Issue: Safety Net

Special session(s) ahead in Alabama? How Arise is preparing

By Chris Sanders

Alabama Arise’s work for equity, justice and opportunity persisted after the Legislature’s regular session ended. We’ll renew our commitment to those principles when Arise members choose 2022 issue priorities after the Sept. 25 annual meeting. And we’ll keep up the drumbeat when lawmakers return later this year for one or more expected special sessions.

Alabama’s overcrowded and antiquated corrections system – a decades-long humanitarian crisis – may prompt a special session this fall. Gov. Kay Ivey and many legislators hope to build and renovate multiple prisons. Alabama may seek federal permission to use COVID-19 relief money for those purposes.

Arise believes meaningful sentencing reforms should accompany any plan for new prisons. Repeal of the outdated Habitual Felony Offender Act would be one long-term step to reduce overcrowding. Parole reform and stronger investments in community corrections and reentry supports would help as well. Arise will advocate for these policy changes and others during any prison-related special session.

Redistricting is another likely focus of a special session. Legislators will use new Census data to draw new districts for the Legislature, state school board and U.S. House. Arise urges members to participate in public hearings that the Joint Reapportionment Committee will hold across Alabama this month. Click here for more information and a full hearing schedule.

Arise will continue advocacy on federal funds, too. We’ll support efforts to make recent Child Tax Credit improvements permanent. We’ll urge legislators to use federal relief money for Medicaid expansion, public transportation and other long-term investments. And we’ll seek to build on an August federal rule change that permanently boosted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) in Alabama: What you need to know

By Carol Gundlach

P-EBT: Food assistance for Alabama's families. No application necessary. P-EBT cards will be mailed to eligible students. Simply activate the card and use it to purchase food. Hang on to the P-EBT card! More benefits may be deposited on the same card. Immigration status does not matter for P-EBT. Call the P-EBT hotline for more information: 1-800-410-5827, Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The COVID-19 pandemic, its recession and increased food costs have created a second, quieter epidemic: hunger. This hunger epidemic has hit schoolchildren the hardest as school closures cost them not only classroom time, but also the school breakfasts and lunches upon which they relied. During the pandemic’s early stage, 13% of Alabama families with children told the Census Bureau that they either sometimes or often didn’t have enough food to eat. Hunger rates were more than two times higher for Black and Hispanic families in our state.

Alabama schools and communities responded heroically to this crisis, preparing and distributing “grab-and-go” school meals across the state. The state and federal governments also did their part by creating a new food assistance program called Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT). Thanks to P-EBT and other federal programs like the expanded Child Tax Credit, the share of Alabama families with children who sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat declined to 9% by the end of July 2021.

What is P-EBT?

P-EBT replaces missed school meals with cash assistance that families can spend on groceries. P-EBT is delivered to schoolchildren on a debit-like card. For children too young for school whose parents receive food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), P-EBT appears on their parents’ EBT card.

No one has to apply for P-EBT. Instead, it is automatically sent to most children who were eligible for free or reduced-price meals during the 2020-21 school year. Immigrant children who are undocumented are also eligible for P-EBT. P-EBT doesn’t affect immigration status for either the parents or the children.

P-EBT has complicated eligibility rules. Congress revised P-EBT through a legislative process called reconciliation, which made the program more complex for many participants. Alabama has worked to make P-EBT as simple as possible, but the program remains confusing for many eligible families. Alabama offers a toll-free hotline for P-EBT questions at 800-410-5827. The hotline is available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Who is eligible for P-EBT?

How schools provide school meals affects P-EBT eligibility. To qualify for P-EBT, a school-age child must attend a school participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The child also must have been eligible for free NSLP meals during the 2020-21 school year. Some schools provide universal free NSLP lunch and breakfast under a special option called community eligibility. Every child who attended those schools is eligible for P-EBT, no matter what their family income is. But other Alabama schools pay for free school meals with a summer feeding option that differs from community eligibility. Unlike community eligibility, this option does not automatically qualify children for P-EBT. (A list of Alabama schools that have adopted community eligibility is available here.)

