Alabama Schools

    After Hurricane Katrina, Alabama’s schools suffered greatly. Twenty two counties were severely effected by Katrina and on December 30, 2005, President Bush authorized funds to reinstate school districts—including non-public schools—to get these schools back up and running. However, Alabama’s students seem to have looked adversity in the face and laughed. Alabama’s SAT scores for the 2005-06 testing season were well above the U.S. average—by at least 39 points in both math and verbal. Also, even in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane, twice as many schools made the No Child Left Behind requirements than the 2004-05 year.

Part of these impressive scores for SAT and NCLB may be attributed to Alabama’s wonderful, and well-educated teachers. More than half of Alabama’s 47,000 teachers—25,023—have a Master’s degree or higher. Alabama’s 2005-06 educational budget was over $3 billion on K-12 education, not including the federal money for rebuilding the school system in 22 counties. The most recent per student spending is from the 2003-04 school year, where the state spent more than $6,000 per student. Because of the lower per-student spending, Alabama is ranked 43 out of 50 in Morgan Quinto’s “2005-06 Education State Rankings”, or “Smartest State” rankings—up one place from last year. For more information on Alabama’s schools, visit http://www.alsde.edu