Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / CHOOSE Act - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 2, 2026

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CHOOSE Act - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 2, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  From Troy Public Radio, this is The
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  News Wrap, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Todd Stacy, host of
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  Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal,
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  discusses the latest report about the CHOOSE Act.
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  That's about school choice. And the wild card is fattening
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  up for the winter.
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  Todd Stacy, welcome back to The News Wrap from
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  Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal. Good to
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  be with you, Todd. Before we start out, I do want to compliment your
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  last program because you interviewed Amy Walter and we
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  see her on PBS NewsHour with NPR's
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  Tamara Keith. I was tickled just to be able to do it, and I
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  appreciated her taking the time. But yeah, there's nobody better in the business in
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  terms of knowing these midterms, these congressional elections.
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  She studies it all. So it was a treat for our viewers. For those who
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  missed that segment, can they get it online?
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  Absolutely. It's on our YouTube channel. It's also on our Facebook
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  page. I'm eager for folks to see that. Well, what's on the agenda
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  today for the News Wrap? Well, one big story that Trish Crane,
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  our education reporter, broke this week was more data on the
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  CHOOSE Act. The CHOOSE Act is, of course, Alabama's premier school
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  choice program. It's vouchers. Offering families up
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  to $7,000 to be able to send their kids to a school of their choice.
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  And so the question has been, where are those kids going?
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  We know that based on her reporting, there are 2 important facts.
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  The CHOOSE Act is growing in popularity and growing in demand.
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  Nearly 49,000 students applied for education
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  savings accounts, and more than 31,000 were using them.
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  Most of the families taking advantage of these their kids were already
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  in either private school or homeschool. So about
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  71% of this year's applicants reported attending
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  private school or being homeschooled last year.
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  A lot of times school choice is sold as a way for students to get
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  from a bad public school to a better private school. But what
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  this data shows is that the majority of students are already at
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  a private school or already at a homeschool environment.
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  And so really, Education Savings Account is aptly named because
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  it's helping these families save more money and apply it to
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  their children's education, not necessarily escape a bad situation.
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  Those are more like the opportunity scholarships that people offer.
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  And on another note, ahead is elections. Are you featuring
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  more of the candidates on your program? Absolutely. We're continuing our coverage
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  of this election. We're trying to get to every candidate. This week we're featuring the
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  Democratic candidates for the Alabama State Treasurer and
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  the Public Service Commission. Of course, the Public Service Commission is really in the
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  news these days because of the data center issue and electricity prices. And so
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  I look forward to those interviews. But I'm also going to be talking with Carla
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  Crowder with the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. They're hosting a
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  screening of a really important documentary that's actually
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  going to air on PBS. They're hosting that in Birmingham next week, so we're going
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  to preview the documentary. So what do you have for a wild card?
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  I think we talked about this last year, but it's Fat Bear Week again for
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  the National Park Service because, you know,
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  bears eat as much as they possibly can before they begin
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  hibernating. And so they have a competition for what bear can at
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  least appear to be the fattest. This year's champion is
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  named Backpack. He's a big-bellied bear there
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  at Alaska's Katmai National Park. They said on social
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  media that it was Bear Donka Donk Week for Fat Bear Week.
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  So that's just fun. Well, Todd, thank you so much for the Wild
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  Card and the News Wrap. Oh yeah, happy to do it. Joining us
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  for the News Wrap was Todd Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's
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  Capitol Journal. You can also catch the show on YouTube and
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  more information can be found at the aptv.org.
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  Thanks for joining us for In Focus, which is a podcast
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  wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.