Hello and welcome to Spotlight on Education.

Alabama Public Television's quarterly deep dive into the issues impacting Alabama schools.

I'm Todd Stacey, host of Capital Journal here on apt.

Thanks so much for watching.

Later in the show, I'll be talking with AP senior education reporter Trish Crane about the most pressing issues of the day.

After that, Allison King with the Alabama Education Association will join me to discus how new laws Ada has advocated for are being implemented.

And then Mark Dixon of the A Education Partnership sits down to talk about their successful teacher training sessions over the summer and other education issues.

But we begin the spotligh episode, sharing some brand new polling data released this week by Pakka, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.

The organization has launche the Education Research Center, aimed at expanding Parkers research on issues facing Alabama schools and policymakers.

Their 2026 survey found that most Alabamians are generally supportive of public schools, and of additional investments in those schools.

According to the survey a full 73% of Alabamians believe that funding for K-through-12 public schools is too little.

The numbers are a little different for other sectors of education.

66% say more funding is needed for pre-K.

44% say community colleges need more funding, but 42% say they have enough funding when it comes to four year colleges.

Just 28% said they need more funding, while 37 say current funding is enough.

And 29% say it's too much.

And when it comes to vouchers or education savings accounts under the Choose act, just 17% say more funding is needed, while 24 say current funding is enough.

And 42% say that it is too much.

Okay.

So the people thin public school needs more money.

Well, Park also asked where that money should come from.

This is where it gets interesting.

When asked if they'd be willing to pay more property taxes to fund education, just 36% said yes.

While 61% said no.

What about more sales tax?

Similar numbers?

38% said yes.

And 61% said no.

What about internet sales tax?

Would we be willing to pay more in that?

43% said yes.

And 53% said no.

What about income tax?

Just 37% said they'd be willing to pay more there to fund public schools, bu 6,062% said that they would not.

But in general, 66% said they'd be willing to pay some kind of tax to fund education.

I guess the devil is in the details.

And what if there was more funding for Alabama schools?

Parker asked residents how that money should be prioritized.

39% said tha the state should should increase education, employees pay and benefits.

20% said that new fundin should pay for expanded services for special needs students.

14% say expanding mental health support.

You can see the full survey results for yourself by going to Parker's website.

That's PRC alabama.org.

Well, we are now one year into a state law banning cell phones in the classroom.

What was something of a shock of the syste is now a normal classroom rule.

As students return to school recently.

Educators are saying the policy is working by helping students stay focused on academics and connect more personally with their classmates.

Jeff Sanders has that story.

At Pike Road Middle School and Montgomery County Principal Kristi Wright says less time on cell phones is giving students more time to learn.

We first visited with Wright more than a year ago as Alabama lawmakers considered the statewide ban.

Her school already had a polic in place with students securing their phones and locking pouches before the school day began.

Wrigh shared her school's experience with lawmakers at the state House, and now, she says, the benefits are continuing.

We've seen a lot more of academic engagement where our learners are actually able to dive deeper into the instruction, are learning, are laid, learners are able to reall focus on the students learning instead of having to remind them to put up their cell phones.

Alabama's focused act took effect last school year, and state superintendent Doctor Eric Mackey says teachers are reporting a difference statewide.

We did a survey of teachers this past year and it's over 95% positive.

So in general, teachers have told us that, yes, they like the polic and they're enforcing the policy and their principals are enforcing the policy.

Back at Pike Road, Principal Wright says the change extends beyond instruction to the relationships students are building.

And that's just making connections with other peers and also with adults and we've just noticed that that has increased a lot over the years.

Now, our learners are not concerned at all about not having their cell phones because it's just an expectation of ours.

It's our culture.

And whether that translates into higher test scores will be harder to measure.

Doctor McKee says any academic gains would have to be considered alongside other changes in schools.

So it it'll be hard to ever come back and say, oh the test scores went up in 2028 because we took cell phones out of the schools in 2025.

Will it have some impact?

Absolutely.

It's already having impact.

And that's why we survey teachers to say, hey, what is the impact in the classroom?

And in general, teachers are telling us a much better learning environment because of this move.

Wright says the habits students develop now could also prepare them for life after graduation.

The new generation that's out there working, you see them looking at their phone during the day when they're at work and when they should be doing, you know, you know, their job or something.

And so I think this protects that time.

It teaches them that, hey, there's a time and place for cell phones.

There's a time and place to be connected.

And that consistency year after year, we're going to see the results of that in our workforce.

And while the Focus Act itself requires students to turn off and put away their cell phones each day, it's up to each individual school district to decide how they do it and the consequences if they don't.

Reporting from Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for spotlight on Education.

Thank you Jeff.

The new school year always comes with optimism from teachers and students and principals and even public officials whose job it is to make funding and policy decisions for schools.

Randi Scott caught up with several of them to talk about their hopes for the new school year.

It's a subject that's always a hot topic to talk about education in Alabama.

You'll see people in the political world making comments, read initiative and writing.

And this has done really well.

It's gotten better, but we can make it better.

We just got to keep emphasizing our fourth grade math scores were out of sight or.

Unbelievable.

So we're making progress.

But again, it has to be a focus.

You just can't say, you know we're going to do it for a while and then take your eye off the ball.

Education is a key to making sure that we're partnering, with our, workforce development programs, with our community college.

Our two year college system is instrumental in this.

Our public school systems, with all of the workforce development programs and CTE programing that we're seeing across, the state now is instrumental in this effort.

And so it's a joint effor and something that we're happy to be able to contribute t in Washington, creating a push to elevate education in Alabama higher than before.

