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Paul DeMarco | Guest Column

The Alabama Department of Education has just released its annual report card on the academic achievement for each individual school system and the state as a whole. The results are in and the state has made slight improvements from the year before, but there is still much work to do.

The state overall averaged a B at an 85, which was up two points from the year before. Unfortunately, the specific scores for the state were pretty dreadful. Overall for academic achievement, the state scored a 64 which is a D. To make matters worse, the overall English language proficiency was an F with a score of 41.

The good news was that academic growth was an A at a score of 97 and the graduation rate was an A minus at a 90. These were positive numbers, but Alabama state students deserve better.

While there were local schools that did exceptional, the state has a lot of work still to do on behalf of those other Alabama students who did not perform well. There have been decades of reform, which included recent record funding for K-12 schools in the state. However, tax revenues for the state education trust fund are down which means there will be less money for lawmakers next year to budget. However, Alabama state representatives and senators are already looking at changing the formula for how state schools are appropriated funds. Yet, it is just not on the state, both local school systems and parents have a responsibility to ensure academic achievement for their students.

State leaders, parents and those in the education community need to digest the latest rankings, evaluate them and execute a plan to improve those scores, particularly in reading and writing which will require much hard work ahead.

Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama Representatives and can be found on X, formerly Twitter, at @Paul_DeMarco.