STATE OF EDUCATION FUNDING
Alabama
Fair school funding systems ensure that districts, schools, and ultimately students receive significant additional funding according to their specific needs. Providing high-quality learning opportunities for students living in poverty, English learners, students with disabilities, and rural students requires additional resources.
According to The Education Trust’s State of Funding Equity, in Alabama:
- The highest poverty districts receive $1,475 or 13% less state and local revenue than the lowest poverty districts.
- The districts serving the most students of color receive $908 or 8.1% less state and local revenue per student than the districts serving the fewest students of color.
- The districts serving the most English learners receive $195 or 1.8% more state and local revenue per student than the districts serving the fewest English learners.
For more information about how these data compare with other states or district specific information, see The Education Trust’s State of Funding Equity report.
Learn more about
how Alabama
funds students
According to EdBuild, “Alabama has a primarily resource-based funding formula. It determines the cost of delivering education in a district based on the cost of the resources, such as staff salaries and course materials, required to do so.” This formula calculates the funding for districts based on student enrollment, not student needs. Alabama’s Foundation Program does little to consider students with additional needs, with minimal funding for “at-risk” students and students with disabilities. There are separate line items in Alabama’s Education Trust Fund, which attempt equity for students with additional needs (students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students who are English Learners). However, these line items result in less than $139 additional dollars per pupil each year.
The Education Law Center’s 2023 Making the Grade Report rated Alabama’s school funding:
- F on per-pupil funding relative to the national average.
- F on the percentage difference in per-pupil funding in high-poverty districts relative to low-poverty districts.
- C on the PK-12 funding as a percentage of state GDP.
How fair is
Alabama’s Funding?
Using criteria developed based on research, best practice, and what we believe, we provide ratings for Alabama below. Our goal is for states to build a simplified, student-weighted funding formula guided by students’ different levels of need with the goals of eliminating achievement and opportunity gaps. We aim for states to create adequate, equitable, and transparent formulas that provide clear dollar allocations by assigning additional “weights” for students from low-income families, English learners, students with disabilities, and rural students.
For more on how we determined our ratings for Alabama click here.
See our ratings across states, an explanation of the criteria we used to differentiate between state funding systems, and explanations of our specific state rankings here.
| Rating | Reason for Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| FUND STUDENTS ADEQUATELY | ||
| The funding formula is student-based, or weighted | Red | The formula is resource-based |
| Per-pupil funding is adequate enough for all students to achieve average, national test scores | Red | There is high percentage of students attending schools in inadequately funded districts |
| FUND STUDENT NEEDS APPROPRIATELY | ||
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for students living in poverty | Red | The formula allocates funding based on the number of English learners in a district, not students' learning needs |
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for English learners | Red | The formula only provides a small amount of increased funding for students from low-income households via a prorated amount based on student count |
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for students with disabilities | Red | The formula assumes a 5% SPED population, at most, for districts and provides additional funding to districts only for high-cost SPED services |
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for sparse and/or isolated districts | Red | The formula does not include a sparsity weight |
| Formula includes weights or additional funding for districts with high levels of concentrated poverty | Red | The formula does not include a weight for concentrated poverty |
| FUND SCHOOL DISTRICTS EQUITABLY | ||
| State caps how much local revenue districts can raise to limit between-district disparities in local revenue | Yellow | The formula sets a cap on local property tax rates and sets a level above which school districts may not raise property taxes without voter approval |
| FUND STUDENTS TRANSPARENTLY | ||
| State annually publishes information about how the funding system is designed to work in clear, plain language | Yellow | The state education department publishes a school funding guide, but it is not user friendly |
| State reports school spending data in alignment with equity-oriented principles | Red | The state reports are not aligned with equity-oriented school spending reporting principles |
| PUBLIC FUNDS FUND PUBLIC SCHOOLS | ||
| Taxpayer funds are used to maintain and support public schools exclusively | Red | The state has various scholarship tax credits and an education savings account program that is available to all families regardless of income |
Who’s Who
in Alabama
Legislature
The Alabama State Legislature is a bicameral body. The Alabama House of Representatives has 105 members and the Alabama State Senate has 35 members. In the 2010 elections, Republicans gained control of both chambers for the first time since 1874 and currently hold a supermajority. Both the House and the Senate have standing Education Policy committees that hear related education legislation. The Senate Finance and Taxation Education and House Ways and Means Education committees handle all legislation related to the Education Trust Fund, In 2024, the legislature will convene February 6, 2024.
State Superintendent of Education
The Alabama State Superintendent of Education is a constitutional officer appointed by the Alabama State Board of Education.
State Board of Education
The Alabama State Board of Education is a nine member board headed by the governor. The State Superintendent serves as the Secretary and Executive Officer of the Board. The remaining eight members represent Alabama’s eight education districts and are elected in four-year terms. Each year, the board appoints a vice president and a president pro tempore from the elected members.
