Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, school choice is certainly something that is sweeping this nation,
and I think what thirty states now have expanded their
public or private school choice programs joined us now to
talk about that nationally and also what's happening here in Alabama.
The chief executive officer of the National School Choice Awareness Foundation,
Andrew Campanella, is here. Andrew, thanks for being with me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So there's been a lot of expansion. I think, what
is it now, close to seventy five percent of parents
are finding ways to improve their child's school experience with
some school choice options out there. So how have we
done here in Alabama relative to the rest of the country.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, Alabama has gone from a state that had very
few options for families to a state that offers incredible programs.
And it's really exciting because families now across the state
can either choose to send their kids to public school,
there are charter schools, there are some magnet schools, and
(00:56):
private schools are more affordable than ever due to as
dollarship program called the Choose Act, which allows families to
tap into about seven thousand dollars a year to offset
the cost of homeschooling or private school tuition. All right.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now, there are still some restrictions out there. Not every
school it has to accept everybody that wants to come
to their school just because they don't like where they
currently are. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
It depends. So if it's a public school and you're
zoned for that school, you can send your kid there
and they can't say no. But if you're using a
program like the Choose Act and you want your child
to go to a private school, each private school sets
up its own enrollment criteria.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
All right. Hoover High School and Vestavia High School are
two pretty decent big schools here in our community. They're
both public schools. But if you have a daughter's son
that goes to let's say, Hoover High School, but ninety
percent of their friends are at Vestavia High School, you
can't just say, all right, my kids going to Vestavia
(01:58):
High School because they have buddies there.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
In many cases, that's right. And so what we see
in Alabama and all across the country is that families
want those options. They want to be able to say
that they want to send their kids to a school
that's outside of their zone, outside of their districts, and
that's called open enrollment, and people don't talk about it
a lot in terms of school choice, but I think
(02:20):
they should. We talk about it here at the National
School Choice Awareness Foundation and during National School Choice Week
because it's an option that families want, and it also
sends a clear message to individual schools when they see
demand or they see families leaving. It gives them information
so they can either continue doing what they're doing well
and expand or improve if they're not doing well.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Are schools allowed to say, Okay, well, I'll do that,
but I can only accept let's say, fifty students that
want to come over here. And by the way, we'll
go through an interview process with these fifty applications or
one hundred for applications for fifty spots. And oh, there's
going to be a little tuition tied to you to
leave a decent school to come to our school because
we're kind of full. But if you'll pay a thousand
(03:04):
dollars a semester and pass our filters interview process, then
we'll let you in. Are public schools allowed to do that?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Okay? It depends on the state, it depends on the community,
and really the answer is yes to all of the above,
depending on where you live. So with open enrollment programs,
you have some states that are incredibly restrictive and they say, yeah,
will allow schools to do open enrollment on a voluntary basis,
and they can charge students from out of the zone
(03:34):
as much as ten thousand dollars that exists. They can
be selective about it, and it can be just like
a private school that has elite costs and emissions. You
have other states like Arizona and Florida, which say, all right,
we have unrestricted costs, free open enrollment. You cannot charge,
(03:54):
you cannot discriminate, you have to accept as long as
you have seats available. And that's where the challenge comes
in because a lot of districts or schools might not
have seats available. Guess so, yeah, it definitely presents challenges.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
What are some of the other most common questions parents
have when they're exploring this.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Really the biggest question we get is number one, what
options are available for me? We have a site for that.
It's called my School Choice. You can go to the
Alabama page and learn more. The second thing is how
do I start and when? And what we say is
you need to think about your own child, what your
child's needs are, what environments they have thrived in before,
(04:32):
what struggles they have now. It's not about what's working
for another kid in your community or your kid's friends.
It's what your child needs and what your goals are.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah. Yeah, And I also know that a lot of
times kids don't want to transfer, but the parents think
you're going to be better off in the long run,
and leaving their own communities for instance, or their own
neighborhoods and their own friend group. It can be tough
on a child. You have to weigh out the emotional
impact versus the potential education, back and forth on what's better.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It can be difficult. And that's one of those things
where people didn't want to talk about that for a
long time. You know, talk about school choice. It's sort
of these broad struggs. So when you get down to it,
the biggest reason that parents who look into choosing schools
for their kids but don't enroll their kids somewhere else,
biggest reason is they're worried about upsetting their kids friendships
(05:23):
and their social life and their overall well being. So
one of the things we've done is for the younger years.
We've developed a children's book that is going to help
kids better understand with their parents, obviously why their parents
chose different schools. We have a cartoon owl who's guiding
families through this.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Have you ever seen a situation where let's say, not
so well performing school has thirty percent of those people
decided they want to transfer to another school. Next thing,
you know, the school can't sustain itself, and the closes,
and now all of a sudden, the remaining students struggle
and suffer because because of that.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, usually in a case like that, you would see
when students leave the school trying to improve and doing
more to improve. There are closures all the time. A
lot of times the closures have to do with changes
in population. You know, birth rates are going down. We
actually have fewer students in our schools than we did ten, fifteen,
twenty years ago, So a lot of it has to
(06:22):
do with that, and not as much the choice aspect
of things. Yeah, and so there's going to be reorganization
and districts regardless.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
All at all a positive thing so far.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Absolutely, choice is a positive thing because we have it
in every other aspect of our lives, yep, what we
want to eat for breakfast, where we want to live,
what kind of car we want to drive. Give the
education should be no different, and now it's becoming more
focused on giving families of freedom to.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Decide why some great insight. Andrew Campanella, the executive officer
there at the National School Choice Awareness Foundation, Great information, Andrew,
thank you so much for being with me.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thank you for having me
Well, school choice is certainly something that is sweeping this nation,
and I think what thirty states now have expanded their
public or private school choice programs joined us now to
talk about that nationally and also what's happening here in Alabama.
