The superintendents of the three local school systems last week weighed in on a hot topic in education in the state – school choice legislation – on the same day that the Alabama House passed the
CHOOSE Act.
The CHOOSE Act program would provide up to $7,000 per child enrolled at an accredited, participating private or public school through an education savings account funded by a new refundable income tax credit. Families who choose homeschooling could also receive funding for eligible educational expenses. The measure was a top priority for Gov. Kay Ivey for this legislative session.
“I am not against private school education,” Madison City Schools’ Superintendent Ed Nichols said during a panel discussion at the Feb. 27 State of the Schools event. “I’ve been accused of that lately, but I’m not.
“I’m for accountability. If I’m not, I’m in the wrong profession.”
The State of the Schools event at the Jackson Center in Huntsville was presented by the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber in partnership with The Schools Foundation.
Nichols referred to two third-grade teachers attending the event, saying they and other teachers must handle all the paperwork of the Alabama Literacy Act, which was passed in 2019 to ensure public school students are reading on grade level by the end of the third grade.
“We do all that because all third graders should read, I agree with that,” he said. “But I also agree that if you take public money, you ought to meet the same standards.”
Nichols said he’s for “transparency, accountability. … And if we’re all going to get the money, we can all play by the same rules.”
The Huntsville City Schools offer “a lot of opportunity, great opportunity for all students,” accepting every student in the district’s zones, Clarence Sutton, the superintendent for the last eight months, said. “And we’re asking for more.” The school system of 23,623 students grew by more than 200 students this year, according to Sutton.
“It’s an exciting time for Huntsville City Schools,” he said. “It’s unfair, it’s not fair, to increase the demands (for public schools) and take our funding.
“We are not afraid of competition,” he said. “I believe competition leads to innovation.” But he called for the same testing, reporting and certification requirements if public funds are to be used for private education.
“Give us a fighting chance to serve all students,” he said.
In a county school system, “we don’t have the same funding sources that our city systems do. We need state funding,” Ken Kubik, the superintendent of Madison County Schools, said. His district has 30 schools and 20,000 students, and school buses travel 11,000 miles a day transporting students to and from school.
“How about before you keep taking away from public education, and giving money away, how about you fund public education first and fully,” he said.
“We do not feel any animosity towards private and parochial schools. They do great jobs; they have their niche. But don’t take from public education to provide it.”
The school leaders also discussed efforts to give students opportunities to engage with the business community and get prepared for careers.
Nichols said the Madison school system partners with more than 45 companies to provide medical, engineering and other internships, guest speakers and student tours of Mazda Toyota Manufacturing and other facilities.
“At the heart of what we want to do is not only provide the curriculum to prepare our students but also the experiences,” Nichols said.
“We’re embarking on a new career technical center,” Sutton said. The facility, scheduled to open in the fall of 2025, will have classrooms and specialized labs in welding, precision machining, building construction, advanced manufacturing, culinary arts and cosmetology, and the district also plans to add new programs including automotive.
Kubik said that, over the last five years, students in the county’s high schools and Madison County Career Technical Center have achieved almost 2,000 industry-recognized credentials. More than 15,000 students have completed career technical programs in that period.
With insight from the community and higher education and business partners, “we’ve developed programs such as aerospace technology, cyber security, engineering, robotics,” and next year, a new first responders academy will focus on fire science, Kubik said.
“We are truly blessed in our area,” Kubik said. “We have three excellent (public school) systems. We have one of the top county rural systems, we have one of the top suburban systems and we have one of the top urban systems.”
Nichols said: “We are blessed with great students, we are blessed with great teachers. Our job as administrators is to continue to put rock stars in the classroom and that’s what I try to do every day.”
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