Senate Passes Education Trust Fund Budget
The Alabama Senate approved the Education Trust Fund budget Tuesday, April 13.
The $5.9 billion budget included funding for Career Tech and various programs important to agriculture and rural Alabama..
Notable changes include $461,350 for the University of Alabama at Huntsville Rural Medical Health Program, a 54 percent increase; $350,000 for the Poultry Technology Center at Auburn University, a 28 percent increase; and the Auburn University/Gadsden State-Cherokee 2+2 poultry program, a newly-funded item, received $100,000.
The Senate budget included $5 million for Career Tech Operations and Management and $3.26 million for the Career Tech Initiative. Both received level funding from last year.
The budget also increased funding for the hiring of 70 more 7th- and 8th-grade teachers, textbooks, higher education, school buses and operating expenses for local school systems and expansion of Alabama's pre-kindergarten program.
The budget now goes to the House of Representatives.