The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) is a nonpartisan research organization focused on helping state and community leaders make better-informed public policy decisions. After several years of consecutive growth, a new analysis of state tax revenues predicts the era of big budget increases may be coming to an end. The Public Affairs Research Council of […]

People are moving to Alabama, and according to most recent population estimates, the growth is more widespread than it has been. Out of 67 counties, 36 saw population growth between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022, the period covered in the latest Census Bureau release. In the prior year, only 29 counties saw positive […]

BIRMINGHAM — In Alabama and across the country, average scores on the ACT, the widely-used college readiness test, dropped for the pandemic-plagued Class of 2022, with Alabama scores reaching their lowest point since 2015. Compared to the Class of 2021, Alabama public high graduates’ average composite score dropped by almost a point from 18.6 to […]

Alabama’s 2021 public high school graduates entered higher education at a slightly higher rate than the Class of 2020, according to new data from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.However, with only 55% of graduates entering higher education the year after graduation, the 2021 rate was still much lower than in the years before the […]