Children who attend a school that provides free meals through an option other than community eligibility must get approved for free or reduced-price meals in an additional way to be eligible for P-EBT. This approval most often results from an approved school meal application or family participation in SNAP. This can be very confusing for parents, who rarely know which federal funding stream pays for their children’s school meals. Many parents didn’t apply for free meals because their children were already receiving them or were going to school remotely.

The 2020-21 school schedule also affects eligibility. Children approved for free or reduced-price meals under NSLP can receive P-EBT if they attended school remotely or partially remotely during the 2020-21 school year. To receive P-EBT for specific months, a child must have (1) attended a school that the state Department of Education listed as hybrid or virtual during those months or (2) attended remotely at parental request. Children who attended a school that was fully open and offering school meals are not eligible for P-EBT.

Can children who are too young to attend school qualify for P-EBT?

Young children in SNAP households also can qualify for P-EBT. Many children under age 6 who didn’t attend a public school still can receive P-EBT. They qualify if they live in a household that received SNAP assistance in any month between October 2020 and May 2021 and if a school in the child’s county was virtual or hybrid.

Young children’s benefits are calculated in the same manner as those for schoolchildren. These benefits are based on whether any school in their county was virtual or hybrid. Benefits for children under age 6 who receive SNAP and are not in school are retroactive only to October 2020. Congress passed legislation extending P-EBT to these children in October.

How much will P-EBT participants receive?

The amount of P-EBT assistance depends on the school’s 2020-21 schedule. The P-EBT amount is based on how the Department of Education defined the 2020-21 “learning plan” for the child’s school. Children whose school is defined as virtual receive $6.82 per day in benefits for 18 days per month or $122.76 for each academic month they’re listed as virtual. Children whose school is identified as hybrid receive $6.82 per day for nine days per month or $61.38 per month for each month their school is listed as hybrid.

The state updated schools’ status as “virtual,” “hybrid” or “fully in person” every two months. That means some children may receive different amounts for different months of the school year. Benefits are retroactive to August 2020.

How can Alabamians get P-EBT allotments for the school year and summer?

There are three rounds of P-EBT benefits. School-year P-EBT benefits went out in two rounds, each for approximately half of the 2020-21 school year. The first round of P-EBT benefits for schoolchildren went out in June, and the second round went out in August. Children under age 6 who receive SNAP and are not enrolled in school will receive their allotments later than schoolchildren. Officials will check their names against those of children in school (including pre-K) to ensure no one receives benefits twice.

Participants eligible for summer P-EBT benefits should receive them sometime in fall 2021. Schoolchildren are eligible for summer P-EBT if they were eligible for free or reduced-price NSLP meals, including through community eligibility, in May 2021. Aug. 31 is the deadline for parents to apply at their local school for 2020-21 free or reduced-price meals so their children qualify for summer P-EBT. Children who are under age 6 and not enrolled in school will be eligible for summer P-EBT if their families received SNAP assistance any time after October 2020. Eligible children will receive $375 each in summer P-EBT benefits.

What is the future of P-EBT?

Advocates are working hard to extend P-EBT into the future. Congress authorized P-EBT only for the 2020-21 school year and summer. However, Alabama Arise and other advocates are working hard to convince lawmakers to extend P-EBT into the future. Stay involved by signing up for updates and action alerts on these efforts from Alabama Arise and Hunger Free Alabama.

To help ensure children remain eligible for P-EBT if Congress extends it, many parents should apply for free or reduced-price school meals even if their school already provides free meals. Applications for free meals aren’t necessary for children attending schools already participating in the Community Eligibility Program.

Community eligibility offers an enduring path to food security for Alabama schoolchildren

By Celida Soto Garcia

Image of smiling children sharing a meal. Text: Community eligibility can help build a better normal in Alabama. All children deserve to receive the nutrition they need to survive and thrive. Now is the time to contact your local school superintendents and urge them to opt into the Community Eligibility Provision to secure a dependable source of food and nutrition for Alabama’s children.

At least one in four children experience hunger in Alabama ‒ a terrible reality even before the onslaught of COVID-19. Many gaps already existed in policies surrounding fair access to food and nutrition in our state. And the pandemic abruptly reminded policymakers of the importance of maintaining fortified safety net systems.

