Alabama Charter Schools Seeking Share of County Taxes
By Dale Hines
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
September 20, 2025
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A group of Alabama charter schools are asking a Montgomery circuit judge to block the state superintendent of education from finalizing annual countywide property tax distributions to other public schools until the court decides whether charter schools are entitled to a share of those funds.
The argument before the court details a complaint that public charter schools, though privately owned, are publicly funded and should be included in county taxation funds that are distributed to all public schools.
Montgomery Circuit Judge Monet Gaines heard arguments earlier this week on the schools’ request for a temporary restraining order and gave both sides three days to submit a proposed order. She did not indicate when she may issue a ruling.
This theory from the charter schools is playing out throughout Alabama and schools have joined together to have a louder voice in this matter.
The lawsuit, filed September 5th, seeks to direct Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey to include charter schools in his instructions to county revenue commissioners for how countywide property taxes should be distributed among public school districts. Those distributions are made at the county level and can begin as early as the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1.
Attorneys for the schools argue Alabama law requires countywide property taxes to be distributed among all public schools – including public charter schools – but that Mackey has not included them in his previous annual instructions since becoming superintendent in 2018. Alabama’s charter school law was passed in 2015 and has been amended multiple times.
Charter schools are publicly funded and publicly accountable tuition-free schools that operate under a contract with the government. While they have more operational autonomy than traditional public schools and can be managed by non-profit organizations or even for-profit management companies, they remain a form of public education, funded by taxpayer dollars and open to all students in the community.
The complaint claims Mackey has acted in an “arbitrary and capricious manner” by leaving charter schools off those lists.
The schools involved in the lawsuits are in five counties:
Jefferson County
Empower Schools of Alabama
Magic City Acceptance Academy
Freedom Preparatory Academy
Legacy Preparatory School
Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School
Sumter County
University Charter School
Mobile County
Acceleration Day and Evening Preparatory Academy
Covenant Academy
Floretta P. Carson Visual and Performing Arts Academy
Montgomery County
LEAD Academy
Perry County
Breakthrough Charter School
The schools’ attorneys note that i3 Academy in Birmingham is the only public charter school currently included in a countywide distribution.
Mackey’s Sept. 10 response calls the schools’ claims “unfounded,” arguing they are seeking “to be funded at a higher level than the law allows and at a higher level than other public schools.”
He also contends an injunction would be improper because the schools waited “until the eleventh hour” to file and because budgets for fiscal year 2026, due to the Alabama State Department of Education by Sept. 15, are already in place.
According to Mackey, charter schools prepared their budgets for next year without anticipating countywide tax revenue, while traditional systems counted on countywide tax revenue consistent with prior years.
The schools’ filing says they began discussions with Mackey in December, asking to be added to the distribution letters, but that he declined to do so.
Mackey’s filing points to i3 Academy’s inclusion in Jefferson County’s tax distribution as the result of a 2024 settlement of a lawsuit the charter school filed against Jefferson County and Birmingham City Schools.
Financial statements for i3 Academy show the school has received about $820,000 in countywide taxes so far this fiscal year, as their enrollment entitles the school to seven-tenths of one percent of Jefferson County’s total distribution for FY 2025.
The school does not receive any school district or city taxes.
Disputes over how taxes are divided among public schools have frequently surfaced in recent years.
Beyond i3 Academy’s case, the two city districts in Baldwin County – Gulf Shores and Orange Beach – have pursued a share of Baldwin County property taxes.
Three north Alabama districts won a 2021 case that increased their portion of the Simplified Sellers Use Tax, and Tuscaloosa City and Mountain Brook City schools recently joined litigation over how the state allocates that same online-sales tax.
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