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.jpg) Among Alabama's largest population centers, Tuscaloosa County leads the state in expanding access to Alabama's First Class Pre-K program. Thirty-four percent of Tuscaloosa County four-year-olds are enrolled in the program, compared to 28 percent statewide.
To celebrate, Tuscaloosa County state lawmakers Senator Gerald Allen and Representatives Bill Poole and Kyle South joined state and local school officials, parents and pre-k advocates this month for a pre-k ribbon cutting ceremony at Taylorville Primary.
The new classroom at Taylorville Primary is one of 17 Alabama First Class Pre-K classrooms in the Tuscaloosa County School System. Across the county, 46 First Class Pre-K classrooms are offered for four-year-olds in both the city and county public school systems, child care centers, faith-based centers, Head Start programs, and other community-based preschool settings.
"It is so important that we provide the opportunity for our pre-k children to gain the foundation needed to learn the skills of the future," said Senator Gerald Allen (SD-21), a member of the Senate Finance & Education Committee.
.jpg) "The results from Alabama's First Class Pre-K program in Tuscaloosa and across the state speak for themselves," said Representative Bill Poole (HD-63), the chairman of the House Ways & Means Education Committee. "Alabama's First Class Pre-K program has been nationally recognized for program quality, for results and for the opportunities that it provides children and families to establish a strong foundation for learning. Our children are our future and it is critical to the future of Tuscaloosa and our state that these opportunities are provided to as many children as possible."
Alabama's First Class Pre-K program is managed by the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education. For 11-years in a row, it has been ranked the number one state-funded pre-kindergarten program in the country for quality by the National Institute for Early Childhood Education.
Approximately 2,200 additional four-year-olds are attending Alabama's First Class Pre-K program this year due to a $13 million expansion of the state's high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten program approved by the state legislature in the FY 2018 Education Trust Fund Budget.
Thursday's ribbon cutting and tour was organized by advocates from the Alabama School Readiness Alliance. In 2012, the Alabama School Readiness Alliance's business-led Pre-K Task Force launched a ten-year campaign, now in its fifth year, to advocate for incremental increases in First Class Pre-K until the program is fully funded in the 2022-2023 school year.
 "Every family in Alabama that is interested in the First Class Pre-K program should have the opportunity to enroll their four-year-old," said Melanie Bridgeforth, MSW, the executive director of VOICES for Alabama's Children and the Board President of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance. "The Tuscaloosa community has made expanding access to high-quality pre-k a priority, yet two out of every three four-year-olds in Tuscaloosa County are unable to participate in First Class Pre-K due to a lack of funding."
 "Study after study show that investing in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs makes sense economically for states like Alabama," said Jim Page, the president and CEO of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance Pre-K Task Force. "Not only does a high-quality pre-k program give students a strong academic foundation that helps them succeed in school, but it also reduces the need for remediation and other social services communities provide to adults after they leave school. All told, research shows that for every dollar invested into high-quality pre-k, states can save up to seven dollars in the future. Expanding Alabama's First Class Pre-K program is an investment that the state cannot afford not to make." |
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