State agencies swiftly stepped up to ensure Alabama was on the forefront of implementing support systems. One particularly important program has been Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), which offers extra money for food during months when children are out of in-person school.

Information gathered from street-level story collection revealed that caregivers were grappling with drastic changes to their work environments, as well as new learning environments for their children. In many instances, “going to work” and “attending school” happened in the same place ‒ the family’s kitchen or living room.

Meanwhile, school districts were left to decipher complex and rapidly changing federal guidelines for serving school meals. Alabama’s schools found innovative ways to reach their students with nutritious meals, but not without overcoming many challenges.

Schools with community eligibility had a head start on pandemic response

Some school districts faced more challenges than others in serving school meals during the pandemic. Schools that opted into the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) before the pandemic were best prepared to provide meals quickly because time-consuming eligibility considerations were not a factor. Child nutrition staff could focus instead on feeding families.

CEP is a federal option available to schools and districts where at least 40% of students meet the family income requirement for free and reduced-price meals. Eligible schools can use this option to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all of their students.

Schoolwide eligibility means no burdensome application requirements for struggling families, less time-consuming data and fee collection for school administrators, and no embarrassing lunch-line interactions for students with low balances. It’s a win-win for all.

Additional flexibility to keep children fed

This reality was clear to federal agencies tasked with determining food and nutrition policies during the pandemic. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) handed down a series of school meal waivers to ensure schools could serve meals outside of the usual cafeteria setting. The first, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), is a federally funded, state-administered program that reimburses community providers who serve free healthy meals to children and teens in low-income areas during the summer months when school is not in session.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) also recognized that schools needed “additional support and flexibility to continue serving meals to children while maintaining appropriate safety measures and managing the impacts of COVID-19.” In response, FNS issued a waiver allowing states to receive funding to operate a seasonal feeding program called Seamless Summer Option (SSO) beyond the summer months through the entire 2021-22 school year.

These programs play an important role in offering much-needed financial support to schools and communities. During a time when much is uncertain, one truth is indisputable: Programs that facilitate universal school meals at no cost ease fears and concerns for both school districts and families.

Community eligibility can help build a better normal in Alabama

A new wave of COVID-19 and a new school year bring a new round of uncertainty. But even as community activities resume, Alabamians with low incomes will experience the strongest aftershocks of pandemic-era disruptions. For this population, “things going back to normal” means scarce resources and disjointed avenues to accessing even the most basic resources, like food.

The pandemic taught us many lessons. Most notably, we learned that reliable sources of food and nutrition are vital to extending a sense of support and stability to communities. SFSP and SSO strengthened the safety net during uncertain times, but these programs are temporary. CEP offers a more stable, reliable, enduring system for serving school meals to all children, at no cost to families.

All children deserve to receive the nutrition they need to survive and thrive. Now is the time to contact your local school superintendents and urge them to opt into the Community Eligibility Provision to secure a dependable source of food and nutrition for Alabama’s children.

Good news for Alabama families: The expanded Child Tax Credit is here!

By Robyn Hyden

Monthly payments from the newly enhanced federal Child Tax Credit begin today, marking a historic breakthrough in fighting child poverty. The payments are part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which will help reduce child poverty in the United States by more than 40%.

Child Tax Credit payments are coming to help! $300 per month for kids under 6. $250 per month for kids 6-17.

How does the expanded credit work?

ARPA boosted the maximum Child Tax Credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child. It also increased the maximum for children under age 6 to $3,600 per child. And ARPA made the credit fully refundable. This means families will receive the full value of the tax credit even if they have little or no income.

About 94% of Alabama’s children ‒ more than 1 million kids across the state ‒ will benefit from improvements to the credit. By default, most households will receive half of the money in the form of monthly payments from July through December. Those payments will be up to $250 per child, or up to $300 per child under age 6.

Families will receive the other half of the money in a lump sum after filing 2021 income taxes next year. If households choose to opt out of monthly payments, they can receive a single lump-sum payment after filing 2021 taxes.

