Pastor Marvin Sapp Promotes School Choice in Montgomery

“There’s a tax credit part of that act that allows low income parents and their children to receive scholarships to go to private schools,” he says. “We think that’s a good thing.”

Others say they too are supporting the new law, which gives tax credits to parents who move their children from failing schools into non failing schools.

“I have the right, you have the right to go anywhere you want to go,” says Anna Sloan. “So if that’s what you want, to put your child in private schools, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

But state Representative Pebblin Warren says under the Accountability Act, children in rural areas will have a hard time transferring to non failing schools.

“If you know anything about the bill, it didn’t mandate for anybody to take a student so if you have a school that was established for separation, there’s no way that these black kids are going to be able to get in there.”

There are now 76 schools deemed as ‘failing’, schools Warren says the Accountability Act isn’t helping.

“What we are going to have to do is really take what we have and really take our public schools and build it to accommodate and meet the needs that our students are needing.”

Though Pastor Marvin Sapp, who owns a charter school in Michigan, says he believes low-income families need to find a way to put their children in the best schools.

“Even though we may not have all the same income level, we all should be able to send our children to a place where they can be educated to the point to succeed globally.”