The Heritage Foundation has ranked Alabama seventh in the nation in its 2024 edition of the Education Freedom Report Card.
Heritage’s annual K-12 report card evaluates states based on numerous education criteria, ranking them on their support for education freedom, including education choice, teacher freedom, academic transparency and the return on investment for education spending.
Florida, Arizona, Utah, Louisiana, and Iowa are the top five states for education freedom, while Oregon, Connecticut, Hawaii, Washington state and Vermont fall at the bottom due to limited alternatives to assigned district schools and insufficient transparency for parents.
In the study, Alabama ranked seventh for education spending return on investment, ninth for teacher freedom, 10th for transparency and 17th for education choice.
Governor Kay Ivey signed the CHOOSE Act, a $100 million educational savings account bill, into law in March.
The law allows the Department of Revenue to manage education savings accounts (ESAs) for approved students. The ESA would be funded through a refundable income tax credit available to eligible parents. The individual credit would be $7,000 for students in participating schools, while non-participating school students — such as homeschooled students— are $2,000 per student and $4,000 per family.
With the CHOOSE Act being signed into law in March, Alabama became the 14th state in the nation to provide families with an education savings account option. The program’s first year will be the 2025-2026 school year.
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