The expanded credit is a great start to boost economic security for Alabama families, but the improvements are only temporary. The expansion is due to expire next year unless Congress agrees to renew it. That’s why lawmakers urgently need to expand the credit permanently in the next federal COVID-19 relief plan.

What do you need to do to sign up for the expanded credit?

  • Most families are already signed up for Child Tax Credit payments. If you’ve filed tax returns for 2019 or 2020, or if you signed up with the Non-Filer tool last year to receive a stimulus check from the Internal Revenue Service, you will get the monthly Child Tax Credit payments automatically. You do not need to sign up or take any further action.
  • If you aren’t already signed up, you still can do so by clicking here. Even better, if you haven’t yet received any stimulus payments for which you are eligible, you can get those by signing up as well. Note: These payments do not count as income. Signing up won’t affect your eligibility for other federal benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or WIC.
  • To opt out of monthly payments and get your refund as a lump sum after filing 2021 taxes, click here.

Who is eligible for the expanded credit?

ARPA increased the maximum Child Tax Credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child for most kids. The maximum credit increased from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under age 6. The credit also now covers 17-year-olds.

All families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 a year for a couple or $112,500 a year for a family with a single head of household. Couples who make up to $440,000 a year or heads of household who make up to $240,000 are eligible for partial credits.

How can you help spread the word?

Make sure your family, friends and neighbors know about the expanded Child Tax Credit! You can send them this helpful two-minute video, courtesy of the Economic Security Project and the Groundwork Collaborative.

You also can share this flyer, courtesy of the Coalition on Human Needs, with people who may not have filed a federal income tax return recently because they did not make enough to owe income taxes.

42 Alabama groups urge Ivey to drive transformative change with federal COVID-19 relief funds

By Chris Sanders

To strengthen the common good: Six principles for allocating Alabama's American Rescue Plan Act funding

Alabama should build a more equitable and inclusive future by using federal COVID-19 relief money for transformational investments in public health and economic opportunity, according to a letter that 42 churches and organizations across the state sent to Gov. Kay Ivey this week. Alabama Arise is among the groups that co-signed the letter.

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will provide Alabama $2.3 billion of federal assistance for education and other vital services. Local governments across the state will receive another $1.7 billion.

Affordable housing, education, nutrition and public transportation are a few key areas of need identified in the letter. The letter urges Alabama to use ARPA funds to expand Medicaid, increase broadband internet access in underserved areas and increase funding for child care, early childhood education and mental health care, among other investments.

“New funding at this scale can be transformative for our state, but only if we take a transformative approach to how we spend it,” the letter says. “For too long, Alabama’s leaders … have settled for poor outcomes in health, education, community development and other measures of shared prosperity, because they thought we couldn’t tackle such deep problems. The pandemic is challenging us to reclaim – and redefine – the common good. ARPA funding gives us a rare opportunity to meet the challenge, if we’re willing.”

The full letter, “To Strengthen the Common Good: Six Principles for Allocating Alabama’s ARPA Funding,” is available here.

Principles for effective, transparent use of ARPA money

COVID-19 and its associated recession exacerbated preexisting racial, gender and regional disparities that prevent Alabama from reaching its full potential. Enduring recovery will require breaking away from a mindset of scarce resources and limited opportunities, the letter says.

The letter encourages state leaders to allocate ARPA funds using these six principles as a framework:

  1. Engage local communities at every step.
  2. Aim for equity in outcomes.
  3. Maximize well-being by addressing health in all policies.
  4. Invest in existing assets and capacities to help funds work faster, go further and avoid duplication.
  5. Think big and create a 21st-century infrastructure for the common good.
  6. Build public trust and engagement by following the highest standards of documentation, transparency and accessibility of information about funding awards and expenditures.

