The Alabama Public Charter School Commission voted to approve contract renewals for three charter schools during their Wednesday meeting.
Among schools that received contract renewals was the Magic City Acceptance Academy, a public charter in Homewood, which has undergone restructuring following the passage of state legislation last year that barred public entities such as learning institutions from maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion programming.
MCAA was founded by the charter board in 2021. It is a tuition-free public charter school that teaches sixth through 12th grade students.
In its original mission statement, MCAA described its institutional goals as facilitating “a community in which all learners are empowered to embrace education, achieve individual success, and take ownership of their future in a safe, LGBTQ-affirming learning environment.”
Representatives from MCAA described several institutional changes the school has made to ensure its compliance with Alabama’s legislation targeting “divisive concepts” in public institutions.
“We have, from day one, followed the law, and we will follow the law for the rest of the time that we exist,” said MCAA President and Superintendent Dr. Patton Furman.
Commissioner Marla Greene asked Furman to explain the steps the school has taken to ensure it complies with Alabama’s divisive concepts legislation.
“We have had to make changes because of the divisive act, and we have followed the law to the letter,” Furman replied. “The commission has come to visit our school to make sure that we are doing the things that we’re supposed to be doing according to that law, and we are doing those.”
The school’s president highlighted the removal of explicit references to creating an affirming environment for LGBTQ+ students in the school’s mission statement, as well as the removal of rainbow iconography in MCAA’s logo and on its campus.
“I’ll just say the thing that you know that we’re all thinking. I’m just gonna say the thing, and that is that we have had rainbows in our building because we are affirming to all people,” Furman said.
“At some point, our mission was, you know, it did include a segment that said we are affirming to LGBTQ people. We are still affirming to all people, but we have taken that out,” Furman added. “We are affirming to our Black students, we are affirming to our Hispanic students, we are affirming to our LGBTQ students, which are in every school in this state. So, we have taken measures to not be divisive and to embrace all of the students that we have in front of us.”
MCAA’s current mission statement reads that the school seeks to facilitate “a community in which all learners are empowered to embrace education, achieve individual success, and take ownership of their future in a positive learning environment.”
“We have repainted things. We have taken down maps that say Gulf of Mexico and replaced them with Gulf of America, because those are the things that we have been tasked to do to keep us from being quote unquote divisive,” said Furman.
“We have immense respect for the law, the president and governor. So, when the laws came down, when the executive orders came down, we have done everything we can to meet those executive orders and those laws,” said MCAA CEO and Founder Karen Musgrove. “We are not here, as our mission, to fight that. Our mission is to serve students.”
Since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, executive orders have been issued barring federal funding from going toward DEI programming and training in government bodies and educational institutions found to promote “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”
Furman and Musgrove emphasized that MCAA began restructuring to comply with the state’s divisive concepts legislation before a letter the charter board sent requesting it do so in March.
“We changed the mission statement, the vision, the logos, we changed everything because of the law. We didn’t because [the commission] came to us and said you have to change it, or else,” Musgrove said. “It became a law. We made immediate changes. And so, we don’t see ourselves as being divisive, because we did exactly what was asked of us by the law.”
“When the commission asked us to change the maps, we did it the next day,” she added.
Commission Finance Specialist Dr. Tony Thacker reported that MCAA’s learning outcomes are comparable to the state average among public schools reported by the Alabama Department of Education.
He also reported that although the school’s math outcomes are lower than average, they increased from 2024 to 2025 at a greater rate than the statewide average.
Emphasizing the strong correlation between economically disadvantaged students and lower achievement outcomes, Thacker reported that MCAA’s average outcomes were roughly 20 percent higher than the 20 Alabama schools with the most comparable rates of economically disadvantaged students.
“I think this basically represents a very positive data set,” Thacker said.
“As a whole, their numbers are very similar to the state averages,” he added. “But when you compare them to other systems, primarily high schools and other systems, their outcomes are substantially higher than those other systems with similar free and reduced meal percentages.”
MCAA Assistant Principal Valencia Maiden-Moore reported that the school draws students from 37 Alabama counties, 100 percent of whom participate in club activities. She also reported that 55 percent of MCAA students are economically disadvantaged and qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and 18 percent are enrolled in the school’s English learners program.
Kim Vansandt, whose son is an MCAA senior, spoke at the meeting in favor of renewing the school’s contract.
“Please know that renewing Magic City’s charter means continuing to change lives like my son’s. It means giving more kids the chance to discover their potential and their purpose,” Vansandt said.
Commissioner Dr. Sharon Porterfield made a motion to renew MCAA’s contract for three years and Commissioner Charles Knight motioned to increase the school’s renewal to five years.
Following an inquiry from Commissioner Dr. Dorothy Huston, attorney for the commission Lane Knight told commissioners they have the power to revoke a renewal if a school fails to meet any set requirements.
Knight also said he believed MCAA’s renewal charter contract complies with Alabama’s divisive concepts law.
“When schools bring forth to us a legitimate proposal, and short of any major negatives or findings against their performance, why wouldn’t we present them with the option of five years to give them a chance to breathe and work forward to their growth and accomplishments?” Huston asked.
“That is the opinion of each commissioner,” Green told Huston. “I don’t have the authority to say why would we not. The fact is they’re personal, right, and that’s why we have the ability to vote.”
“Ok, then I call for the vote,” Huston replied.
The commission approved the motion to extend the proposed renewal to five years and voted 8-1 to approve the school’s contract renewal, with Green in opposition.
“As someone who’s been here from the beginning, I want to say thank you so much, and we are going to make you proud, and we are doing amazing things, and we want you to be a part of that,” Musgrove told the commission. “We want you to come visit, and we want you to see our amazing staff, teachers and students.”
MCAA’s renewal follows criticism from conservative state lawmakers who have called the institution’s funding into question and alleged the school remains in violation of Alabama’s anti-DEI legislation.
During the last year, MCAA’s funding has come under fire from Representative Chris Elliott, R-Josephine; Representative Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville and Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.
Orr, chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, emphasized that MCAA was being reviewed by the Charter Commission and predicted potential legislative action taken against the school’s funding during the 2026 session during a February appearance on “The Dale Jackson Show.”
“I can see dark fiscal days ahead for that academy if some of this all bears out. And it’s already being discussed here in the early days of the legislative session, Dale, about, alright, what are we going to do with that school in Birmingham?” Orr said. “And so, it is right in front of us on the appropriation side.”
Elliot also predicted in February that the school would be defunded federally and by the Alabama legislature in its 2026 session, during an interview with “1819 News: The Podcast.”
“I think you’ll see their funding likely zeroed out coming up this year. If they want to go do private fundraisers for this stuff, fine, but it’s just not appropriate for taxpayer money,” Elliott said of MCAA.
“The state has already taken an anti-DEI stance,” Elliot continued. “And so, I’m proud of that. But at the end of the day, this is just not something that’s consistent with Alabama values and not something I see continued funding for.”
Orr, in an interview last month, emphasized that MCAA has made institutional changes prior to the last round of educational budget adjustments.
“I think we got to keep reviewing it, but the charter school commission is really the frontline entity that needs to address the issue, but if not, I certainly have no problem, again, using the power of the purse if we need to, to send the appropriate messages,” Orr said.
Musgrove reported that in FY 2025, MCAA received $3,265,661 in state funding, $337,136 in federal special revenue and $2,449,500 in local funds.
The commission approved contract renewals for two additional charter schools during its meeting.
L.E.A.D. Academy Montgomery, a K-12 charter school, received a five-year contract renewal, while Breakthrough Charter School, a K-8 school in Marion, received a three-year renewal.
