Education

Sports Fans’ Dismay: Most Sporting Events Suspended, Locally and Nationally

If you were planning to take in a Birmingham Bulls hockey game, or a youth volleyball tournament or youth soccer play, you’re bound for disappointment. Sports have been anything but fun and games this week as COVID-19 has knocked much of the sports world off its axis. The diagnosis that one, and then a second, player in the National Basketball Association has contracted the virus began a domino effect that continues to ripple across the country and even to some youth sports in metro Birmingham. Locally, a weekend bicycle race, a volleyball tournament and youth soccer play are among the events that have been called off. Beyond today, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that public schools will close at the end of business Wednesday and remain closed for about two weeks with a proposed reopening on April 8. During that school closure, there will be no school sports events or practices. Read more.

UAB Latest Area College to Move Classes Online to Battle COVID-19 Threat

UPDATED — Several Birmingham-area institutes of higher learning are considering moving to online classes in the wake of Samford University’s announcement that it will begin the electronic classes Monday to avoid exposure to coronavirus. Read more.

Coronavirus Disrupts Alabama Colleges and Businesses

Troy University sophomore Nicholas Gil had been planning a trip to China since September to further his education during spring break. Those plans ended abruptly, however, when the airlines began canceling flights and colleges and universities across Alabama suspended travel due to the coronavirus spreading around the world. “I was majorly disappointed,” said Gil, whose canceled trip was part of the Confucius Institute at Troy. Confucius institutes are affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education to teach Americans about Chinese business, education, culture and public interests. The coronavirus is disrupting the lives of students, faculty members and business people across Alabama as entities race to protect their constituents and prevent the introduction and spread of the virus onto their sites. Read more.

Lawmakers: Schools Unfairly Hurt by Report Cards’ Treatment of Non-English Speakers

On the most recent state-mandated school report card, Russellville City Schools had a graduation rate of almost 96% and its score for academic growth — improvements made by students — was an impressive 99.46. Ninety-one percent of students were considered college and career ready, better than the state average of 75%, and it had a low chronic absenteeism rate. Still, the system is labeled a “B,” largely because of its performance in academic achievement, a category of the report card based on students’ performance on a standardized test. Of Russellville City Schools’ nearly 2,500 students, more than 600 are English language learners who are not proficient in the language. “That’s 23% of my students who can’t read the test,” Superintendent Heath Grimes said. “We’re giving 660 students a test they can’t read.” Read more.

Alabamians: Keep Elected State Board of Education

Alabamians on Tuesday said they want to keep their ability to vote for the state’s K-12 leaders. Amendment One was defeated soundly. With more than 1.1 million votes cast, about 75% were “no” votes, according to unofficial results from the Alabama Secretary of State. The amendment would have done away with the current elected Alabama State Board of Education that oversees K-12 education, replacing it with a governor-appointed commission. The amendment’s defeat is a loss for Gov. Kay Ivey, who was its chief advocate. It also had the support of other state GOP leaders and a coalition of groups led by the Alabama Farmers Federation, who pinned schools’ poor achievement rankings on the board of eight elected members. But some, including the Alabama Republican Party’s executive committee, opposed the amendment that would have ended Alabamians’ ability to elect state education leaders, something they’ve done for about 50 years. Read more.

Voters Reject Amendment, Keep Elected School Board

Alabamians on Tuesday said they want to keep their ability to vote for the state’s K-12 leaders. Amendment One was defeated soundly, with more than 1.1 million votes cast. About 75% were “no” votes, according to unofficial results from the Alabama Secretary of State. The amendment would have done away with the current elected Alabama State Board of Education that oversees K-12 education, replacing it with a governor-appointed commission. “I’m proud of the people of the state,” current board member Jeff Newman, a Republican who represents the Shoals and a portion of the Tennessee Valley, said Tuesday night. “I like to work for the people, the schools belong to the people.”  “… There’s no doubt we have work to do in education, we do; but we need the means to do it.”  Read more.

Birmingham Promise Scholarship and Internship Program Gets Corporate Backers

Mayor Randall Woodfin announced Tuesday that three corporate foundations — Alabama Power, Altec/Styslinger and Regions — have each committed $1 million to the new Birmingham Promise educational initiative. The Birmingham Promise initiative initially was approved as part of the city’s FY 2020 budget, funded with $2 million taken from the city’s allocation to Birmingham City Schools. The program is planned to offer juniors and seniors in city schools paid internships and dual enrollment opportunities, as well as offering graduates the opportunity to attend in-state two-year or four-year public colleges tuition-free. The $3 million in corporate contributions announced Tuesday will go “a long way” toward the tuition assistance side of the Birmingham Promise, Woodfin said. Read more.

Jefferson County Memorial Project Efforts Continue Into the Next Decade

The Jefferson County Memorial Project, a grassroots, citizen-led organization that focuses on uncovering and reconciling racial terror and racial violence that is a part of the county’s past, is in its second year of operation with no end in sight. The coalition has continued its work with city committees to delve more deeply into local incidents and to make plans for memorials in their areas, with events to raise awareness, with a student essay contest and with a quilting project to illustrate the area’s past of racial violence through art. More academically inclined work also is continuing, and JCMP on Tuesday released a new report that built on last year’s work documenting Jefferson County’s lynching victims and describing the ways police, the media and businesses fed into the violence of the era. Read more.

“There Is Always More We Can Learn”: Jefferson County Memorial Project Finds More Lynching Victims, Documents Systematic Racial Oppression

The Jefferson County Memorial Project on Tuesday released “Jefferson County’s Broken Systems,” its second report about lynchings that took place in Jefferson County between 1883 and 1940. The report provides more details about the history of Jefferson County’s 30 documented lynching victims who are memorialized at the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, discovered four more lynching victims and examined what systems allowed racial terror to continue. “There is a larger system of terror that institutions from government to law enforcement to business were complicit in. What this report tries to do is to draw out that larger picture of how an entire community is implicated in this system of racial terror,” said Abigail Schneider, JCMP director. Read more. Read More About the JCMP

Jefferson County Memorial Project Efforts Continue Into the Next Decade

Morgan County Tax Dispute Will Have Statewide Impact

MONTGOMERY — The Morgan County Commission and the county’s school districts went head-to-head in a Montgomery County Circuit Court hearing on Tuesday in their fight over who should receive online sales taxes, and now they must await a decision from the judge. As they wait, the stakes continue to rise in their tussle over whether a local law was effective in prying money from the County Commission’s general fund and distributing the bulk of it to the three public school systems in the county. The crux of the legal dispute is whether the local law, sponsored by state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, conflicts with the statewide Simplified Sellers Use Tax law. Read more.