Alabama schools superintendent expects more money for reading after third grade

A small child pulling children's books off a bookshelf. (Getty Images)

Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey said Thursday there may soon be money available to address reading skills for students beyond the third grade.

Mackey said at a work session of the Alabama State Board of Education that he had requested the money be placed in a supplemental bill for the current fiscal year so Alabama public schools could get it before Oct. 1, the start of the next fiscal year.

The wording in the supplemental states that “$5,000,000 shall be used to develop programs for struggling readers beyond grade 3.” Mackey told board members that the wording was sparse to offer the most opportunity for schools.

“Because I told them, ‘I said we don’t want any language that says do this or do that or a formula, it needs to come to us and then we would divide up based on need,’” he said.

The Alabama State Board of Education requested $22 million for readers who need help beyond 3rd grade .  The supplemental bill, which passed the House Ways and Means Education Committee on Tuesday, includes $5 million for struggling readers.

The $5 million would not be enough for all schools.

Lawmakers in recent years have focused on improving reading performance among the youngest students. The Alabama Literacy Act, passed in 2019, aims to have all students reading on grade level by the end of third grade. Students who are not on grade level by the end of 3rd grade could be retained for a year.

But Mackey has expressed concerns in the past for students who are promoted to the next grade level after only passing by a few points.

In the work session, Mackey said there were also conversations with lawmakers about a larger program for readers in those middle grade years, “kind of” a new Alabama Reading Initiative for middle school. He said Tonya Chestnut, a member of the board, worked with senators.

“So, we put a package together on that and I will tell you it’s, I don’t think that’ll get all the way through this year,” he said.

He did not give an exact number but said that the budget line item could be upwards of $50 million.

Mackey, a former science teacher, said that some of the issue with those grades is the jump in difficulty. He said he had students who could read novels struggle with their chemistry textbook “because it’s a different kind of reading.”

Senate Finance and Taxation Education Chair Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said that he understood House Ways and Means Education Chair Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, to have come to the $5 million number. He said that struggling readers beyond grade 3 was something Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, was “very interested in.”

“We’ll see if we can do better, but it’s certainly a starting point,” he said.

Orr said that he was not aware of this other potential package unless it was tied to the struggling readers item, but that he would review it after the House passed the budget proposals.

“Then we’ll know what we’re dealing with,” he said. “I’ve learned it’s best not to count chickens before we know how many we have in each coop to deal with.”

Garrett said that he expects the $5 million to stay in the budget as it passes the House. He said that a potential package looking at something like the Alabama Reading Initiative for middle school was on “the long term horizon” but not in this year’s budget.

“We want to continue to progress with our reading proficiency and math proficiency and address those areas,” he said. “Of course we’re talking about, potentially, changes in our foundation program, which would help us address some of those things a different way, but there’s nothing imminent.”

Messages were left with Figures Thursday afternoon.

The budget has passed the House committee and will be voted on by the full House of Representatives. It needs four more legislative days to pass. There are eight days left in the legislative session.

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