1 of 3
Photo by Jon Anderson
220322_Hoover_BOE3
Hoover school board member Craig Kelley, at left, discusses bills being considered by the state Legislature during a meeting of the Hoover Board of Education at the Farr Administration Building in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
2 of 3
Photo by Jon Anderson
220322_Hoover_BOE
The Hoover Board of Education meets at the Farr Administration Building in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Shown here are Superintendent Dee Fowler, at left, and school board President Amy Tosney.
3 of 3
Photo by Jon Anderson
220322_Hoover_BOE
The Hoover Board of Education meets at the Farr Administration Building in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
The Hoover school board today passed a resolution opposing proposed state legislation that would reallocate tax revenues away from “traditional public school programs.”
The resolution referenced four bills working their way through the Legislature.
Two of the bills (House Bill 452 and Senate Bill 140) would create education savings accounts that would allow parents to divert tax money from the school district in which they live to the public or private educational institution of their choice.
The other two bills (House Bill 459 and Senate Bill 302) would allow public charter schools to receive a pro rata share of the portion of county property taxes that normally would go to the county or city school district in which a student lives once that student enrolls with the public charter school. However, this would not apply to counties with fewer than 40,000 people.
House Bill 459 also would divert a pro rata share of city property taxes designated for city school districts to the public charter school instead once a student enrolls in the charter school.
However, the companion bill which already has passed the Senate on a vote of 23-1 (Senate Bill 302) would allow city school districts to continue receiving that “city” property tax revenue even if a student goes to a charter school. That change was made as an amendment to the original bill. If the Senate version of the bill becomes law, the only money city school districts would lose would be the state and county property tax money, which would follow the student to the public charter school.
Hoover school board member Craig Kelley said he doesn’t believe the two bills that would create education savings accounts, which are being called “parent choice” bills, are likely to pass. But he is more concerned with the latter two bills that would pull county property tax money away from city and county school districts and send it to public charter schools instead.
Kelley said it’s not right for the Legislature to transfer tax money that was approved by voters for “traditional public school operations” and use it for something else without a referendum of the people.
State Rep. David Faulkner, who represents portions of Hoover, Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills, said he opposes some of the “school choice” bills that have been proposed in the Legislature.
But he supports the idea of letting county property tax money go to a public charter school within the same county if that is where the parent chooses to send their child, he said.
“I don’t understand why anyone would find that problematic,” he said. The state property tax money already follows the child, he said.
Faulkner said he would be the first person to stand against anything he believes would hurt the school districts in his legislative district, but he doesn’t believe this change hurts the city school districts.
The amendment to Senate Bill 302 allows city school districts to continue to “make money” on kids who don’t even go to their schools, Faulkner said.
Faulkner also said he doesn’t believe there are a significant number of students leaving Hoover, Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills schools to attend public charter schools anyway. He would suspect there wouldn’t be more than a handful from Hoover, he said.
Kelley acknowledged there may not be many doing that now but said once this door is opened, more public charter schools are likely to pop up and continue to siphon off money from “traditional public school operations.”
The traditional public school systems already don’t receive full state funding for things like transportation, mental health and technology, and they rely on that “local” city and county property tax money to pay for extra teachers that keep student-teacher ratios lower, Kelley said.
If the Legislature passes this bill, it also will make it harder for individual school systems to get existing tax measures renewed when it comes time for voter approval to do so, Kelley said. If people can’t be guaranteed that the taxes they approve will be used for their local school systems, they’re less likely to vote in favor of local taxes, he said.
Faulkner said he respects Kelley and would like to talk with him further about the matter, and Kelley said he believes Faulkner tries to do what he believes is best for the people of his district while balancing other needs of the state. They just disagree on this particular matter.
The two bills in the Alabama House are scheduled for a public hearing with the House Ways and Means Education Committee on March 30, and Senate Bill 140 is waiting for a third reading in the Senate, according to the online legislation tracking system.