The world is changing.

We've got to make sure that we have the people in the right place, making sure that there's a lot of people that are teaching right subjects.

Doctor Jim Purcell serves as the executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

He sees education in Alabama as a common thread connecting various tool needed for the state's success.

You know, the world's changing a good bit for, education in general and in higher education, artificial intelligence.

Changing budgets.

Federal government no longe given much guidance, reductions in those, salaries and pay scales that you can provide somebody because of those budget cuts.

He says the changes won't stop there.

And I think the other one i the state legislature is aware that we're going to have perhaps a budget shortfall this next year, or at least less money coming forward.

So everybody is going to have to be, able to do more with less.

He says other concerns deal with personnel within school facilities.

One of them was pay.

The legislature responded by giving them pay, and other was, they were going to all retire it.

You know, after ten years of service, they would have get their te years and go do something else.

The legislature very wisely changed the benefit program so that if they stayed 14 years, that there would be a, an exponential increase in their potential, pension.

So there was ways to work with, what the needs of those individual were to, to stay in our system, changes needed to help build Alabama's future workforce.

And our strategic plan, actually, student success is a big part of it.

And one of the objectives is to make sure that we have more student coming into the system, both as, people are out of high school and adults, and then also making sure that they're more prepared.

Doctor Priscilla says this opens the door for more progres in other educational programs.

We've been involved in a lot of the conversations about, helping the K-12 students become better prepared for college, helping with the reading initiative, with our teacher ed programs, with the math program.

We've tripled NI based aid, making sure Alabama's education system gets passing grades.

Thank you.

Randy.

We'll take a quick break and be back with the interview portion of the show, starting with senior education reporter Trish Crane.

Stay with us.

Who were the Daughters of Liberty?

Unlike their more violent Sons of Liberty counterpart, the Daughters of Libert were a group of colonial women supporting nonviolent resistance to British tyranny.

From 1766 into the 1770s.

They used their purchasing power to boycott British goods, turning homespun clothing, locally crafted tea, and a lack of British luxury items into political action.

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The daughters organized during a time when women weren't allowed to take office or contribute to American policy.

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Welcom back to Spotlight on Education.

We were talking back to school.

We've got to bring in our senior education reporter, Trish Crane.

Trish, thanks for making the time.

Happy to be here.

Absolutely.

A lot to talk about when we're talking about education.

I want to get into some policy later but let's start with the budget.

You reported, this week that the education trust.

Vaughn, the latest numbers are ou and that the revenues are solid.

Right.

And we're going to be able to meet our obligations.

We're on track.

And that means no proration.

Of course.

It hasn't been proration in many years, but older teachers will remember that word and how scary that was.

I guess that's some good news revenue wise.

Oh, absolutely.

You know, whenever you I, I fully expected to sort of look at that fiscal dashboard and see that we'd already met our obligations.

That was a little bit of a surprise that we at the end of August had not quite gotten there, but we were 134 million off.

And they expect like 1.1 billion of revenue in September.

So we should be okay.

I think what's a little bit different is we don't have that incredibly excessive amount of revenue, which translates to schools and higher ed, lower supplementals.

Right.

Supplemental allocations that excess revenu that lawmakers get to allocate.

Right.

So we'll have less of that this year.

Well, I keep hearing people talk about that because we're looking at and obviously in this conversation we're talking about the current budget year.

But when the lawmakers return in February, they're going to be budgeting for the next, fiscal year.

And that's what everybody seems to be worried about that.

Okay.

We've had this.

I mean, what, several years of just incredible, revenue in terms of couldn't spend it all?

I mean, and and that seems to be coming to an end.

I mean, I've heard Senator or talk about that, Representative Garrett.

I've heard I've heard Bill Poole talk about that.

So what are they?

What are you hearing in terms of the next fiscal year and what that budget might look like?

I'm not sayin they're going to be cuts, right.

But it just won't be the there's incredibly, prosperous days.

Right.

And I think, you know, it's hard.

You get used to thinking that there's going to be it' like a Christmas bonus, right?

You think, oh, we're going to get a little extra from last year's tax revenue, and then it doesn't come in as expected.

Now there's still expected to be about 300 million, which ten years ago we would have all said, wow, that's a lot of money.

Yeah.

But when you've ha a couple of years of 2 billion.

Yeah, $2.8 billion in excess revenue, that the 300 million sounds small, like jelly of the month club.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So but people get used to it.

And that's the thing.

Lawmakers get used to being able to spread that around.

And okay, well, we didn't get to put this in a line item in the budget.

This year.

But we can use the excess revenue.

And so those.

Yeah.

Extras maybe going away.

Right.

Yeah.

That's what I was.

That's kin of what you call them as extras.

They're typically one tim expenditures because, you know, they don' want to keep the ongoing cost.

But when you build a building, there are ongoing costs.

You have to keep it up and you have to hire peopl to to work inside that building.

A lot of projects have bee funded, especially at the higher ed level for K-12.

It's been things like college and career readiness grant, school safety grants.

But there are some things that I know.

State Superintendent Eri Mackey has said he'd like to see school safety money make it into the the regular budget because it's no he used the word memorialized.

It's when it's in a supplemental allocation.

It's not memorialized in the budget.

And so, you know, just as any good agency head would want, you want your your priorities they're actually in the budget.

Well, let me ask you about one budget question.

Going into this year, you reported from the PTA meeting, that is the Public Education Employees Health Insuranc Program.

Did I get that right?

Yes you did.

