Incorporating parent choice is vital to our Alabama families to enable them to make the best educational decisions for their children. Parents have been pushed to the back of the bus and ignored for way too long. With rights come responsibility for parents, they must be involved and engaged in the education of their children, it is a partnership.

The lack of competition among schools for students and funding has resulted in the declining productivity of public schools. This has stifled creativity and encouraged mediocrity. Alabama families must have the right to choose what is best for their children, whether it is public school, private school, charter school, classical school, or homeschooling. When parents get involved, they can be trusted.

For far too long, our students have been the subject of failed experiments in education through the implementation of national standards, which were an expensive and divisive detour in commonsense curriculum. Classical, traditional education, including unrevised history and civics, needs to return to the classroom.

Alabama funding for public educational processes has increased by over 30%, but student test results have declined by 50%. Our funding is being spent on bureaucracy and support staff and not spent in the classroom. Strong fiscal responsibility and transparency are required for citizens and parents to know how their educational tax dollars are spent, what they are spent for in detail, and what are the real results in relation to student academic achievement.