawyer or a nurse or a welder or a machinist,” Reed said, “or drive a truck or whatever they want to do in their life, we need to be focused on making sure they’ve got the training and the skillset for them to, number one, understand what the options are in their life, and then making sure that in high school, and in the two-year college system and certainly the higher ed system that those opportunities are available to students.”

Ainsworth’s task force recommended consolidating the work of several state agencies under a new Workforce Development Authority led by a secretary who would be part of the governor’s cabinet.

Read more: Will Ainsworth unveils plan for Cabinet-level Secretary to boost Alabama workforce participation

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said he was shocked to learn that 43% of working age people in Alabama, about 1.7 million, were not part of the workforce. Ledbetter said he sees an opportunity to bring them off the sidelines.

“If you think about it, I think if we could just increase our number by 10%, we’d probably put 25,000 more people in the workforce,” Ledbetter said. “That’s more than a big announcement of a large industry.”

Ledbetter said hears a common theme from businesses and industry representatives. They are struggling to find employees. Ledbetter, who appointed a committee to study the issue, said he expects a package of bills that could include tax credit programs to help with child care and housing, as well as public transportation.

“It’s hard for a single mom to get out and get a job when she’s got a couple of kids,” Ledbetter said. “That makes it really tough.”

“I really don’t think it’s just as simple as they need to get off the couch,” he said. “I think there’s issues there. I think child care is an issue. I think transportation is an issue.”

Ledbetter said he would like to see public schools teach students what to expect when they seek a job. He said that could have a similar practical benefit to a bill that passed last year requiring school courses in financial literacy.

“Some of it’s just as simple as people are embarrassed or kids are embarrassed to go fill out an application because they don’t know how to and they don’t know what they need to do and it’s a new world for them,” Ledbetter said.

Democratic agenda

The House Democratic caucus agenda, released on Friday, focused on five categories, expanding economic opportunity, increasing access to affordable healthcare, strengthening educational achievement, increasing voter and civic participation, and criminal justice reform.

The Vision for Progress agenda says Democrats will support expanding workforce participation by addressing childcare, transportation, and housing. Democrats are calling for expansion of Medicaid as allowed under the Affordable Care Act, which would extend coverage to working Alabamians with low incomes. Alabama is one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said Democrats would support automatic voter registration, curbside voting, early voting, and guaranteed absentee voting. Current law requires voters to sign an affidavit that they will be out of town or otherwise unable to get to the polls to qualify to vote absentee.

The Democratic agenda calls for repealing the law passed two years ago allowing people to carry concealed handguns and handguns in vehicles without a permit. And it calls for prison reforms and changes at the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which granted paroles in only 8% of hearings last year.

Read more: Alabama has stopped nearly all paroles: Explaining the Leigh Gwathney effect

“So many freedoms we take for granted are in immediate danger of being taken away from us,” Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, said at the event at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church.

“Indeed, so many of our freedoms are in jeopardy, and we must fight for them or face a future that rolls back progress and marginalizes our voices. And we’re not going to stand for that,.”

“We have to protect these freedoms from the Republican Party that would take this state and this nation back 50 years if they could,” Coleman said.

Other issues

Reed said he is working on a new “parents right to know” initiative to require local school boards to post on their websites more information about what is taught in classrooms. Reed said he has talked to parents and school officials and said his staff has researched similar proposals in other states.

“You’ve got some school systems that already do this,” Reed said. “But there’s not any uniformity to it. And there’s still a number of school systems that don’t provide the information.

“If I’ve got a kid in the sixth grade, or I’ve got a kid in the 11th grade, and I want to know what they’re going to do in school as far as curriculum for their education in the second half of the year, I can go to the website and be able to look at it. If I’ve got a question, I can communicate with the teachers or the administrators. It’s a good piece of information for parents and grandparents to be able to know what’s going on at the school.“

Reed said he expects to have a bill ready early in the session.

Proposals to provide a stable source of funding for mental health services are expected. A bill to add a 98-cent monthly fee to cellphone bills last year received attention at public hearings but did not pass. This year’s proposals could include a smaller fee of 50 cents a month.

Alabama has made progress toward filling the gaps in mental health services, with new crisis centers operating in Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile, and more planned as part of a Crisis System of Care. But gaps remain, officials say, and reliable funding is needed for services that can save lives, such as support for calls centers for the 988 suicide and crisis line and related services, as well as long-term beds for those involuntarily committed.

“The 988 line has been a huge success,” said Ledbetter, who led efforts to expand mental health care before becoming speaker. “I believe I can say without any equivocation it’s saved lives. The crisis care centers, I believe save lives. The school mental health coordinators save lives. We never will know those numbers, who or what, but I certainly believe that’s the case.”

Ledbetter said if there is an economic downturn that causes state budget cuts, mental health services could be at risk.

“They would like to have some stable funding,” Ledbetter said.

Mental health groups say poll shows Alabamians recognize need to close gaps, save lives

House Republicans are working on bill to regulate gambling but have not released details. Ledbetter said the goal will be to crack down on illegal gambling. For years, law enforcement has tried to stop the operation of electronic bingo games that mimic slot machines and that the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled are illegal but facilities continue to pop up.

Ledbetter said Alabama needs a statewide gambling commission and tougher laws and regulations. He appointed a committee that has studied the gambling issue for more than a year. In January, the House Republican caucus met behind closed doors to discuss the bill.

Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, who has led the study committee, said he expects it to be a comprehensive bill, which has been the term used previously for bills that include a lottery, casinos, a regulatory commission, and sports betting.

Any proposal that would expand legal gambling would require voter approval in a constitutional amendment. Alabama has not voted on that since voters rejected Gov. Don Siegelman’s lottery plan in 1999.

Alabama is one of five states that do not have a lottery. The four states bordering Alabama have lotteries.

Ledbetter, asked in a recent interview for details on the bill, said it is still being prepared.

“I can’t give you a lot of information on exactly what’s going to happen and where it’s going to go because it’s not finished,” Ledbetter said. “They’ve been working with the Senate and the governor’s office and trying to get everybody on the same page.”

Read more: Through regulation, Alabama House leaders begin crafting gambling strategy for 2024 session

Ledbetter said a statewide enforcement commission is needed with new regulations that will spell out what is legal, audit facilities, and impose tougher penalties. The Alabama constitution prohibits lotteries and other games of chance, but some counties have local constitutional amendments that allow exceptions. Some local establishments have become important sources of jobs and revenue in rural counties. The attorney general’s office shut down more than a dozen illegal casinos in Jefferson County last year, but the facilities continue to pop up.

Ledbetter believes there are more than 500 illegal operations around the state.

In 2021, the Alabama Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize a statewide vote on a lottery, casinos, sports betting, and a gambling commission to license the casinos and regulate the operations. That bill died in the House.

Senate Pro Tem Reed said his expectation for this year is that the Senate will wait to see whether the House passes a proposal.

Reed said he believes gambling legislation should focus on what he called the three Cs, control, cap, and collect.

“That is control it. Basically enforcement, enforcement, enforcement,” Reed said. “Cap it. Put some restriction on it to where it is able to be managed for the benefit of the state. And then collect on it. We’ve got a lot of gaming throughout Alabama. But the people of Alabama do not have any fiscal benefits for what’s going on already. It’s not regulated and the state of Alabama maybe suffers some of the ills as a result but we don’t receive any of the tax benefits from what you see in other states.”