I mean, this this has been several years now, but health care costs are going up, and that means, expenses are going up.

I saw you reported $222 million.

Is what they're going to ask the legislature for above and beyond what was what they asked for last year which was already an increase.

So the question is, you know, how likely is it?

I mean, I know the legislature is going to do something, but if they don't do the full, both 222 million, then you could see health care plan change or possible premium increases.

Well, that might be perhaps the year after.

Okay.

You know, they have and I have to be honest, I don't know exactly when their, what their premium years are.

I would imagine somewhere around the fiscal year.

But if, if those costs cannot be contained, the, the legislature cannot keep pouring an extra 180 or $200 million into Pip.

They want health care.

Nobody's saying we want les health care for our educators, but they might not be able to afford it.

And so when it eats up other things like pay raises and things like that.

Right, right.

Because, there's going to be about $570 million, supposedly if the revenue is there extra money than there was this year in the budget, this year the ETF budget was $9.9 billion.

And the budgets are limited to 5.75% growth.

And that's about $570 million.

That's for everybody, right?

So if P 222 million of it, that that eats away a lot.

So the idea is probabl that they will fund some of it.

And then they might have to go back to the retirees trus fund, the retirees trust fund.

And pull some money from there.

But that is not sustainable.

So there there is cost that I mean, there are talks abou how do we either contain costs, meaning maybe we make co-pays go up, per service instead of a $20 copay.

Maybe there's a $30 copay o premium increases, which no one no one wants that.

But this this just this problem of rising health care costs impacts everybody, including state budgets.

So when you see $10 billio record budget, the that's true.

But there's there' a lot of rising costs as well.

Well, let me, switch gears and ask you abou a real fun story that you wrote about direct admissions.

This is, I guess, the second or third year.

The second year, second year of direct admissions.

This is where students can kin of get a jump on their college career, includin at the community college level, while they're still in school.

Right?

19,000 students statewide took advantage of this.

That's a lot of students.

Yes.

Getting that, like I said, that headstart into higher education.

Yeah.

And and the real beauty of this is it starts now.

Like the they have opened the second year of direct admissions initiative where the students when they create a profile, it's a, it's a, it's an app, you know, an interface on the computer.

And they create a profile and then they upload their transcript and the participating colleges can go in and say, hey, we think this person would be a good match for us so the students don't have to pay application fees.

And they get scholarship offers as well.

So the scholarship offers, the first round comes out maybe towards the end of October.

We don't know yet.

And I'm down for these numbers.

We don't know yet.

We know the offers, right?

We know the actual offers.

19,000 students, millions of dollars.

Yeah, yeah.

Scholarship offers.

But we don't know how many have actually, like, how many of those student have enrolled in school.

Right.

Because it's still early.

We don't have fall enrollment numbers yet, for higher education.

So we're still waiting on those numbers.

But what a great service, though, because, you know, without that, I mean maybe parents can get involved.

Maybe you've got a good counseling program.

I mean, that's those are few and far between though, and especially in poor rural districts and things like that.

So to have this service, right, because maybe kids didn't even know they could have these offers and have these opportunities.

I just think it's a really great thing the state's doing to, t to give students opportunities that maybe they didn't know they had.

That was exactly the point, right?

I've heard college, I mean, high school counselors say, oh, yeah, you know, the students said, wow, maybe I am college material.

I can remember feeling that way myself, and I wasn't sure if I was college material.

And I was very happy to get acceptance letters.

And, you know, those application fees can, can really, add up.

So this is a wonderful initiative.

And at the state level Governor Ivey, Secretary Reed, everybody was really happy to roll it out last year.

So I'm looking forward to seeing what this year looks like.

Yeah.

Me too.

I want to follow up on that, another big initiative, the Choose act.

So we're in a another year, I guess this is year three of the choose a year or two year, two year two.

So I jotted down some numbers.

Okay.

49,000 students applied.

This is for the current school year, right?

34,000 were awarded.

So I guess that was if they if they were, met all the criteria made, all the criteria for income.

There's still an income for this year.

So 49,000 apply of 34,000.

Essays.

Educatio savings accounts were awarded.

Of those, 19,000 of those students are going to a private school right?

12,000 are going to homeschool or home learning or whatever we call it.

Right.

So that's up by my, back in the napkin math 11,000 from last year.

So the popularity of the choose act is, is still growing.

Absolutely.

You know I'm always anxious to see, like, where are the kids located?

Who is who is you know, and then we always kind of look at this shift from who's leaving public school to go to one of these, either homeschool programs or, private school.

We don't have that granular data yet.

But we guess, you know that the numbers that you gave that 19,012 thousand that's what we have figured out.

Back of the napkin math or front of the napkin math.

And all of that, though wha I thought was pretty exciting.

About 175 kids are using those essays in public school, meaning they're attending a public school that is out of district and that charges tuition.

So last year, we didn't have any.

I was not able to find any students in public school who were using them to attend a public school.

Maybe, you know that is out of their district, to go to, because that's a choice, too.

Oh, absolutely.

And so, okay, if I'm in one district and, and maybe my student, I'm not I'm not okay.

Like, I'm, I'm not satisfied with the education.

The most the child is getting I can't I don't just have to go to a private school.

I don't just have to go to homeschool.

Right.

I can choos a different public school option as long as they're accepting.

And.

But they charge tuition sometimes.

Well, they have to charge tuition in order to even participate.

If they don't charge tuition there's no need for the essay.

So the.

Well, because they're no paying taxes probably in that.

Right?

Right.

