UA report: State strategy needed to help Black Belt schools as enrollments decline

BY BRAD FISHER | Selma Sun Staff

Without a state strategy to focus special help for rural schools, the continuing enrollment decline spells hardship for the Black Belt. 

That’s the conclusion of a report introduced by The University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center in a press briefing on Monday.

From 1995-96 to 2019-20, total school enrollment statewide fell by 1%. But public school enrollment in the 24 counties that comprise Alabama’s Black Belt fell by 13%, or almost 33,000 students during that same period.

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