The chief executive officer of the National School Choice Awareness Foundation,
Andrew Campanella, is here. Andrew, thanks for being with me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So there's been a lot of expansion. I think, what
is it now, close to seventy five percent of parents
are finding ways to improve their child's school experience with
some school choice options out there. So how have we
done here in Alabama relative to the rest of the country.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, Alabama has gone from a state that had very
few options for families to a state that offers incredible programs.
And it's really exciting because families now across the state
can either choose to send their kids to public school,
there are charter schools, there are some magnet schools, and
(00:56):
private schools are more affordable than ever due to as
dollarship program called the Choose Act, which allows families to
tap into about seven thousand dollars a year to offset
the cost of homeschooling or private school tuition. All right.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now, there are still some restrictions out there. Not every
school it has to accept everybody that wants to come
to their school just because they don't like where they
currently are. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
It depends. So if it's a public school and you're
zoned for that school, you can send your kid there
and they can't say no. But if you're using a
program like the Choose Act and you want your child
to go to a private school, each private school sets
up its own enrollment criteria.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
All right. Hoover High School and Vestavia High School are
two pretty decent big schools here in our community. They're
both public schools. But if you have a daughter's son
that goes to let's say, Hoover High School, but ninety
percent of their friends are at Vestavia High School, you
can't just say, all right, my kids going to Vestavia
(01:58):
High School because they have buddies there.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
In many cases, that's right. And so what we see
in Alabama and all across the country is that families
want those options. They want to be able to say
that they want to send their kids to a school
that's outside of their zone, outside of their districts, and
that's called open enrollment, and people don't talk about it
a lot in terms of school choice, but I think
(02:20):
they should. We talk about it here at the National
School Choice Awareness Foundation and during National School Choice Week
because it's an option that families want, and it also
sends a clear message to individual schools when they see
demand or they see families leaving. It gives them information
so they can either continue doing what they're doing well
and expand or improve if they're not doing well.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Are schools allowed to say, Okay, well, I'll do that,
but I can only accept let's say, fifty students that
want to come over here. And by the way, we'll
go through an interview process with these fifty applications or
one hundred for applications for fifty spots. And oh, there's
going to be a little tuition tied to you to
leave a decent school to come to our school because
we're kind of full. But if you'll pay a thousand
(03:04):
dollars a semester and pass our filters interview process, then
we'll let you in. Are public schools allowed to do that?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Okay? It depends on the state, it depends on the community,
and really the answer is yes to all of the above,
depending on where you live. So with open enrollment programs,
you have some states that are incredibly restrictive and they say, yeah,
will allow schools to do open enrollment on a voluntary basis,
and they can charge students from out of the zone
(03:34):
as much as ten thousand dollars that exists. They can
be selective about it, and it can be just like
a private school that has elite costs and emissions. You
have other states like Arizona and Florida, which say, all right,
we have unrestricted costs, free open enrollment. You cannot charge,
(03:54):
you cannot discriminate, you have to accept as long as
you have seats available. And that's where the challenge comes
in because a lot of districts or schools might not
have seats available. Guess so, yeah, it definitely presents challenges.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
What are some of the other most common questions parents
have when they're exploring this.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Really the biggest question we get is number one, what
options are available for me? We have a site for that.
It's called my School Choice. You can go to the
Alabama page and learn more. The second thing is how
do I start and when? And what we say is
you need to think about your own child, what your
child's needs are, what environments they have thrived in before,
(04:32):
what struggles they have now. It's not about what's working
for another kid in your community or your kid's friends.
It's what your child needs and what your goals are.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah. Yeah, And I also know that a lot of
times kids don't want to transfer, but the parents think
you're going to be better off in the long run,
and leaving their own communities for instance, or their own
neighborhoods and their own friend group. It can be tough
on a child. You have to weigh out the emotional
impact versus the potential education, back and forth on what's better.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It can be difficult. And that's one of those things
where people didn't want to talk about that for a
long time. You know, talk about school choice. It's sort
of these broad struggs. So when you get down to it,
the biggest reason that parents who look into choosing schools
for their kids but don't enroll their kids somewhere else,
biggest reason is they're worried about upsetting their kids friendships
(05:23):
and their social life and their overall well being. So
one of the things we've done is for the younger years.
We've developed a children's book that is going to help
kids better understand with their parents, obviously why their parents
chose different schools. We have a cartoon owl who's guiding
families through this.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Have you ever seen a situation where let's say, not
so well performing school has thirty percent of those people
decided they want to transfer to another school. Next thing,
you know, the school can't sustain itself, and the closes,
and now all of a sudden, the remaining students struggle
and suffer because because of that.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, usually in a case like that, you would see
when students leave the school trying to improve and doing
more to improve. There are closures all the time. A
lot of times the closures have to do with changes
in population. You know, birth rates are going down. We
actually have fewer students in our schools than we did ten, fifteen,
twenty years ago, So a lot of it has to
(06:22):
do with that, and not as much the choice aspect
of things. Yeah, and so there's going to be reorganization
and districts regardless.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
All at all a positive thing so far.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Absolutely, choice is a positive thing because we have it
in every other aspect of our lives, yep, what we
want to eat for breakfast, where we want to live,
what kind of car we want to drive. Give the
education should be no different, and now it's becoming more
focused on giving families of freedom to.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Decide why some great insight. Andrew Campanella, the executive officer
there at the National School Choice Awareness Foundation, Great information, Andrew,
thank you so much for being with me.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thank you for having me
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