For decades, Alabamians have been humiliated by nationally published statistics depicting our state as being at the very bottom in education. Not only is this stigma troubling for taxpayers, it handicaps our graduates entering the job markets out of state. One would expect that after 20 to 30 years of opportunity, our leadership could have made significant progress in reversing this trend.

Recently, the parent organization that administers the American College Test to students in Alabama revealed that 31 percent of 2012 graduating seniors did not meet minimum acceptable scores for college entrance in the four measured major fields of English, math, reading and science. Another 19 percent met only one of the four benchmarks. Only 18 percent of all tested students met all four benchmark scores. More disturbing, however, of state black students, only 38 percent in English, 10 percent in math, 22 percent in reading and 6 percent in science scored in the acceptable range for today’s college environment expectations.

Where have we gone wrong in Alabama? Is it staffing and administration, or does it have more to do with priorities? We must all agree that surely it is not for a lack of funding. Our legislative leadership has had ample time to address this issue and reverse our stigma and trends. For heaven’s sake, let’s stop criticizing charter schools if they work.

We should all be ashamed of how we were left behind. To allow today’s kids to lag behind in education is unthinkable and unforgivable.

James W. Anderson
Talladega