Investments to increase equity, expand economic opportunity in Alabama

ARPA funds offer the state an opportunity to lift communities toward better health and broadly shared prosperity. They also can help Alabama address chronic challenges in education, health care, housing and other quality-of-life measures. Among the letter’s key recommendations for allocation of ARPA funds:

  • Expand Medicaid to save lives and ensure health coverage for more than 340,000 Alabamians with low incomes.
  • Invest in mobile mental health crisis services and expand mental health crisis centers and school-based mental health services.
  • Increase funding for in-home early childhood education and in-home services for older adults and people with disabilities.
  • Provide funding for the state’s Housing Trust Fund and Public Transportation Trust Fund.
  • Promote equity in high-speed internet access by targeting earmarked broadband funding to help providers expand into underserved areas.
  • Invest in workforce development by creating subsidized apprenticeships, two-year scholarship programs and subsidized certificate programs for workers with low incomes.
  • Provide a grocery tax rebate and other cash assistance to households with low incomes.

“Recovery from COVID-19 will require Alabama to go beyond a return to an inadequate status quo,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “Our elected officials must make better policy choices now to build thriving communities in the future, and ARPA funds offer a powerful pathway to help make that vision a reality. We urge the governor to seize this opportunity to increase public trust and build a brighter, more equitable future for all Alabamians.”

To strengthen the common good: Six principles for allocating Alabama’s ARPA funding

By Alabama Arise

To strengthen the common good: Six principles for allocating Alabama's American Rescue Plan Act funding

Introduction

Dear Governor Ivey,

One of the darkest years in recent memory has put Alabama’s families, communities, health system, businesses – and our leaders at all levels – to the test. Thank you for all your efforts to keep Alabamians safe and secure during this unprecedented emergency. Now that a post-COVID world is dawning, the leadership test doesn’t end. Rather, it enters a critical new phase: Your vision and your actions will help determine what a post-COVID Alabama looks like, and history will record the results. Will the comfort of the familiar pull us back into “the way we’ve always done things”? Or will we count this ordeal as an awakening to bold new possibilities for our state?

For the organizations listed below, all signs point to the second option: The opportunity to address chronic problems that the pandemic has only worsened; a chance to inspire Alabamians with a recovery plan that lifts all communities toward a healthier, more prosperous future; and – most pragmatically – the power of $4 billion in new federal funding to turn vision into reality. We enclose for your consideration six principles that we believe can guide state and local leaders in the most productive, equitable and lasting use of these tax dollars.

The signers of this letter are advocates who work closely with the communities hit hardest by the COVID-19 health and economic crises. For these Alabamians, recovery from the pandemic must mean more than restoring the pre-COVID status quo. With courageous and creative leadership, community engagement across the state, and wise use of historic levels of funding, we have what we need to move Alabama forward and strengthen the common good.

We stand ready to answer any questions you may have about our recommendations.

Respectfully submitted,

The Undersigned Alabama Organizations

Signatories

The following organizations support a principled approach to American Rescue Plan Act funding that will strengthen Alabama’s common good:

ADAP
AIDS Alabama
Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice
Alabama Arise
Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice
Alabama CURE
Alabama Possible
Alabama Solutions
Alabama State Conference of the NAACP
Bay Area Women Coalition, Inc.
Birmingham Society of Friends
BirthWell Partners Community Doula Project, Birmingham
Church & Society, Anniston First United Methodist Church
Community Enabler Developer, Inc.
Disabilities Leadership Coalition of Alabama
Disability Rights & Resources
The E.WE Foundation
Faith and Works Statewide Civic Engagement Collective
Grace Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Tuscaloosa
Greater Birmingham Ministries
Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama
Hometown Action
Immanuel Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Montgomery
Jobs to Move America
League of Women Voters of Alabama
Medical Advocacy & Outreach
The Nightingale Clinic, Birmingham
Nurse Practitioner Alliance of Alabama
Open Table United Church of Christ, Mobile
People First of Alabama
Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty
Restorative Strategies, LLC, Birmingham
Sisters of Mercy
Sisters of St. Joseph
The Sisters, Tuscaloosa
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Jacksonville
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Mobile
University of Montevallo Social Work Program
Volunteers of America Southeast
West Alabama Women’s Center
YMCA of Birmingham
YWCA of Central Alabama

Letter text

To Strengthen the Common Good: Six Principles for Allocating Alabama’s American Rescue Plan Act Funding

The COVID-19 crisis has created enormous new challenges for Alabama, while shining a harsh light on long-neglected ones. To strengthen and expedite recovery, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), passed by Congress in March 2021, is pumping $4 billion into Alabama’s economy over the next three years. New funding at this scale can be transformative for our state, but only if we take a transformative approach to how we spend it.

