Alabama Republican congressional candidate Caroleene Dobson, who has been vocal about her support of school choice on the campaign trail, graduated from a private, so-called “segregation academy,” in 2005.
Dobson, who is in a heated race in the newly court-drawn 2nd Congressional District against Democrat Shomari Figures, graduated from Monroe Academy, a private school in the small city of Monroeville.
Schools across the South founded Monroe Academy in the 1960s as a segregation academy in response to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that said public school segregation was unconstitutional.
Such schools have played a key role in perpetuating segregated school systems across the Deep South. It’s unclear if Monroe Academy has ever admitted a Black student, Alabama Public Radio reported, citing a local journalist. The local public schools, however, are predominantly Black.
Monroe Academy did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment. The school has a non-discrimination policy on its website.
Dobson has openly supported the CHOOSE Act, a tax credit program that allows parents to receive up to $7,000 to offset private or public school costs and instructs the state legislature to appropriate $100 million to fund it, starting in 2026.
“Caroleene understands that school choice allows all children regardless of race, income level, or zip code the opportunity to receive a quality education that prepares them for high-paying, 21st century jobs,” said Drew Dickson, a spokesperson for her campaign.
But critics of the bill say Black students in Alabama are concentrated in underfunded and underresourced public schools, and that the CHOOSE Act will divert much needed funding away from these schools.
“It is problematic when our public schools are in need of more resources that if we take funding away from them, it’s going to just make it that much harder for teachers to do their jobs, and it really then takes away from the students that are going to remain in those schools,” Alabama state Rep. Phillip Ensler told WSFA 12 News after the bill was signed into law by GOP Gov. Kay Ivey.
For others, the effort to defund public schools is reminiscent of how segregation academies like Monroe Academy came into existence in the first place. Historian and Alabama native Steve Suitts told ProPublica that the state was among the first whose elected officials provided state money to white students trying to avoid integration.
Dobson has also expressed support for defunding the Department of Education, a goal listed in Project 2025, the sweeping right-wing playbook for a potential Trump victory.
“Much of the $68 billion allocated to the U.S. Department of Education might be better used if given to the states in order to increase teacher salaries, fund school construction, purchase new school buses, and expand educational programs, especially in rural areas like the Second Congressional District,” Dickson said.