Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) called out the Alabama High School Athletic Association for punishing families and students who have utilized the CHOOSE Act to access improved educational opportunities.
During a Friday discussion on "The Jeff Poor Show," Ledbetter explained that the organization is attempting to keep student athletes who have transferred to a private school in the state, courtesy of the legislation, from competing in sanctioned competition for a single year.
"We passed the CHOOSE Act to give kids the opportunity to move from such bad situations, and a lot of things are being said, but the fact of the matter is, the first three years of this program are for kids who are 300% below the poverty level," the lawmaker said. "So, it's kids who probably couldn't afford to move who have done so. Looking at the CHOOSE bill, I know there are parts of the state that need this, and that's one reason I supported it."
Ledbetter reached out to the AHSAA to ensure the bill could not be exploited as a tool for athletic recruitment and sought their opinion on the language in it.
"But when we were about to pass the bill on the floor, we had a meeting with the leadership, and I said my concern is that we don't want them to use this for a recruiting tool. So, at that time, I had my staff get in touch with the Alabama High School Athletic Association, and we've got those text messages back and forth so we could set it up just like they had it. So, the language would be like what they wanted to be able to let these kids participate in athletics and use the same language that they use now for transfers. And so we did."
The speaker rebuffed the AHSAA's interpretation of the legislation that counts funding from the CHOOSE Act as financial aid for students who are transferring.
"First of all, financial aid is no different than public school. If you move from one public school to the other, the dollars follow you based on the student count," Ledbetter continued. "So, we do it in public schools. The CHOOSE Act does the same thing. The money follows the kid. And I said, there's no difference. You can't differentiate between the two because it happens the same way. They forbid the kids from playing because they were using CHOOSE Act money to get out of a bad situation. We got in touch with the people who worked with them and said we need to have a conversation about this. So, we did for about a week. We explained to them that you really don't have a choice. "
"This is the law. This is in statute. Whether you like it or not, it's the law," he added.
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