Opting-Out? Evaluating Participation in the Alabama Accountability Act

• In Event: Plural Approaches to Education and Equality

Abstract

In 2013 the Alabama State Legislature passed the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 (AAA), which established the Alabama Educational Scholarship Program (AESP), a tax-credit scholarship program that allows parents who meet set income eligibility requirements to choose a new school for their child from a list of participating non-public schools. However, the AESP is not the first Alabama policy to offer tuition support for students to attend private schools. In 1955, following the USSC’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Alabama enacted a tuition grant program that helped support newly established “segregation academies” in the state. These schools offered a private, white, alternative to desegregating public schools. Based on Alabama’s history and the continued existence of segregation academies in the state, policymakers must understand how the past and present intersect in today’s school choice environment.
The success of a private school choice program hinges on participation by private schools. School choice advocates often argue that competition will increase educational quality to defend their positions; however, if a program does not garner enough support from private schools, it cannot create an adequate level of competition. A small number of scholars have studied this so-called “supply-side” of school choice. Still, we do not have a complete understanding of the factors that influence private schools' participation decisions in private school choice programs. Since this participation is critical for the success of such programs, it is imperative that we understand the factors that motivate schools to participate.
Currently, the decision to participate in the AESP and accept scholarship students is left to the schools. For the 2017-2018 school year, 44.78 percent of private schools participated in the AESP. This means that fewer than half of the population of eligible schools are currently participating in the AESP, limiting the size of the potential competitive school marketplace. Participation rates are not uniform across all types of private schools, and this study will explore the potential factors that affect school’s decisions to participate. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistic’s Private School Survey, the American Community Survey, and the individual schools, I will explore a wide variety of factors, including a school’s religious affiliation, their status as a historic segregation academy, their student demographics, and the decisions of other private schools that may impact participation decisions.

Author

• Annah Rogers, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa