Heartland Institute Education Experts Cheer Alabama Voucher Bill

Both houses of the Alabama Legislature passed House Bill 84 on Thursday, which would create a school voucher program allowing students who attend failing schools to transfer to private, parochial or other public schools. Gov. Robert Bentley (R) is expected to sign the bill into law on Tuesday.
 
The following statements from education policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
 
To review the Heartland Institute’s extensive research, commentary and coverage of school voucher programs across the country, see this search result at PolicyBot, Heartland’s database of more than 25,000 documents.
 

“This is an important milestone in school choice and bringing American schooling up to international standards. Congrats to pioneering Alabama.”

 
Senior Fellow, Education
The Heartland Institute
312/377-4000
 

“Giving kids the ability to depart a school that is failing them is not only an obvious win for kids, but one that four in five Republican and Democratic voters support. Tax-credit scholarships have also already saved taxpayers millions, because they give kids a better education for approximately half (or much less) of what taxpayers would have paid to educate each child who receives one.

 
“It’s been reported widely and erroneously the proposal is a voucher bill that would send tax dollars to private schools. Actually, tax credit scholarship money never touches state bank accounts, and instead goes directly from private pockets to private institutions. All the legislation does is make such donations tax-deductible, like donations to food banks or cancer research.”
 
Research Fellow, The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, School Reform News
312/377-4000
 

“The Alabama legislature’s passage of a voucher bill is a great leap forward for the state’s children. It’s time for education dollars to be tied to children, not bureaucracies.”

 
Senior Fellow, Education Policy
The Heartland Institute
312/377-4000
 

The Heartland Institute is a 29-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.