The starting point is recognizing and breaking our old mindset of scarce resources, limited possibilities and patchwork policy solutions. For too long, Alabama’s leaders – and the voters who empower them – have settled for poor outcomes in health, education, community development and other measures of shared prosperity, because they thought we couldn’t tackle such deep problems. The pandemic is challenging us to reclaim – and redefine – the common good. ARPA funding gives us a rare opportunity to meet the challenge, if we’re willing. The undersigned organizations offer the following six principles as a framework for seizing this unprecedented opportunity to build a better Alabama for all.

  1. Engage local communities at every step.

    The COVID pandemic has hit people where they live, work, learn and play. The best use of ARPA funds will reflect the needs and goals identified by ordinary Alabamians through a process that solicits, accommodates and heeds public input.

Crucial question

How are local leaders, advocates and community members involved in identifying and prioritizing both needs and solutions?

Recommendations
  • Identify or create effective, inclusive, results-oriented, nonpartisan, community-based councils in each county or region to develop recommendations for local ARPA funding priorities. Potential lead organizations may include United Way, community foundation or Community Action Agency advisory bodies; children’s policy councils; university extension services; or community round tables convened by local governments. Make it a priority to engage segments of the community underserved by the status quo, such as Alabamians of color, people who work for low wages or have lost jobs, and those who lack adequate basic services.
  • Provide opportunities for broad public participation in developing and finalizing local, regional and state ARPA spending plans. State leaders should agree not to appropriate ARPA funds until the public engagement process is completed.
  • Review existing community and state needs assessments to identify common local concerns, as well as gaps in information and perspective.
  • Facilitate information-sharing and coordination among local, regional and state efforts to enhance efficiency, leverage capacity and avoid duplication.
  • Designate a statewide source of technical assistance, best practices and other aids to local and regional decision-making.

  1. Aim for equity in outcomes.

    Some regions, counties, municipalities and populations have suffered deeper blows than others from the pandemic because of chronic gaps in resources, infrastructure, services and opportunities. Rural Alabamians, people of color, people with disabilities, and women have faced disproportionate impacts from both the health and economic crises. Simply restoring the prior status quo is not transformation. ARPA funding decisions should take into account the un-level playing field of COVID recovery, targeting investment toward improving the basic standards of living for areas and people long left behind. Assistance to those most deeply impacted by COVID-19 should come with as little “red tape” and administrative delay as possible. Direct cash assistance to people with low incomes should be a priority.

Crucial question

How do proposed funding allocations contribute to the removal of historic barriers to individual, family and community well-being?

Recommendations
  • Within each jurisdiction (state, region, county, city), use socioeconomic indicators such as poverty, unemployment and workforce participation rates, and racial/ethnic health disparities to target strategic, expedited community investments.
  • Provide grants to minority- or women-owned small businesses, especially those that did not receive earlier federal business loan assistance.
  • Provide up to $13 per hour in bonus or “premium” pay – on top of their regular pay – to essential public and private workers, up to $25,000 per worker per year, as allowed under the Rescue Plan, for work performed during the public health emergency, awarding the largest bonuses to the lowest-paid workers.
  • Provide cash assistance to SNAP food assistance recipients with incomes below 50% of the Federal Poverty Level.
  • Provide a grocery tax rebate to households earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level.
  • Fund and train organizations that already help people access SNAP, Medicaid, tax credits and other supports as navigators for the full range of ARPA assistance, including the expanded federal Child Tax Credit.

  1. Maximize well-being by addressing health in all policies.

    What began as the COVID-19 health emergency quickly became an economic and social crisis. In turn, the toll the virus has taken on communities of color, people with disabilities and the uninsured revealed how deeply socioeconomic conditions are connected to health risks and outcomes. Nutrition, housing, transportation, education and other factors are widely recognized as social determinants of health, but Alabama has been slow to broaden our approach to health policy and funding. ARPA offers us the chance to apply the lessons of COVID-19 and design a recovery plan that puts eliminating health disparities and improving health at the center of investments in every sector.