Okay.

At least not that first year.

Right?

I mean, I've talked with Senator or and I've talked with other people about, well, what about that second year when they get counted in the public school?

ADM right.

Average daily membership numbers.

We're not there yet.

Right.

I think some of this is still sort of up in the air but for this year, you know, it really has opened up school choice.

A lot of these students were already in home school.

A lot of these student were already in private school.

Well, last year it was the majority.

Pretty pretty big majority.

Oh yes.

And so essentially those parents, those families are getting some financial help, right.

Yeah.

Right.

Instead of, you know, paying it out of pocket, maybe they get to put that towards their child's college education or maybe they go on vacation, you know, who knows.

But yeah.

So it's it' very successful again this year.

And so this would be the last year that that income threshold is, is legally in effect.

Do you expect any conversation in the legislature about continuing it or.

You know, I kno Senator is always talked about and Representative Garrett, about, well if if all the applications are of a certain income threshold, then those are they're going to be awarded first.

So those will be first priority.

Right.

Exactly.

So, the department of Revenue representatives basically said they're going to, you know, stack them up in order of, you know, the top of the pile will be the people who have the lowest income, and then they'll just put a put them in order, sort of, you know, and then and approve them as they go until they run out of money.

So supposedly it' going to be universal next year.

It's interesting because conservatives are kind of split on whether or not that's a good idea.

You know, conservatives, generally speaking, are in favor of school choice, but maybe not universal vouchers, education savings accounts.

So it'll be interestin to see what the discussion is.

The funding may not be there.

Josh, we're out of time.

Thanks so muc for making the time to come on spotlight and explain all these things.

Every time I run into educators, they mentioned you and your reporting and how valuable it is.

You're a treasure.

We're really happy to have you here at IPT.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

And we'll be right back.

Alabama Public Television is your place for free professional development, curriculum aligne videos, lesson plans and more.

Explore resources at AP, tv.org/education.

You're watching Alabama Public Television.

And you.

Welcome back to Spotlight on Education.

Next, I' pleased to be joined by Allison King of the Alabama Education Association.

Alison thanks for coming on the show.

Happy to be here.

Thanks for having me.

It's the start of a new school year.

I know that's very exciting for all of us, but especially for your members.

Absolutely.

Start of school is always an exciting time for the classrooms.

It's.

I remember being a school teacher, and there's nothing like spending all summer getting your classroom ready.

And the excitement of your roster and new students coming in and, fresh enthusiasm for success and hope for your students and excitement for what the year will bring.

Yeah, absolutely.

I want to talk to you about a couple of issues.

Y'all have been you know, we're about to go into this new quadrennial new sessio and everything, but you all have really been at wor for the last four years, passing a lot of, you know, advocating for a lot of policies.

I'll start with parental leave for teachers and education workers.

That was a new concept in the, you know, public arena.

Has that been implemented or is it working out for your membership?

It is working beautifully.

We were so thankful to get that legislation across the finish line, and are very thankful to the governor's office for their collaboration with us on that and their advocacy for that issue, as well, as well as the boss Partizan support in both chambers we received.

But that is monumental in changing lives for supporting families of our educators and and all school employees.

And, it's it makes a huge difference.

So our folks typically had to prepare for children and make sur they had enough time to be off 6 to 8 weeks, however long.

And now having that benefit as a paid parental leave benefit to cover their subs while they're out for those eight weeks, is has been so well received, and our members are so very thankful for that opportunity.

Now that's in place.

You just have to borrow time to write like, hey, let's pool our time together.

Yeah, I mean, just kind of sounds archaic.

So slightly, teachers Bill of rights.

That was a couple of years ago but it had to do with classroom discipline and things like that.

Now, that's that's a big concept, but how's that working out in terms of are we addressing the issue of classroom discipline.

So it's a start.

Everything from teacher, bill of rights, classroom discipline, workers comp, all these initiatives we've put into place over the last few years have all been focused on recruitment and retention of educators in our schools.

We still face a teacher shortage.

We still face a shortfall of people choosing to go into education through a traditional, teacher prep program at four year colleges, and we're trying to build the profession to be something that's attractive.

And, you know, even through my dissertation work, I found that as much as we work on salaries and benefits, and those things are fundamentally importan to getting people in the door, keeping them in the profession comes through initiative like teacher Bill of rights or, paperwork reduction or you know, worker's comp or paid parental leave.

Those types of things make the profession so much more valuable and rewarding when we're able to support our educators once they're in the field.

And, so teacher Bill of rights is is a start.

We've got some work still to do on classroom discipline and even some nuances of that bill to implement and make sure that it's being implemented correctl in our schools and effectively.

But overall, yes, supporting discipline for for our teachers and helping them in that arena is a huge step in, in making sure that we're doing what we need to do for our schools to run smoothly.

Well, kind of relatedly, and Jeff reported on thi earlier, is the cell phone ban.

That's it's now, I mean, fully implemented.

It applies to everybody.

I mean, it sounds like it's a very popular thing.

Is that what you're hearing?

Absolutely.

Yes.

We have received wonderful feedback on that legislation.

I'm thankful for the legislative leaders with the board though they had to put that in place.

It has made monumental, changes in our schools, especially in our secondary schools, with kids just being able to focus and learn and back to the basics of fundamental thing that are important as a parent.

It stresses me a little bit.

I got the son that's at school till 6:00.

I don't need a 8 to 3.

I want him focused on the classroom.

But even like the 3 to 7 time frame, you know, I wonder, how is it winter, what's going on or what he may need.

