Tuberville Not a Champion of Public Education — He Voted Against Protecting It

From the Karlapalem campaign

“Coach Tuberville wants you to believe the CHOOSE Act is about blue-collar families stuck in a bad school. But he leaves out that in just a few months, the wealthiest families in this state will qualify for the exact same check,” Karlapalem said.

MADISON, Alabama — Hanu Karlapalem, Democratic nominee for Alabama State House District 4, today responded to a guest column published in AL.com by U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville praising Alabama's CHOOSE Act (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education Act) and attacking Doug Jones — calling him “DC Doug” — for wanting to “stop the CHOOSE Act in its tracks.” What Tuberville didn't mention: starting January 1, 2027, the income cap on the program disappears entirely, opening $7,000 taxpayer-funded education savings accounts to every family in Alabama, regardless of income.

“As I said Sunday when the new ACAP data came out: poverty is the challenge our schools are working to overcome, and the supermajority's answer was to take more money away from them. Limestone County has the highest poverty rate in this district and the lowest math proficiency — 21.7 percent. That's exactly the kind of gap that targeted investment — like the RAISE Act — the Renewing Alabama’s Investment in Student Excellence Act, which directs extra funding to schools serving students in poverty — is designed to close. Instead, the supermajority is growing a program that will soon send $250 million a year to families who don't need it — money that could be targeting the students who do,” Karlapalem said.

At a recent “State of the Schools” event, superintendents from Huntsville City, Madison City, and Madison County Schools — the districts most of HD4's families rely on — put a number on it: a combined $100 million a year lost to CHOOSE Act expansion.

“This isn't a partisan-only concern. Six House Republicans and Senator Donnie Chesteen have raised the same alarm I am. My opponent, Rep. Parker Moore, voted for the original CHOOSE Act when it passed the House in 2024 — a vote every Democrat and six House Republicans opposed. He's stood with the Republican supermajority at every step of its expansion since, including the FY2027 Education Trust Fund budget that increased CHOOSE Act funding from $180 million to $251.2 million, a 38 percent jump. He had the chance to ask those same questions. He didn't,” Karlapalem said.

Karlapalem also pushed back on Tuberville's attempt to label Jones a “DC Democrat.”

“Coach Tuberville spends most of his time in Florida and Washington, not Alabama classrooms. And Senator Tuberville says he ‘taught at a public school’ and ‘spent 40 years in education.’ What he spent 40 years doing was coaching college football — his own Senate biography says so. There's a difference between coaching a football team and teaching in a classroom, and Alabama parents deserve better than a coach who wants to be governor blurring that line to sell them on gutting the Department of Education that serves their children,” Karlapalem said.

“Income shouldn't decide your child's future — but neither should it become an excuse to drain public school funding for a private-school subsidy. As your state representative, I'll fight to repeal the CHOOSE Act and put that money back where it belongs: our public schools, our teachers, and the students this district depends on. And to any military or special-needs family worried about what that means for them — public education funded to the level it deserves, with real support built in for special-needs and military students, is a better guarantee than a voucher handout that will soon spend the same dollars on families who never needed the help,” Karlapalem said.

“None of this is about taking a choice away from families who need one. It's about making sure the choice we already have — a fully funded public school in every zip code — isn't the one Montgomery keeps shortchanging,” Karlapalem said.

Hanu Karlapalem is a Madison, Alabama resident of 26 years, small technology business owner, UAH M.S. graduate, Life Member and former Second Vice President of the Limestone County NAACP and Chairman, AANHPI Caucus. He has been married for 31 years and has deep roots in the North Alabama community through civic, professional, and community service. Karlapalemis the Democratic nominee for Alabama State House District 4 in the November 3, 2026, general election.

For more information: https://www.hanu4alabama.com