Crucial question

How does this funding proposal advance the goal of a healthier Alabama?

Recommendations
  • Name it and claim it: There’s enough ARPA funding to achieve significant health improvement in Alabama if leaders set clear, ambitious goals and plan accordingly. 
  • Engage public health experts to incorporate health goals and strategies across the full span of ARPA allocation planning.
  • Increase professional staffing at county health departments.
  • Strengthen our workforce, families and communities by using the generous ARPA incentives (an estimated $720 million) to expand Medicaid and close the coverage gap for 340,000 Alabamians with low incomes.
  • Invest in mobile mental health crisis services and expand mental health crisis centers.
  • Expand school nurse programs and school-based mental health services.
  • Fund Healthy Food Financing grants for fresh food markets, including mobile markets, as well as local worker-owned food cooperatives to boost local economies, provide jobs and expand availability of fresh foods in food apartheid areas (where healthy food access is hindered by racially discriminatory economic or political factors) and food swamp neighborhoods (where food and beverage sources like fast food outlets, convenience stores and liquor stores crowd out healthier food options).

  1. Invest in existing assets and capacities to help funds work faster, go farther and avoid duplication.

    Over recent decades, budget cuts to education, public health and other essential services – and our failure to expand Medicaid – have left Alabama unprepared for a prolonged emergency like COVID-19. Similarly, charitable nonprofit organizations across the state have faced unprecedented demand for their services during the pandemic and risen to the challenge. By directing ARPA funds to restoring critical services and supporting experienced, trusted charitable nonprofits, state and local governments can strengthen community resources, meet needs efficiently, avoid reinventing the wheel, and multiply the economic benefit.

Crucial question

What programs and organizations are already working to meet the goals of this ARPA funding proposal, and how can a partnership approach improve outcomes?

Recommendations
  • Fund organizations that are well-positioned to reach people with significant barriers to accessing support, such as immigrants, people with disabilities and people of color with low incomes.
  • Expand community schools in neighborhoods where the pandemic has taken a particularly heavy toll.
  • Provide additional funding for existing in-home early childhood education services like HIPPY, Parents as Teachers and Nurse-Family Partnership programs.
  • Increase support for school-based social and health services, particularly in high-poverty neighborhoods and districts.
  • Help children catch up on unfinished learning by expanding the teacher workforce through pay increases and other supports for early childhood teachers, child care workers and special education teachers who work in at-risk communities and schools.
  • Expand existing in-home and community-based services for the elderly and people with disabilities.
  • Expand or develop local alternatives to incarceration such as specialized courts, community correction programs, re-entry programs and services for people at risk of offending.
  • Invest in workforce development by creating subsidized apprenticeships, two-year scholarship programs, and subsidized certificate programs for low-income workers.

  1. Think big and create a 21st-century infrastructure for the common good.

    Alabamians have long recognized the human cost of inferior and outdated public works and services like sanitation, health care, transportation and information technology systems. But the monetary cost has kept our leaders from modernizing them. COVID has revealed the deadly consequences of that neglect, and ARPA includes massive funding aimed at moving states forward on all of these fronts, including a large share for education (not addressed in these recommendations because of specific earmarking). The opportunity calls for bold leadership and vision. Our spending plan must seek to coordinate local, regional and statewide investments for fundamental and long-lasting impact.

Crucial question

How will today’s investments benefit future generations of Alabamians?

