Research

Education and Poverty Facts

Alabama had 450,000 functionally illiterate adults in 1995 (that is, adults below a 9th grade level of performance). Some 30% of Alabama workers lose their jobs annually because they are academically or technologically unable to keep up. 92,000 Alabama adults had completed the 4th grade or less.
(Birmingham Post-Herald, Dec. 27, 1995)

In 1995, 34% of Alabama adults (930,000) had no high school diploma or GED. Alabama ranked 3rd in the nation for adults with the lowest educational level.
(Birmingham News, May 12, 1996; Montgomery Advertiser, Feb. 2, 1991)

Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina had the highest per capita incomes in the southeast. The populations of these three states also had the highest level of education within the region.
(Birmingham News, October 10, 1995)

The relationship of education to income has long been one of the most obvious patterns in America. The higher the level of education, the better the jobs, the higher the incomes, the lower the rates of poverty and the more money can be devoted to education. These patterns were particularly clear in the 1990 Census. Where head of household had less than 8 years of school, 25% of the families lived in poverty. Where the head of household attended but did not graduate from high school, the poverty rate was 20%. Where a high school graduate headed the household, the poverty rate was only 9%. Where the head of household had at least one year of college, the rate fell to 3.5%. This pattern was true of whites, blacks, and Hispanics. The lack of high school education explains much of Alabama poverty. Approximately one-quarter of Alabama citizens 25 years of age or older did not graduate from high school. In 1979, Alabama per capita income was 78.2% of the national average. It declined to 77.7% in 1988. For each year from 1986 to 1989, Alabama ranked 43rd of 50 states in per capita income. Alabama’s high school graduation rate ranked 44th in 1993. There was also a clear relationship between income and county population growth. Between 1980-90 there was a significant relationship between per capita income and county population growth; the higher the level of per capita income, the higher the county population growth. In fact, per capita income was the strongest predictor of population growth.
(Charles J. Spindler, “Education in Alabama”, June 1, 1993)

Some 20% of Alabama adults above age 25 had college bachelor degrees or better in 2004, ranking the state 44th in the nation, 5 percentage points below the national average. (Birmingham News, May 11, 2004)

Alabama’s median household income ranked 42nd of 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2004.
(Birmingham News, Nov.30, 2005)

In 1989, 65% of food stamps and welfare payments went to non high school graduates. Of 13,000 Alabama prison inmates that year, 90% had not finished high school. Among Medicaid recipients, 70% had not finished high school.

In the mid 1990s, the Federal government provided 11% of Alabama public school funds (7th highest), the state 70% (3rd highest), and local governments 19% (50th).

In 1999, 26% of Mississippi school systems taxed at higher local rates than Alabama’s top system, Mountain Brook. If Alabama had taxed at the same rate as Mississippi, the state would have generated $836 million more annually for its schools.

Alabama expenditures for schools per pupil, 1970-1993, ranked 49th among all states. The American Legislative Exchange Council’s Report for 2000 ranked Alabama 46th in academic achievement, a decline of four places from 1999.

In 2005, more than half the 730,000 children in Alabama public schools were eligible for free and reduced meals because of family poverty.