But overall, it has been fantastic.

And we're we're thrilled to have it in place.

Well, it's all about adjustments, right?

And so you're right, the parents probabl had a bigger adjustment.

Right.

But it's all for and it was actually called the focus.

Yes, yes.

Which is the whole point.

And it's nice to see, you know, it seems like a common sense thing, but it's nice to see that actually making a difference.

Yeah.

You also mentioned, I wanted to get to this, the Paperwork Reduction Act.

That was a couple of years ago as well.

Again, who doesn't wan their paperwork to be reduced?

We all do.

Right?

But like you said, it kind of matters how it's implemented.

I know there's there's, like, recommendation phase.

Have you all gotten any recommendations?

How how how are we going to make this law that sounds really good actually matter to teachers.

Right.

So we'll say that shoul go into effect this school year.

The first year it passed of course, 25 session.

And so this first year of implementation has been State Department developing the Paperwork Reduction Committee and seeking their advisement and putting things into place there.

And then we should see that digital platform, where they can enter about the students at one time and, and that talked to all these different elements of where they're having redundant paperwork or overwhelming paperwork, try to have that reduced.

Is that something that frustrated you when you were in the classroom?

Oh, absolutely.

It's just it's all the nuances that take you away from teaching the kids.

So we want our teachers to be able to spend 8:00 to 3:0 focusing on instructing students and getting students where they need to be.

And if you do that, then you have to work from 3 to 8 to do the things like paperwork and grading papers and parent emails and all of the extra stuff that goes with the workload of the job.

And we want our teachers to, you know, have time to focus o their families in the evening.

But we also want to make sure from 8 to 3 they are focused on the students.

So if we can eliminate some of that, the challenges, it's not going to all go.

Of course we need that.

I was in a school yesterda afternoon and they're at 5:00.

The robotics team is meetin and the teacher is still there, and then all of them are carrying their bags out of things they have to grad and handle at home, of course.

But if we can reduce that, some every little bit helps.

Yeah.

It's like you said, there's always got to be a little bit of paperwork because that's where the accountability happens and all that.

But you know if it's redundant, if it's repetitive, yes.

Yeah.

That that that sounds right.

Well look, it's we're way ahead of schedule here because the next session is begin until February.

But, do you all have anything you're, you're cooking up in terms of an agenda?

We're going to have a new governor.

There's going to be a lot of new lawmakers.

Is there any, you know, policy initiatives you're thinking about towards, 2027?

I think we'll we'll continue on the track of things that we've been focused on, playing offense, on things that are supportive for our schools.

Everything from discipline measures to giving teachers as much freedom as they ca to teach and, and do their work well and treat the as the professionals they are.

Paperwork looking at that and of course, just challenging, thing they have with their workload.

One of the big things we're gonna have to tackle is PYP again.

So they announced last week, I know you guys have covered, they're going to be short about 222 million.

So, of course, we want to make sure the salaries and benefits remain in place and are competitive for our folks to to keep that recruitment retention effort in place.

But as you know, budgets are tightening too.

So those dollars are a little more challenging to find.

And so we're going to have to look at that.

I'm thankful to the staff and the board and the work that some of our folks have done as well to save that, that that 222 million is as big as it sounds.

It was about 100 and 3050 million more than that initially.

And they've done some work on the Medicare Advantage prescription drug side to reduce that.

The RSA team was was fabulous in that work.

And so it did reduce it from about 350 million down to 222 million that we're looking at.

And of course, that will be a legislative ask that they, you know, may can do some towards.

And then we're going to have to figure out, I'm sure on the back end some some work for PYP as well next year.

Again.

Yeah, I want to ask you about that because on the state employees, the non educators, state employees, they got a premiu increase first time in 20 years.

Right.

And so I know that that's what you all want.

And then the board wants to avoi as an actual premium increase.

But at the same time, that's a lot to ask the legislature to, to backfill all at once.

Are you all prepared for the possibility of sharing that load?

Well, what you shared it last year and the year before as well.

We're going to have to look at some with our trust, maybe some plan changes.

You know, in our conversation with even, like a $20 increase, like what state employees are looking at on the side would only generate about $38 million.

So when you loo at those numbers, that doesn't move the needle a whole lot.

Even with a premium increase when you're facing a $222 million shortfall.

So there's a lot of different things that are going to be in play.

And between now and June, that is going to have to consider.

The legislature is going to have to consider.

And certainly we're we're happy to have those conversations.

We just want to make sure that we keep a quality program in place for our, our folks.

And, and make sure that that funding is there to sustain those programs long term.

One is, like you said, when you try to recruit and retain teachers, benefits are right there at the top.

Absolutely they are.

Before I let you go, I wanted to ask you about, you know, the choose act which passed, you know what, three years ago is now about to be reached.

Its full implementation.

Right?

Meaning at least in theory at least according to the law, that income threshold goes goes away and right.

It could be every student could be eligible for all of us right now.

That might not actually happen, depending on what the legislature decides.

And everything.

How do you all see that?

Because I know school choice is a, you know, a thorny issue.

But a lot of it's popular.

A lot of people are taking advantage.

How do you you know, we all be seeking any kind of changes to the choose act, especially as it concerns income threshold, how it applies.

Well, we'll certainly be watching.

You know, I also spoke about the budget tightening and we've got a shortfall just with basi salaries and benefits and things that are already in place with our schools that may be at risk as it i much less additional measures.

Three choose going wide than it is and things like that.

So we'll just have to see where those dollars lie.

