Alabama's goal of adding 500,000 more college-educated people to the workforce by 2025 is quickly approaching.

One group is dedicated to breaking down barriers to higher education and helping more people enter classrooms.

Chandra Scott, executive director of Alabama Possible, said the group collaborating with national and local partners to assess the state of the workforce and identify obstacles that prevent individuals from pursuing or completing their degrees.

She said the goal is to level the playing field across the state.

"We want to make sure that we hear them and we understand what barriers that they're faced with," said Scott. "And if we can be their voice in the halls of the Capitol or with organizations who are leading that work and helping them to understand how to resource those individuals, then that's our role. "

She said this work will take place at the 2024 Virtual Alabama College Attainment Network Conference on April 10.

People looking to attend can find more information on their website - alabamapossible.org.

Scott said the annual conference is about more than identifying those barriers to college. She said Alabama Possible wants to create real change.

She pointed out that last year it was able to make progress on an issue impacting women looking to work later shifts.

"Child-care accessibility at those hours just did not exist," said Scott. "And so we began to elevate those type of conversations across our state. And now this year, all you've heard about is child-care subsidies, child-care credits, and being able to widen the playing field."

The state has already met 43% of Gov. Kay Ivey's goal, by adding more than 214,000 more skilled workers, according to the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness.

A new center coming to Utah State University this fall will provide accessible digital materials to students with disabilities.

Cynthia Curry, director of the National Center on Accessible Digital Educational Materials and Instruction, or NCADEMI, said the facility will address, what she calls, the "longstanding and historical issues" around access to educational materials for students with disabilities. She added the role of NCADEMI is to help ensure those with disabilities receive digital educational materials in a way that they can use them.

"The standard way that a lot of educational materials are produced and provided to students, inherently have those barriers to students with sensory disabilities, physical disabilities and learning disabilities. NCADEMI is a technical assistance center that sets out to provide support and services specifically to educational agencies," she explained.

Curry said NCADEMI will help educational agencies conduct accessibility reviews of materials before they reach students and will support techniques in creating other materials. NCADMI is funded by a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. It's slated to open October first.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice issued final accessibility rules for websites and mobile applications of state and local governments. Brenda Smith, the center's principal investigator, said the initiative will work with two existing national programs: Web Accessibility In Mind and the Center for Technical Assistance and Excellence in Special Education, or TAESE, to help schools come into compliance.

"NCADMI is a collaboration between our two projects. Our proposal was written with staff from both projects and so it really is marrying our ability to meet federal special education requirements in our previous work with state special education departments and school districts with the WebAIM content knowledge around accessibility," she continued.

Leaders say by the end of the four-year project they want to ensure they've helped the education sector at various levels tap into cultivating accessible, digital educational materials. They say the processes and systems they will foster will have the potential to be adopted and scaled nationally.


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Alabama's universities and community colleges will receive increased funding for 2025.

The state's universities are set to get a 7% boost equivalent to about $100 million.

Jim Purcell, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, said during a quarterly meeting he expressed satisfaction with the outcome in the state Legislature. He stressed it came close to achieving its funding target.

"We had made budget recommendations relatively close but as you know, some people have better politics than others," Purcell acknowledged. "It's not exact science."

The commission also saw budget increases bolstering the state's student assistance program and allocated additional funds to aid in FAFSA completion for prospective college students.

Despite increased funding for schools, Purcell stated Alabama is lagging behind in terms of state aid for higher education. In 2023, Alabama allocated the smallest percentage of its education funding for financial aid compared to most states, except for Hawaii and Montana.

"State aid in this state is problematic and we've been working hard to increase it," Purcell asserted. "Gov. Ivey has increased need-based aid, tripled it since she's been in office."

The national average for need-based aid allocation is about 10%.


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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have different views on most issues, and student loan debt is no different. In the Reno-Sparks area, one nonprofit, the Black Community Collective, is in favor of what Biden's been doing to ease the burden of student loans.

Edward Coleman, executive director of The Black Community Collective, applauds the multiple student-loan relief initiatives that Biden has introduced, most recently announcing nearly $8 billion in forgiveness for undergraduate student-loan borrowers.

Coleman said his own student debt was cut by three-fourths because of Biden's actions.

"Just prior to that, my thought was, 'Well, I'll be paying this back forever.' And now it's like, 'Well, this will be paid off, you know, in a few years and then what am I going to do?'" he explained.

Coleman added the assistance will mean he can be more financially free. New data show that about 18% of adults say student loan debt will have a major influence over their vote in the upcoming election.

Opponents of Biden's forgiveness plans say borrowers should pay back their own debts, especially when other working Americans have done so without government assistance.

Coleman said marginalized communities typically have the smallest amount of resources and are more heavily impacted by what he calls "non-progressive policies," such as Trump's approach. The Legal Defense Fund found that the Black-to-white disparity in student loan debt more than tripled just four years after graduation, making it harder for Black students to accumulate wealth. To Coleman, that isn't fair.

"And then, to be saddled with an unreasonable amount of debt for trying to better yourself so that you can improve your community's life, it feels like a punishment," he said.

Trump has called Biden's forgiveness plans "vile" and suggested that if he returns to the White House, those plans could be reversed.

Despite the Supreme Court's move last summer to kill Biden's mass student-loan forgiveness plan, Coleman said Biden's administration has provided unprecedented relief to borrowers.


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