By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – The Legislature agreed in May to Governor Riley's request to allocate 40 million dollars to expand the Reading Initiative to every K through three school in Alabama. But that appropriation won't start until October, when the state's new budget year begins...and that means almost no new elementary schools will participate in the initiative when public schools reopen in August. The elementary schools that already use the program will receive state tax dollars to hire a full-time reading coach. But many of those systems are well-funded already. Hoover City schools will get 495-thousand dollars, Madison schools 275-thousand and the Mountain Brook system will receive 220-thousand-dollars. Some poorer systems in the state do not use the program, so they won't get any money before the fall. Funding for the Reading Initiative was a major part of Governor Riley's 2005 budget plan.