Essentially, you know, the majority of the students, 30,000 or so that are using choose came our current have always been in private school.

So there are people that are traditionally there.

We haven't seen any any large dismissal of students from pulling out of public.

We still have about 100 720,000 students in public schools in Alabama.

I think 3 to 5000 or so are it that have pulled from that to go to the cheese program.

So essentially our schools are left, our public schools are left to educate about as many students as they have before, just with fewer resources with which to do it.

So they're having to tighten belts and figure out ways to navigate around it.

And right now, the program, you know, is is utilizing a lot more fewer dollars than what it could be when it goes widespread.

We'll see how much you know demand there is for the program.

And then the budget teachers will have to make the determination on those dollars and where there may be money amid a tightening budget situation too.

So that'll be challenging.

Yep.

When it comes down to it, it's all about choices at the legislative level.

All right.

Look we're out of time.

Alyssa, thanks so much for coming on.

And yeah, good luck on the new school year.

Thanks so much.

We'll be right back.

Blanche Evans Dean was a teacher, author, and conservationist.

She published widely on the flora of Alabama, and many of her field guides remain the standard today.

She helped establish the Alabama Ornithological Society and organized and chaired the Alabama Conservation Council.

In 1967, the National Audubon Society presented Dean with an award for distinguished service in the field of conservation education.

Welcome back to Spotlight on Education.

This summer, more than a thousand teachers and administrators gathered near Birmingham to spend four days training to prepare for the upcoming school year.

The gathering was A-plus College Readies annual E3 summer conference that stands for equip, empower and Expect More.

Here's a clip.

So this training this summer is over 1000 teachers are here this week.

It's really over the course of the summer, it's nearly 2000 teachers that we're supporting across the state.

It's really about empowering them to make sure that they're serving their students well.

A strong curriculum that's fully aligned to Alabama standards and making sure that we're providing that training and support so that the teacher has everything they need to be successful with their students.

So our program, it is a grant program, and schools are able to engage with us for three years.

And so within those three year we build throughout those years we look at instruction, we look at culture.

And what happens is we believe that we are all stakeholders and everyone has an investment in the students of Alabama.

So we grow collectively.

We learn together.

And that support evolves from having supplies, equipment, incentives.

We have content that rectors that support the teachers.

When a teacher may have a question, we have support fo administrators and counselors.

So basically we're trying to make sure that everyone has a voice in this process and that there is buy and that six tablets.

We also learn and we grow wit the communities that we serve.

So the ATF program, which is part of the A-plus College rating system, they came to the schoo and they were recruiting people for it.

And so they sent me to training the last three years.

And, each year it gets better and better.

The first year is kind of tough, but, you know, don't let it scare you off because it's it's worth coming to because, you know, I learne you don't have to be an expert.

And then here I am to year three.

I really enjoyed it.

And I'm finding out that I think I'm actually a computer science teacher at heart.

You know, what we've seen over the last several years is that Alabama has moved up in the rankings for Advanced Placement.

We're now 17th in the country in terms of AP, our success on AP exams and our middle school schools are outperforming, their, their peers.

And we're beginnin to close that achievement gap, which is which is the overall goal.

And joining me next is Mark Dixon, the president of the A-plus Education Partnership.

Mark thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely.

Well, look, that was pretty exciting.

Seeing so many teachers and administrators gathered there at Hewitt Trust for, you know taking time out of their summer, to to not just, you know, learn more, but get excited about the next school year.

Talk to me about this E3 initiative and how it got started.

Yeah.

So E3 is our summer training, as you saw, just 12, oh, nearly 2000 teachers that were trained this summer across several weeks.

And that's a core part of our program.

And this kind of goes back to when it was founded.

So an A-plus education partnership, one of our programs is A+ College ready.

And it was created back in 2008 at the request of Governor Riley and State Superintendent Joe Morton at the time.

And they applied for a national grant of $13 million to create A-plus College, ready to expand acces to Advanced Placement courses.

Alabama at the time was was near the bottom in terms of Advanced Placement course access.

And so they really wanted to put a lot of investment.

And that has become a public private partnership that that lasts to this day.

And what we see is that what goes into it essentiall a lot of training for teachers, a lot of supplies and equipment to make sure they have everything that they need, as well as incentives, that we provide to them, as well.

On success.

And so over time, we've gone from nearly the bottom in AP success to 17th in the country.

This class of 2025 was 17t in terms of success on AP exams.

And that's a huge win for Alabama.

Well that's interesting.

So talk about tha AP not only just taking the test but scoring I guess a passing score.

Is it still like the five five.

That's right.

It's a three or above is a qualifying score.

And they can get college credit for that as well.

And so when this program was was having its early success, we had a conversation with doctor McKee, our state superintendent of who's our partner in this effort.

And this was back in 2019.

And we said we want to expan this down into middle schools.

We need a stronger pipeline of students that are taking rigorous coursework so that they are ready in high school to take whatever path they choose.

And so he partner went with us to the legislature and asked for additional funding.

And so we created the middle school program, our M-step program.

And that is what we saw at trustful, at that big for big training was about 2000 teachers.

And so that works to make sure that we're providing middle school teachers with the right curriculum that has completely aligned Alabama standards to make sure that they have the training, the curriculum, and the incentives to make sure that we're providing that support.

Well, I was just watching the teachers.

They're very engaged in the administrators to.

And so it seems to me are and that was back in July, by the way.

And so now they're in the classroom right now they're they're absolutely in the classroom is part of it.

Making sure that they feel as prepared as possible.

