Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey delivered her final State of the State address as the governor last week, outlining goals and priorities for Alabama lawmakers for the 2026 legislative session that began on Jan. 13.

In her address, Ivey laid out several funding priorities, including increasing funding for the state’s school choice program. Ivey called for the CHOOSE Act, which provides tax credits to subsidize the cost of attending private schools or home schools in the state, to receive $250 million in funding. The program currently receives $180 million in funding.

“Our education savings account program, the CHOOSE Act, is already supporting more than 23,000 students. That number will only grow as more folks learn about the program, as student athletes feel more confident in the rules and when it becomes fully universal in year three,” Ivey said about the CHOOSE Act program.

In her discussion of the CHOOSE Act, Ivey also endorsed “The Let the Kids Play Act,” a bill filed in both the House and the Senate that would provide parents legal recourse if their child is deemed ineligible from participating in high school athletics because they received money from the CHOOSE Act. This bill comes after Ivey sued the Alabama High School Athletics Association last year for deeming CHOOSE Act student-athletes ineligible for playing for their new schools. The AHSAA has had a long-standing rule that students receiving financial aid to attend a private school are ineligible for their first year attending their new school.

Ivey said the legislation would “make sure no family benefitting from the CHOOSE Act is unfairly benched again.”

Ivey also promised a 2% pay raise for teachers and other state employees during her address. Ivey did not, however, speak about rising health care costs for state employees on state health insurance plans. Both the Public Education Employee Health Insurance Program and the State Employees Health Insurance Program have requested significant budget increases for the upcoming fiscal year in order to avoid raising premiums for their enrollees. 

Ivey also promised increased funding for education across the state, saying, “I could not be prouder that my final Education Trust Fund proposal will be the largest ever in our state’s history.” 

Ivey did not specify how much she is proposing for the ETF during her address, but later in the week confirmed that she is proposing a $569.8 million increase for the fund, bringing its total to more than $10 billion.  

Alabama top stories in brief

Alabama civil rights icon dies at 86

• Claudette Colvin, an Alabama native who helped spark the civil rights movement, died last week at age 86.
• Colvin was arrested in 1955 after refusing to give her seat up to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. Colvin, who was 15 years old at the time of her arrest, refused to give up her seat nine months before Rosa Parks famously also refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.
• Colvin was one of the four plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, that outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery city buses.
• “Claudette Colvin’s life reminds us that movements are built not only by those whose names are most familiar, but by those whose courage comes early, quietly, and at great personal cost,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said.

State blocking certain SNAP card purchases in attempt to fight fraud

• Purchases made online or out of the state for Alabama SNAP recipients using their EBT cards will be automatically blocked starting Jan. 22, the Alabama Department of Human Resources announced last week.
• ADHR said the block will be in an attempt to fight fraud. 
• “We are extremely pleased to announce this new feature because it should curtail more of the electronic fraud that is stealing funds from eligible clients,” said Commissioner Nancy Buckner.
• SNAP recipients who wish to make online purchases outside of the state or online after the block goes into place will have to unlock their EBT card using the ConnectEBT app or website, or by calling the EBT customer service line.

State library service denies Fairhope Public Library funding yet again

• The Alabama Public Library Service has voted to continue withholding funds from the Fairhope Public Library in an ongoing dispute over material shelved in the library’s young adult section. 
• APLS said that the library must remove 10 books from its young adult section in order to be in compliance with the board’s guidelines. Titles APLS would like removed from the library’s teen section included “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.
• APLS chair John Wahl compiled a report on challenged books that the Fairhope Library Board voted to keep shelved in its teen section. Wahl’s report included tallies of curse words, racial slurs and sexual terms used in the books.
• Fairhope Public Library has now been without state funding since March 2025.
• The decision to continue to withhold funding drew dissent from some members of the board, with member Ronald Snider telling Wahl that he is “becoming the censor-in-chief of Alabama.”

Iconic rocket returning to Alabama welcome center

• A replica Saturn 1B rocket will be returning to the Alabama welcome center on Interstate 65 near the Tennessee state line. 
• A replica rocket stood at the welcome center for more than 40 years before it was demolished in November 2023 because of its deteriorated condition. 
• State Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, announced that the state is working with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in order to design and construct a new rocket for the welcome center.
• “This rocket is more than history — it’s Alabama’s welcome mat to the world, showing who we are and what we’ve always been capable of,” Whitt said about the rocket’s return.

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