(The Center Square) – School choice students in Alabama have a sports victory off the field.
Unknown is whether it will be cemented.
The prep governing body, the Alabama High School Athletic Association, adopted a policy preventing students receiving a voucher from playing sports in their first year if at a new school.
Second-term Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-DeKalb, obtained a temporary restraining order from Montgomery Circuit Judge J.R. Gaines on Friday. His order allows those in the CHOOSE Act to play sports. The acronym is for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education Act.
More than 23,000 students are in the CHOOSE Act this year, with just under 1,500 in public schools, about 7,000 homeschooled and more than 14,000 in private schools. Ivey signed the CHOOSE Act on March 7, 2024.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association regulates and coordinates programs for public, private and parochial member schools, 414 of which are high schools. More than 100,000 students participate, its website says.
“Every child deserves true choice in their education and that includes their right to participate in school athletics,” Ivey said. “The court’s decision restores fairness to the process which is, of course, the very basis of the CHOOSE Act.”
