Birmingham Promise
The Birmingham Promise Initiative is a program created by Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin, and operated through the newly-created Birmingham Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity, to provide business apprenticeships and college scholarships to Birmingham City Schools students. The initiative is operated as a public-private partnership in conjunction with United Way of Central Alabama.
Birmingham's program, developed by Deputy Director of Talent Development Rachel Harmon, is modeled largely similar programs in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Buffalo, New York which have show long-term success in improving graduation rates, closing achievement gaps in public schools, and reducing juvenile crime.
Such programs require large amounts of private investment from partnering businesses and charitable foundations. The initial implementation of Birmingham's program coincided with a reduction in the city's direct annual disbursement to the Birmingham Board of Education, from $3 million to $1 million in the 2020 Birmingham budget. In the program's "pilot" year, 2019, a total of 20 students were placed in paid summer internships. In October 2019 the City Council approved an annual appropriation of $2 million for 5 years to the Birmingham Promise Initiative.
In June 2019 the Birmingham Promise Initiative was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) to support strategy development and implementation.
In August 2019, Woodfin announced that the Birmingham Promise program would begin offering all graduates from city schools a "last dollar" scholarship to attend public in-state 2- and 4-year colleges to which they have been accepted for enrollment, beginning with the class of 2020. The program, previously referred to as the "Fred Shuttlesworth Promise Scholarship," is funded through an endowment assembled from city appropriations and private donations.
In January 2020 UAB announced that it would provide a one-to-one match for Birmingham Promise scholarships for freshmen admitted as full-time students immediately after high school.
References
- Koplowitz, Howard (March 21, 2019) "Woodfin gives update on progress of strategic plan for Birmingham." The Birmingham News
- Johnson, Roy S. (May 21, 2019) "Johnson: Woodfin’s education ‘promise’ may be most vital budget component, most difficult to fulfill." The Birmingham News
- Woodfin, Randall & Lisa Herring (May 23, 2019) "Woodfin and Herring: A Promising Future for Birmingham" The Birmingham Times
- West, Ty (May 28, 2019) "City rolling out Birmingham Promise initiative." Birmingham Business Journal
- Beahm, Anna (August 28, 2019) "What Birmingham students need to know about Woodfin’s college promise." The Birmingham News
- Beahm, Anna (August 30, 2019) "Kalamazoo Promise, a model for Birmingham’s college aid program, gets results." The Birmingham News
- Rebman, Stephanie (October 21, 2019) "City commits $10M to Birmingham Promise initiative." Birmingham Business Journal
- Patchen, Tyler (January 9, 2020) "UAB partners with city on Birmingham Promise scholarships." Birmingham Business Journal