Due to strong public and policy maker support, state investments in Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program have grown by fifty percent from FY 2013 to FY 2014, allowing approximately 1,700 more four-year-olds to attend the high-quality, voluntary program during the 2013-14 school year.
In 2012, the Alabama School Readiness Alliance’s statewide, business-led Pre-K Task Force recommended increasing the total level of state investments in First Class Pre-K by $125 million over the next ten-years, in modest, incremental annual increases. This would expand the high-quality pre-k program to reach all families within the next decade, on a voluntary basis.
In February of 2013, Governor Bentley proposed a $12.5 million increase for First Class Pre-K, and in May, the Alabama Legislature approved a $9.4 million increase for the program for 2013-14, to bring the total level of state investments in First Class Pre-K to $28.5 million.
This is the largest expansion in the history of Alabama’s nationally-recognized First Class Pre-K program, and has allowed an additional 1,670 four-year-olds the opportunity to attend. This brings the total number of Alabama four-year-olds with access to First Class Pre-K to 5,570 for the 2013-14 school year.
This year’s expansion has increased the percentage of four-year-olds with access to First Class Pre-K from six to nearly ten percent.
According to the Pre-K Task Force’s cost estimates, an additional $115.6 million is still needed to fully fund First Class Pre-K so that all four-year-olds can attend. This funding can be added over the next nine years by increasing state investments in First Class Pre-K by $12.8 million each year, using a small portion of the annual growth projected for Alabama’s education budget.
First Class is administered by the Office of School Readiness in Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs. The program has been recognized as the highest quality state-funded pre-k program in the country by the National Institute for Early Education Research for the last seven years. Only high-quality pre-k programs are expected to produce the lasting benefits promised by the vast body of research detailing the educational and economic returns of pre-k.
