Alabama state government employs 4,923 fewer people than it did in 2008, according to the figures provided by the Alabama State Personnel Department. With the exception of 2013, the total number of state government employees in 2014 was the lowest it's been since at least 1996, according to State Department of Personnel annual reports.

From 2013 to 2014, state employment edged up slightly with a net increase of 140 employees across all departments, yielding a final total of 30,611 employees. The state employed 35,534 in 2008, before the financial crisis and the years of budget cutting that followed.

The biggest employment declines came in Mental Health (down by 1,593 employees). Much of that decline can be attributed to the closing of three mental health institutions in the state, Partlow, Greil, and Searcy. Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa was replaced by a new hospital and its patient capacity was lowered from 350 to 268. To make up for lost capacity in mental hospitals, the state shifted funding to community-based care operations. The moves were designed to provide care closer to home and family.

The State Health Department also saw a substantial decline in employees. The largest reason for the drop in employment was (read more)

Alabama public high schools produced more graduates in 2014 than they produced the previous year, and more of them enrolled in Alabama public two-year and four-year colleges and universities, according to the latest High School Feedback report from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE).

Each year, ACHE works with the Alabama Department of Education and the state's colleges and universities to account for how many graduates from Alabama high schools enrolled in Alabama public colleges and universities.

The report also gathers data on how many of the entering freshmen required remedial courses in college. These are courses designed to bring entering freshman up to the level of competency required to perform at the college level.

Ideally, all students graduating from high school and enrolling in college would be prepared by their high school to be college-ready.

Students who need remediation are taking courses that don't count toward college completion. Remedial courses are a cost to the students, who are paying for non-credit courses, and a cost to colleges and universities that provide the courses.

The State Department of Education has set goals for increasing the percentage of students that graduate from high school and goals for increasing the percentage of those students who are college ready, work and who are not in need of remediation.

The latest report from ACHE tracked students who graduated from high school and enrolled in college in 2014.

Before getting too deep in the details of the data, it is important to note (read more)