K-12 School Choice Calculator

A tool that estimates the fiscal effects of school choice for your state.

1. Select State

Alabama
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2. Select Program Inputs

Universal

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Based on your inputs, this Alabama ESA program would generate $120,224,868 in short-run net fiscal costs and $87,322,740 in long-run net fiscal costs. This range represents between a $4,885 cost and a $3,548 cost per student.

Click here for more information on how short-run and long-run net fiscal effects are calculated.

This Alabama ESA program would be open to all students. The average ESA amount would be $7,000 for eligible students. Both public and non-public school students would be eligible for this program. Of eligible non-public school students, 20.0% would participate in the program during the year. Of eligible public school students, 1.0% would participate in the program during the year. Based on these take-ups, the overall switcher rate for the program would be 30.2%. Switchers are students who would have enrolled in a public school without financial assistance from the ESA program.

Note: Results of this calculator reflect one year only and do not produce projections for multiple years. To project future years, users may change inputs accordingly to align with their expectations for this program.

Key Figures

Short-Run Fiscal Effect

−$120M

Long-Run Fiscal Effect

−$87.3M

ESA Amount

$7,000

Total ESA Students

24,613

Eligibility Rate

100.0%

Overall ESA Program Switcher Rate

30.2%

Public School Comparison

Per-Student Funding Gap

The average cost of the ESA is $7,000 per student and the average cost to educate students in Alabama's public school systems is $11,695 per student. ESA funding per student would be 59.9% of the per student average cost of public school systems.

Short-run variable cost estimates comprise three expenditure categories: Instruction, Instructional Support Services, and Student Support Services.

If the ESA amount is less than the short-run average variable cost per student, then the ESA program will generate fiscal benefits for taxpayers in the short term and long term when students leave public schools via the program. If the ESA amount is less than the long-run average variable cost per student only, then the ESA program will generate fiscal benefits for taxpayers in the long term when students leave public schools via the program.

Total Cost Share

The total cost of the ESA program for the year would be $172,287,750 while Alabama's spends $8,703,514,773 on public K-12. Thus, public support for the ESA program would represent 2.0% of all public funding for Alabama.

Participation Share

830,086 students are currently enrolled in K-12 public and private educational settings in Alabama. Based on the program inputs entered, 24,613 students would participate in the ESA program, or 3.0% of the current K-12 students in Alabama.

Fiscal Effects Math

Short-Run Net Fiscal Effect

Short-Run Variable Cost Savings ⓘ
[$52,062,882]
− Total Cost for ESA Program:
[$172,287,750]
Short-Run Net Fiscal Effect:
[−$120,224,868]
[$4,884.70] in costs for each ESA Student

Long-Run Net Fiscal Effect

Long-Run Variable Cost Savings ⓘ
[$84,965,010]
− Total Cost for ESA Program:
[$172,287,750]
Long-Run Net Fiscal Effect:
[−$87,322,740]
[$3,547.90] in costs for each ESA Student