ALABAMA NOTES: College President Sought, Push for Pre-K Funds, Accountability Act Review

By Kim ChandlerAssociated Press

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Supreme Court has heard arguments on the constitutionality of a law that gives low-income families tax credits to pay for private school.

A lawyer representing individuals challenging the Alabama Accountability Act said Wednesday that it does an end run on Alabama’s prohibition of using education funds to support private religious schools.

However, a lawyer representing families using the credits said it supports parents seeking education opportunities for their children, not private schools.

Montgomery Circuit Judge Gene Reese ruled the law unconstitutional earlier this year. Parents and some state officials appealed to the high court.

Students from seven private schools watched the arguments Wednesday.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule later.

By Phillip RawlsAssociated Press

MONTGOMERY —  A group led by some of Alabama’s top business executives is pushing for another expansion of the state’s voluntary pre-kindergarten program and is trying to make it accessible to 17 percent of the eligible 4-year-olds.

The co-chairmen of the Pre-K Task Force of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance announced Tuesday that it will ask the Legislature to increase the allocation by $13.2 million for a total of $51.7 million for the next school year. That would add space for about 2,600 children and would boost total enrollment to over 10,000.

Mike Luce, the president and chief operating officer of Harbert Management, and Bob Powers, the president of the Eufaula Agency, lead the task force. They have helped persuade the governor and Legislature to increase funding the last two years. Despite that, Luce said the highly rated program can only serve 12 percent of eligible students.

“We have a great pre-K program. We just need to invest more dollars in it,” he said.

The program is managed by the Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs, and the classes are offered through public and private programs. Business leaders, child advocates, and others began a push in 2012 to expand the program. They saw it as the starting point for an education system that would produce more well-trained workers and fewer dropouts likely to commit crimes. The goal of the Pre-K Task Force is to make voluntary pre-K available to all 4-year-olds by 2023, which they say would require a total annual appropriation of $144 million.

In May, the National Institute for Early Education Research said Alabama is one of only four states with pre-K programs that meet all 10 of its quality benchmarks. State test results from 2013 showed that every third grader who had been through the pre-K program scored proficient or above in reading.

During this year’s election, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley cited the growth of the classes as one of the highlights of the last four years and said he wants to continue the expansion in a second term. He will announce his funding recommendation when he makes a budget proposal to the Legislature in March.

Republican Rep. Bill Poole of Tuscaloosa, who is likely to repeat as chairman of the House Ways and Means-Education Committee, said Tuesday that increasing funding for pre-K was a priority for his committee during the last four years and will be during the new term.

Poole said it’s too early to speculate about an amount, but the state education budget will have more money available for the 2015-2016 school year. That’s due to tax collections picking up from an improving economy and the state having finished paying back money it borrowed during the recession to support public schools, he said.

“There is optimism as we look at the new budget,” he said.

SUPREME COURT HEARS ACCOUNTABILITY ACT CASE