And, you know, getting studied u on the new methods of learning, you know, the science of learning and all these kind of things.

I mean, just because you go an education degree or whatever, things evolve and things change, is that part of it to kind of keep up and allow teachers to have the tip of the spear in terms of skills and training when they head back to the classroom?

Absolutely.

We are we are lifelong learners at A-plus.

And so a lot of that goes into making sur that the training is up to date, that we're also updating our curriculum to match the state when the state changes its standards and make sure that the teachers can engage, because it's not only the content, it's also how they teach the pedagogy.

And that and those strategie for making that, for making it effective and keeping kids engaged, we believe at A-plus that we should have very high standards for both ourselves, our students, our teachers, our state.

And so in order to do that, what we see is that when you actually provide teacher and students with that support, that they excel.

We had par of our Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama to do a study this year and look a how is our middle school program doing, you know, where how can we improve?

And what they found is that on our state test, the Icap assessment, our middle schools that are participating in our program are outperforming their peer middle schools.

And we're seein our economically disadvantaged kids closing the achievement gap as well.

So they're actually increasing at a much, much faster rate.

And so that's exactly what w want to see, is more kids ready for rigorous coursework so that they can go into whatever directio they decide to in their lives.

Sure.

I want to back up to the AP stuff because that has, I mean, to be ranked 17th in the country.

That's great.

We we love anything really above, you know, 30.

But to hear that is really great.

But you of can you back up an explain why it's so important.

And that's really why place was started as you mentioned, why is it so importan to get more kids taking that AP exam and even preparing for it as early as middle school?

Because we need to have a strong foundation first in middle school, of course, we've done a lot in Alabama to create a strong elementary school system for the Literacy Act, the Numeracy Act, to make sur that kids have the basics right.

But when they get into middle school, that's where a lot of the challenges still remain.

Today, we're still near the bottom of the pack, even though we're in 32nd and fourth grade math and, and, 34th in fourth grade reading.

We're really at the bottom i eighth grade math and reading.

And so working with middle schools to raise that rigor and make sure that kids are engaged, tha they have that strong foundation so that they can go to high school and then take whatever path they decide.

But at the end of the day, we want Alabama students to be prepared not only for the jobs now, bu the jobs of the future as well.

And to do that, you have to have a strong foundation, across the board so that you can be prepared, to go into the workforce eventually.

And, whether you go through college, whether you go straight into the workforce, regardless what pathway you choose.

Yeah.

Well, tell me more about this Parker study, because it sounds like and you're right, every time we talk about the progress being made in education, it's like, middle school, man, we got to get better now.

But we have seen some gains in the science, scores and everything.

Talk about this Parker study, because is it something that when more people read about this and learn what what I've actually done, can it be replicated to where it's like, okay, we figured it out for how to do it, but it's on a smaller scale.

So let's let's do it in a larger way.

Is that something that the rest of the state can kind of benefit from?

Absolutely.

I think the foundation is there.

You know, we have, the kind of blocking an tackling of of education, right, is that strong curriculum and that strong teaching and learning that you have to have in the classroom.

And so that's really at the core.

And so whether it's through a program like A+ College ready, and I think there's a lot that that others can learn from from what our team does there.

But at the same time, there are a lot of different state policies that the state could pursue to make sur that we are doing those things.

You know, we've done a lot of work on reading at the elementary level, but there's a lot of kids that need a continued support beyond that.

And so the state is beginning to look at efforts, beyond grade three.

But at the same time, we need a strong math curriculum.

We need to make sure that every kid or strong math progression so that every kid has a strong foundation, in algebra one and onward into into high school.

But we also need to support our teachers.

We need to make sure that the have the skills that they need.

And one of the things we know from those that come to our training, it's not just first and second year teachers.

The vast majority of the teachers have a lot more experience but now they have a curriculum that is aligned to Alabam standards, and that, you know, and they can get that training from us and continue.

And everyone is welcome, to engage.

We would love to love to have folks.

Yeah.

You mentioned on the middle school part that you're that we've see progress closing the achievement gap, especially with lo income disadvantaged students.

That's obviously a great news and hugely important.

But it leads me to, what the legislature passed and y'all advocated for the Raise act, which I don't think we we can't talk about it enough because it was a huge accomplishmen in terms of making sure schools and school systems have adequate funding for those students who are disadvantaged or have other kind of needs.

English second language, obviously, poverty.

On the other side of the coin, the gifted students, it was a big legislative accomplishment.

But, as with all laws, the question is, you know, how are we implementing it?

So, how are we seeing implementation of that law?

Is it is it working?

Would you say we wer very excited about the race act?

Alabama took a huge step forward.

We had not updated our funding model.

And, about 30 year when the Raise act was passed.

And look, Representative Garrett, Senator, or really too the leadership on this and said this is what we want to see for the state of Alabama.

And and so what we saw wa an investment just in the first three years of over half $1 billion, going to wha what are known as student needs.

So in the past, we kind of had, just typical one size fits all approach to funding education.

This many, you know, this many kids, you get this many teachers, this many textbooks, etc.

what the Raise act does is add additional funding on top of that program to say, hey, it cost more to educate students in poverty, special education students, English language learners, gifted, charter students as wel to help close that funding gap.

So it provides that additional funding year after year going forward, and that sustainability i what is really, really critical.

And so what we're seeing now is that in the first year, there was about $166 million.

That was last year.

As kids are going to school now, this year, $191 million.

And to put it in perspective before the Raise act was passed, at risk funding, which is probably the closest thing we had to actually funding students in poverty that was at about $20 million.

