Dr. Chad Holden

10/22/2026

During the School Superintendents meeting, I was thrilled to present a check for over $50,000 from our Unclaimed Property Division to Bill Hopkins, Superintendent of Florence City Schools! These returned funds highlight our ongoing commitment to reuniting Alabama communities and institutions with their unclaimed money. To see if your school system, organization, or family has unclaimed funds, please visit our official website at treasury.alabama.gov.

10/20/2026

Proud of Alabama’s public school board members - all of them - for completing required training!

This past training year, every school board member completed the required six hours of essential training, with two of those hours focused on whole board training.

This achievement highlights the dedication and hard work our members put into building stronger, more effective school boards. Let’s celebrate their commitment to education excellence and their unwavering support for our students and community! 🙌📚

10/14/2026

Looking forward to this opportunity to help Alabama leaders elevate their impact

Join us this Wednesday for the next ALSDE Maxwell Leadership Series session, Elevate Impact, featuring Dr. Chad Holden , Executive Director of the Alabama Association of School Boards! Register in PowerSchool PD and connect with education leaders from across the state for an afternoon of leadership, learning, reflection, and impact. APLDS credit available!

10/14/2026

Think Pink! Great start to the morning at SSA Fall Conference in Florence, AL.

10/12/2026

The Alabama State Board of Education approved a nearly $6.8 billion budget request that seeks more funding for literacy programs, school safety, career readiness initiatives and student transportation.

10/10/2026

Nearly 12,000 students. That’s how many students Alabama’s public schools have reportedly lost in just one year. That should concern every Alabamian.

According to the article, several factors may be contributing to this decline, including population shifts, declining birth rates, and more families choosing private schools or homeschooling, particularly with expanded school choice opportunities through programs like the CHOOSE Act. While the extent to which each factor is contributing remains unclear, it’s important that we fully understand what’s behind these numbers.

To be clear, the CHOOSE Act is NOT solely responsible for this decline. As Dr. Mackey has pointed out, the numbers simply don’t support that conclusion. However, as we work to better understand the factors contributing to this decline, the potential impact of expanded school choice should be part of that broader analysis.

These numbers demand answers, reliable data, and a plan moving forward.

And that plan must include accountability, transparency, and reasonable minimum standards for ANY non-public school, program, or individual accepting taxpayer dollars to educate Alabama’s children.

I respect a parent’s right to choose the educational setting that’s best for their child. But public dollars should come with public accountability. Those principles are not mutually exclusive.

Incidentally, as PARCA’s recent survey revealed, a majority of everyday Alabamians feel the same way.

Without common-sense guardrails, we risk creating an environment ripe for waste, fraud, and abuse. Even worse, we may not discover the consequences for student learning until years later, when those young people enter college or the workforce. By then, it’s too late.

We need these safeguards NOW, while we work to understand what all is behind this significant enrollment decline and what it means for the public schools that continue to serve the overwhelming majority of Alabama’s children.

This shouldn’t be about public schools versus private schools. It’s about protecting taxpayers, ensuring accountability, and doing what’s right for ALL Alabama children.

Alabama public school enrollment is down to about 702,000 students from 714,000 last year, Mackey said.