The Alabama State Department of Education proposed an ambitious $300 million-plus budget increase at Thursday’s state board work session. The increases target six major project areas: boosting literacy, numeracy and STEM; preparing graduates; increasing teacher quality and quantity; implementing a new student information system; and focusing on special student populations.

State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey provided a comprehensive presentation detailing the budget requests for each category. Mackey explained that while the request is aggressive, it reflects the cost of implementing ambitious programs, some of which are required by legislation such as the new Alabama Literacy Act.

Revenue forecasts indicate an additional $200 to $300 million will be available to spend in the FY21 Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget to fund K-12 and higher education. Highlights of the ALSDE’s budget proposal include plans to:

• Add 1,800 teachers statewide by significantly lowering divisors for grades K-3, 4-6 and 9-12 with a $139.5 million increase. Past year investments shored up funding for middle school grades 7-8.
• Direct dollars to classroom instructional supports with an additional $49.8 million that will increase student material funds from $600 to $1,000 per teacher unit and professional development from $100 to $200 per teacher unit.
• Create a $25 million high needs special education grant program to replace the poorly funded “catastrophic special education support” budget line item.
• Provide a boost to the Alabama Reading Initiative with an increase of $24.9 million to fill 32 regional reading specialists positions, including one English Learning Language specialist for each region; strengthen investment in professional development opportunities for reading programs; and restore a local reading coach for every elementary school.
• Address growth in the English Language Learner population, which jumped from 25,000 students to 29,000 over the last year, with a $4.4 million increase.

The proposal also included significant line item increases for the following areas:

• Summer Reading Programs ($3.9 million)
• Computer Science and STEM ($5.2 million)
• Career Technical Education ($3 million)
• JAG program ($3 million)
• Tier 3 ($7-$10 million)
• Teacher Mentoring ($1 million)
• Special Ed Pre-K ($12 million)
• School Nurses ($7 million)
• School Safety ($1 million)
• Transportation ($16 million)

The State BOE must approve the budget request to submit to the governor’s office by Nov. 1, and the governor will submit her proposed budget to the Legislature when it convenes Feb. 4, 2020. Alabama has enjoyed several years of strong revenue growth that enabled the Legislature to appropriate $500 million in new dollars for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, and the ETF budget exceeds $7 billion for the first time in Alabama’s history. Education advocates are making the most of the growth, noting that state revenue growth forecasts beyond FY21 are less optimistic.

In other work session discussion:

The ALSDE shared a new look for the online State Report Card, using data from the 2017-18 edition. Board members applauded the new application for its functionality and easy accessibility. The responsive design allows users to intuitively browse, sort and compare data via a dashboard on any mobile device. Information is available by state, school system and school levels, and data can be pulled in multiple ways such as student population, enrollment and teacher demographics, including whether a teacher is teaching in or out of field. Data also is available by sub-populations to comply with federal law. School systems will have an opportunity to review data for the 2018-19 report card on Oct. 4, before it is posted to the ALSDE website Oct. 18. The “failing schools list” (bottom six percent) will be made available Nov. 1.

Deputy State Superintendent - Division of Instruction, Dr. Daniel Boyd, provided an update on several topics, including the state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan. The U.S. Department of Education has approved all 10 changes requested by the ALSDE. Those requests were made as a result of stakeholder feedback and a review of the practical impact of the federal plan.

Some of the approved changes include:

• Identifying schools with graduation rates of 67% or below to compile the Comprehensive Support Schools list instead of those schools falling below 10% of the average graduation rate.
• Changing identification of Comprehensive Support Schools from those in the bottom 6% of Title I schools to those in the bottom 5%.
• Changing the definition of chronic absenteeism from 15 to 18 days;
• Revising the calculation for graduation rate indicators; and
• Changing the scoring process for ELL proficiency.

Other work session discussion included updates on the new AdvancEd system, now called Cognia, and a report on upgrading standards for regional in-service centers.

Next State Board Meeting & Work Session

The next state board meeting will be held in Montgomery on Oct. 10 at 10 a.m., with a work session to follow.