It had been there for year just year two of the Raise act.

It's almost 87 million going to students in poverty around the state.

And so that's the beginning.

We hope to see that continue to grow, over time.

One part of that to remember the conversation, when the legislation was up, that obviously it's all about students, but, you know, these districts because that that student does take more to, to fund they're going to try to do everything they can within their budget to make sure that those needs are met, meaning their district budget gets strained or their school budget gets strained.

So this has got to be good news for those districts that are seeing additional money.

So I guess, I don't know, maybe they can actually spend the resources the way they're supposed to be spent.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, we saw in the data as this was being debated, in studies that have been done in states over the last 10 to 15 years that have looked at this over a long period of time.

What they saw is tha for every $1,000 of more funding that you add is the equivalen of 72 days of additional work.

That is a ton of time.

And so that has a huge impact on student achievement.

But that does take time.

And we are just in year two of this process.

And we are gratefu that the state leadership and, have been very committed to continuing this program.

And those are great numbers.

You throw out lots of money and it's, you know, we're obviousl headed in the right direction.

But I'm also reminded of as long as there's been education policy, as long as there have been education budgets, you've heard a typical refrain, hey, we can't just throw money at it, right?

We can't expect to throw money at it and it just magically, gets solved.

So let me ask you when it comes to the raise act, you know, if I'm a district, I' getting I'm getting new money.

Do we know how do we know ho that money's going to be spent?

How do we know it can be spent wisely?

And is there support for you know, how do I go about as a district, making sure this money is spent wisely and efficiently an as designed by the legislature?

Now, I think it's a great question because you have the opportunity now for districts to really rethink how they use this funding going forward.

Because now that they kno that this is going to continue to increase, that it will be there, they can commit to taking a step back and saying how are we serving our students, that are economically disadvantaged or special education students?

What are the right policies and practices?

And so, what we have been doing is partnering with national experts as wel as, state, local, state, folks that are doing incredible work to do a webinar serie to really get districts engaged around, you know what are the types of practices that you could spend these dollars on?

That's also going to lea to some toolkits that say, hey, we've got all this new funding and especially if we expect it to grow over time, how do we make sure what we're spending on on is evidence based, that the data says that this is going to move the needle for kids.

And so those toolkits will be available soon.

And again, the goal is to say, hey, this is going to be a multi-year process.

How do we continue to adapt the way that we're spending to make sure that we're putting students at the at the forefront?

Interesting.

Well, if while I've got you, I wanted to ask you about Governor Ivey, obviously, I was joking earlier.

This this is her last semester in office.

Right.

But she's, you know, I've heard people, you know, maybe even in her office call her the education focused governor.

She absolutely is a former educator herself.

She has been engaged in a lot of education issues.

So I want to talk.

I want to ask you about what you think about her legacy, because I was thinking of back to the Literacy Act.

You were actually brand new in this position when that, you know, jumped right into it back in 2019.

Huge legislative accomplishment.

But she was big on it too.

Same thing with numeracy, same thing with raise.

When you think bac to this governor and her as she, you know, sees the, you know, the twilight of her political career, what do you think her legacy her lasting legacy on the issue of education might be?

I think she's done an incredible job.

I mean, I think when you look at the data and where we have come, I mean, we all know on Nape, Alabama has gone from 52nd to 32nd in math.

And we've gone from, you know, 49th to 34th and fourth grade reading.

That is due to policies tha she signed that she championed.

That she has, tha she has really made a difference in the lives of students across that state.

And I thin she will be remembered for it.

And I but I think at the, at the underlying part of that, though, is her ability to partner with the legislature and other state leaders, because if you can't get them on board or if you can't say, you know, if you have a good idea, you bring it to that type of leadership and that collaborative leadership that she has exhibited, I think is is really powerful because you have leaders in the in the legislature that have that have come fort and proposed the Literacy Act, the numerous that Representative Collins, Senator or Representative Garrett, Representative Baker, folks that have really taken a lot of effort to to bring their peers along to say we have to do something for our state.

And the governor has partnered with them to say, here's my thoughts on it, here's what I would propose.

And then she is after she signs that legislation and they pass it together, she is continue to recommend funding and they have continued to fund it on the back end because the state through these laws with literacy, with numeracy, now with the Raise act, has a vision for for where we can go in the future.

And that's thanks to her leadership.

And, and I think she will be Alabama, certainly one of Alabama's top education governors for sure.

You're right.

That alignment is so important and it doesn't always happen.

We've seen years where man, nobody could be aligned.

So it's it's obviously the executive is the legislative.

It's that State Department.

It's the board.

And seeing them now maybe more aligned than they've been in a long tim I think is is the right thing.

And I think implementation is key.

And you know, we it' it's about we need leadership.

You need vision.

You need to pass strong laws.

And you need to fund those year after year.

You need strong leadership.

And our state superintendents done a great job.

Doctor Mackey, and his team he has a strong team in literacy and math.

And these folks have done incredible work and that will need to continue.

And that's a part of that, that ongoing work, because we have mad an enormous amount of progress, and we have a lot of work left to do in Alabama.

And I think we can hold bot of those thoughts in our hand.

They're critical.

That's right.

Also help us to have outside organizations like yours.

So thank you for what you and your team do.

And thanks for your time today Thanks for having me as always.

We'll be right back.

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Thank you for watching Spotlight on Education.

We'll have another show in a few months.

And if there's somethin you think we ought to focus on, let us know.

You can shoot me an email at t Stacey at AP tv.org for Alabama Public Television.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.