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Education

Congress restores HBCU funding

With a vote by the U.S. House on Tuesday funding for historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving schools was restored.  “Today we are sending an important message of support for our HBCUs and showing in no uncertain terms that we believe they are vital to our system of higher education,” said Sen. Doug Jones, … Continued
December 12, 2019

Jones applauds Senate passage of HBCU funding

The U.S. House is set to take up a bipartisan bill approved by the Senate last week that would permanently restore funding for historically black colleges and universities and minority serving schools, but it’s less certain if the House will approve the bill in current form.  Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, spent months urging his colleagues … Continued
December 10, 2019

ACHE recommends $121,147,171M higher education budget

At today’s quarterly Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE) meeting, commissioners approved a $121,147,171M budget recommendation for higher education for FY 2020-21.  The amount represents a 6.8% increase over the FY 2019-20 appropriation. “This recommendation will bring Alabama’s public colleges and universities closer to their pre-recession (2008) level of support from the Education Trust Fund,” … Continued
December 9, 2019

Doug Jones backs legislation to permanently fund HBCUs

Sen. Doug Jones today joined a bipartisan group of senators to introduce a solution to both permanently fund Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and to take a first step toward simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process. Annual funding for MSIs expired on September 30, 2019. … Continued
December 4, 2019

Statewide coalition to end student hunger in Alabama awarded $500,000 grant

College students often can’t afford healthy meals, according to a study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a $500,000 grant to UAB and nine other Alabama universities aims to ensure students eat healthier.  The grant was awarded to Auburn University’s Hunger Solutions Institute by the nonprofit Educational Credit Management Corporation, which oversees students … Continued
November 28, 2019

Judge orders charter school principal back on the payroll

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge on Friday ordered that a charter school resume the salary and benefits of a fired principal — at least until a ruling is issued in the principal’s wrongful termination lawsuit.  Nicole Ivey-Price, who was fired from LEAD Academy in October, was granted a temporary restraining order by Judge Jimmy … Continued
November 25, 2019

Report: Alabama children’s wellness making slight gains, but racial disparities remain

Children in Alabama are faring slightly better than they were last year across several wellness indicators, but almost 300,000 Alabama children, 26 percent, still live in poverty, and racial disparities remain across every key wellness indicator.  According to the 2019 Alabama Kids Count released publicly on Tuesday the state’s infant mortality rate is at an … Continued
November 13, 2019

UAB political science student named Rhodes scholar finalist

Abigail Franks, a University of Alabama at Birmingham Honors College senior, has been named a Rhodes Scholar finalist, giving her an opportunity to study at Oxford University. “Being selected as a finalist is an honor in itself, and I am incredibly grateful,” Franks said. “It is one of the most competitive scholarships in the world because their acceptance rate is … Continued
November 12, 2019

Education solution lies in breaking the status quo

This past week “IT” finally happened. Mississippi surpassed Alabama in overall rankings for K-12 education. What absolute fresh hell is this? In truth it is not that fresh. Alabama has been limping behind the pack for decades and this year’s “Nation’s Report Card” by the National Center for Education Statistics represented a final bottoming out. … Continued
November 7, 2019