The Alabama School Readiness Alliance’s Roadmap for Fully Funding Alabama’s First Class Pre-K Program: A Toolkit for Local Leaders shows the number of additional high-quality pre-k classrooms, including associated costs, each county in Alabama needs to ensure at least 70 percent of families have access to a classroom in their community. Seventy percent is the percent of four-year-olds ASRA estimates each community needs to reach for every family interested in participating in the state’s high-quality, voluntary program for four-year-olds to be able to enroll. ASRA included a county profile for every county under the 70 percent threshold. In the 2020-21 school year, only Butler, Conecuh, Dallas, Hale, Marengo, Pickens, and Wilcox Counties meet that benchmark. Statewide, 37 percent of four-year-olds in Alabama currently have access to the program.
“We designed our guide to encourage mayors, city and county officials, local school systems, and child care providers to think outside the box to develop strategies for expanding high-quality pre-k,” said Allison Muhlendorf, executive director of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance. “Our toolkit not only details what the pre-k landscape looks like in every community. It shows how leaders can take to take their region to the next level.”
ASRA unveiled the roadmap during a virtual discussion co-hosted with the Alabama League of Municipalities and the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools about the various funding opportunities created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Alabama expects to receive approximately $4 billion from the American Rescue Plan. Alabama cities will split $779 million, Alabama counties will share $951 million, and Alabama schools will collect more than $2 billion. Early childhood education advocates are encouraging local communities to utilize some of the ARP funding to develop the child care infrastructure needed to expand access.
View ASRA’s Roadmap for Fully Funding Alabama’s First Class Pre-K Program: A Toolkit for Local Leaders at https://www.alabamaschoolreadiness.org/roadmap/.
Longleaf Strategies advises on communications strategy, leads media outreach, develops messaging, and produces collateral materials for the Alabama School Readiness Alliance.