Hoover area state legislators to speak at public forum on education

The Hoover City Schools Foundation is holding a public forum to discuss education issues Tuesday night with state legislators who represent parts of Hoover.

The forum is scheduled from 7 to 8 p.m. in one of the ballroom areas of the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel. It will follow a private dinner from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. for legislators, city officials and Hoover school board members, said Janet Turner, executive director of the foundation.

Four legislators have confirmed they will be at the public forum so far, Turner said. They are: state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills; Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla; Rep. David Faulker, R-Mountain Brook; and Rep. Jack Williams, R-Vestavia Hills.

The forum is designed to give people a chance to meet their elected officials and hear them discuss issues related to education.

Turner said issues likely to be discussed include the Education Trust Fund, the “lid bill” that caps the amount of property taxes that can be levied in a given area, and the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013, which expanded flexibility related to state education requirements and created an income tax credit that reimburses parents of children enrolled in or assigned to a failing K-12 public school to offset the cost of transferring to a nonfailing public school or nonpublic school of the parents’ choice.