Public Education in Alabama

[kayman]

Why on earth are there so many school districts in this state?

This is one of my pet-peeves with local municpalities here in Greater Birmingham because Jeffco has 13 different districts. Although some muncipalities like Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, and Homewood have the substantial tax base to support it, but I honest think that places like Trussville (yes I said because they did for the obviously wrong reasons), Clay and many others should have never been created.

In the front page of today's Birmingham News (New school systems sprout amid concerns ), there was the article about the problems this state is creating for itself with it lack school district laws. It says that basically the state law say that any muncipality with 5,000 residents or greater can create it own school district. However, most of these municpalities have either no municipal police department, fire department, and no real source of substantial revenue to fund these services but wants to create it own school distric. This alone has led to very unneccesary strain on the State Department of Education having to bail out inefficient school districts. It creates more problems for the state helping keep something that shouldn't have ever existed in the first place

In the state of Florida there are only 67 school districts with nearly 3 times the number of state residents, and none of them are municipal. However, we have 131 school districts and counting in the state, but with only 4.5M residents. The factionalism involving the creating of a new district can hurt both the new and the county districts.

In the article it recommends municipalities doing like Lincoln in Talladega County, who had considered creating its own but instead choose to raise city taxes to improve only the schools in its zone. That is something that can be legally done, but not putting the extra strain upon themselves creating its own district.

[Alabadrock]

This is one of my pet-peeves with local municpalities here in Greater Birmingham because Jeffco has 13 different districts. Although some muncipalities like Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, and Homewood have the substantial tax base to support it, but I honest think that places like Trussville (yes I said because they did for the obviously wrong reasons), Clay and many others should have never been created.

In the front page of today's Birmingham News (New school systems sprout amid concerns ), there was the article about the problems this state is creating for itself with it lack school district laws. It says that basically the state law say that any muncipality with 5,000 residents or greater can create it own school district. However, most of these municpalities have either no municipal police department, fire department, and no real source of substantial revenue to fund these services but wants to create it own school distric. This alone has led to very unneccesary strain on the State Department of Education having to bail out inefficient school districts. It creates more problems for the state helping keep something that shouldn't have ever existed in the first place

In the state of Florida there are only 67 school districts with nearly 3 times the number of state residents, and none of them are municipal. However, we have 131 school districts and counting in the state, but with only 4.5M residents. The factionalism involving the creating of a new district can hurt both the new and the county districts.

In the article it recommends municipalities doing like Lincoln in Talladega County, who had considered creating its own but instead choose to raise city taxes to improve only the schools in its zone. That is something that can be legally done, but not putting the extra strain upon themselves creating its own district.

[kayman]

State 47th to graduate high school students

Alabama has once again fallen short with its education. We are ranked 47th in the national survey and evaluation of our high school and college prep. We don't graduate from high school with proper college preparation via an "Advanced Diploma", and we are not one of the 21 states that requires this. Most of our students have to take remedial class in college or have to college prep course when in college which delays their graduate by at least 1 semester.

A report released in May by the Alliance for Excellent Education stated that 66 percent of white students in Alabama graduate from high school, compared with 76 percent nationwide, and black students were slightly below the national average: 50 percent graduate in Alabama, compared with 52 percent nationwide.

[Fear of Heights]

State 47th to graduate high school students

Alabama has once again fallen short with its education. We are ranked 47th in the national survey and evaluation of our high school and college prep. We don't graduate from high school with proper college preparation via an "Advanced Diploma", and we are not one of the 21 states that requires this. Most of our students have to take remedial class in college or have to college prep course when in college which delays their graduate by at least 1 semester.

The information came from the evaluation data the state provided from the 2003-2004 school year. Although this is 3-4 years ago, it shows that we still have a lot of improvement to be made in this state when it comes to education.

[Alabadrock]

Not good, but on the bright side that was the lowest I've seen the state ranked in several categories other than fattest state (unfortunately we were the second fattest behind Miss.). In fact, I've seen Alabama ranked around #41 in several categories. Not great by any means, but we have been consistently ranked in the #46/#47 in these same areas a few years ago so we are actually making good progress. One example is health care. Ranked #41 as a state where just a few short years ago we were closer to #47.

[kayman]

SCHOOLS GIVING EARLY START GUIDING STUDENT TO CAREERS

Beginning this fall, Spain Park High School in Hoover is one of the first high schools in the state and the nation to offer to a "major" for their incoming freshmen. They will offer 24 majors from mathematics to sports medicine for their students to take prepartory course and coursework focus upon their respective fields. In the attempt to satisfy the minimum requirements for their major they must take and successfully complete 3 course in their field.

Apparently, Alabama is ahead of the national curve with this type of curriculum being offered at our nation's high schools. The State Board of Education is in the midst of reworking and reorganizing the career tech prep curriculum, so that most if not all high schools in the state can offer this.

[DirtySouth]

Does Alabama need a lottery to support K-12 education?

I often wonder why Alabama won't institute a lottery to support K-12 education. There were substantial cuts projected in today's Press Register for K-12 schools. Considering the economic development boom the city of Mobile and the state is experiencing as a whole, we definitely need to discover a way to protect one of our most important assets, the education of our children. In addition, amenities like excellent schools help attract more economic development and jobs to the area. These cuts are inexcusable. If we dare to be recognized as a first class city, we need to behave like one and figure out more creative means of sustaining our school system not shrinking it.

[MobileLSUboy09]

i don't care if we have lottery or gambling, but we need SOMETHING...we are the ONLY state in the Southeast without a lottery OR gambling...and its dumb and backwards and if we're ever going to be progressive, we need more source of income...

[Southron]

Welcome to Urban Planet, DirtySouth!

Despite polls showing majority support, voters rejected a lottery a few years ago. It'll be tough to get a lottery passed unless we get another governor that makes it a priority. We definitely need some kind of steady funding source for education. It's ridiculous that we go into proration and start cutting every time the economy takes a downturn.

I'm going to move this thread to the coffee house so that members from around the state will get a chance to comment on it.