This legislative session promises to be a full one in Alabama. Headlined by a potential gambling compact with a local American Indian tribe, the establishment of a statewide lottery, the legalization of medical marijuana, and a federal investigation into Alabama state prisons, legislators are poised to make multiple heavy lifts in a small, three-month window.

In all these discussions, the Alabama Policy Institute has a voice. Specifically, API is working to ensure that the state’s prison problem does not become a crisis management issue resulting in an increase in taxes, but rather a carefully deliberated issue in which cost-saving measures and private partnerships are prioritized. In between the noise of the larger issues, API is pursuing another topic—occupational licensure reciprocity—and expects widespread support and, hopefully, the passage of this important economic freedom and development reform.

The largest opportunity API has identified, however, is neither prisons nor occupational licensing—but education. When 2019’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores listed Alabama in dead last, the need for education reform was spotlighted like never before. This attention might be exactly what Alabama needs to drive real and meaningful change for Alabama’s children—through innovative and paradigm-breaking school choice programs.