Recommendations
  • Modernize and align state agency computer systems to create a “no wrong door” approach to streamlined eligibility and enrollment across benefit programs.
  • Modernize and improve state unemployment insurance (UI) technological infrastructure, application and payment systems.
  • Upgrade water and sanitation systems, prioritizing communities with a history of unsafe water quality and waste-water disposal.
  • Provide critical infrastructure and equipment (such as trucks, refrigeration, trainers, lift gates, etc.,) to local food banks and food pantries to expand emergency food distribution.
  • Expand Alabama’s affordable housing capacity, stabilize families and communities and reduce homelessness by seeding the Affordable Housing Trust Fund with $25 million and providing grants for eligible new construction, renovation and maintenance.
  • Recognizing that lack of reliable transportation is a major hindrance to health care, economic activity and workforce development in many areas of the state, seed the Public Transportation Trust Fund with $20 million and provide state match for increased federal public transportation funding.
  • Promote equity in high-speed internet access by targeting earmarked broadband funding to help local service providers expand into underserved areas and by ensuring community oversight of access and quality standards.
  • Provide state technical assistance to localities in consolidating, evaluating and negotiating broadband contracts to minimize the danger of approving projects with little public benefit.

  1. Build public trust and engagement by following the highest standards of documentation, transparency and accessibility of information about funding awards and expenditures. 

    Spending taxpayer dollars is always a tremendous responsibility. When it comes to spending billions in a short time, the potential for slow uptake, poor decisions and misuse only increases. Alabama can ensure that the generous ARPA funds do their appointed job by establishing clear guidelines and full disclosure for the entire funding process, from eligibility of applicants to allocation decisions to project expenditures and results.

Crucial question

How will Alabamians be able to track the allocation, use and impact of their federal ARPA tax dollars in the state?

Recommendations
  • Create and maintain a public database of state and local ARPA funding allocations and expenditures, easily searchable and sortable by project or partner name, policy topic, service area, grant amount, award date, expenditure date and other key factors.
  • Adopt simple, accessible application and reporting requirements that allow grantees and recipients to establish their credibility and tell their story without jumping unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles.
  • Use local ARPA planning groups as conduits for ongoing reporting and feedback about plan implementation, obstacles, impact and sustainability. Build a robust outreach operation to help people access available federal, state and local aid.

Federal relief funds could transform Alabama’s future

By Carol Gundlach

How often have we gotten to say that it’s raining money in Alabama? That’s the image that comes to mind as the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), passed in March, begins to direct more than $4 billion in new federal funds into the state over the next three years.

The funding could help Alabama make historic progress in public health, education, family well-being and community viability if spent wisely and equitably. It also offers generous incentives that would more than offset the state’s initial cost to expand Medicaid. This new COVID-19 relief comes on top of $1.9 billion Alabama got under the CARES Act last year.

The state government will receive more than $2 billion under ARPA. Counties will get nearly $1 billion. Alabama’s 21 largest cities will receive more than $400 million, and other municipalities will get nearly $400 million as well. Both the state and localities may use funds to offset the pandemic’s strains on families, small businesses, public health and infrastructure like water and sewer systems and high-speed broadband networks.

Portions of ARPA money are earmarked for direct payments to local school districts. Other funds are dedicated to provide rental assistance and make child care more affordable and accessible.

The act also temporarily boosts the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit and temporarily increases food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and WIC. In addition to these supports, ARPA also provides one-time cash payments ($1,400 each for most Americans). And it provides direct assistance for health care, funeral expenses and other essential needs.

Arise will continue to follow these funding streams with the goal of ensuring equitable distribution and transparency. And we will advocate to make the temporary improvements permanent in the next round of federal relief.

Arise advances justice in a pandemic session

By Chris Sanders

Advocacy barriers for Alabama Arise members were extraordinarily high during the Legislature’s 2021 regular session. The COVID-19 pandemic limited physical access to the State House and made a difficult policy landscape even rockier.

But Arise members were undeterred. They spoke out forcefully and repeatedly for justice and opportunity. And the result was real, meaningful progress on multiple issue priorities.

This year brought advances on criminal justice reform and internet access. It delivered stronger investment in early education and preserved funding for Medicaid and mental health care. And it saw efforts to chill free speech and erode the Department of Public Health’s effectiveness defeated.

Wins on expanding broadband, reforming civil asset forfeiture

Arise members made their presence known throughout the session. They gathered monthly for online Membership Monday events to stay engaged and connect with advocates across Alabama. On May 18, nearly 100 people attended a virtual recap event to debrief the session and prepare for next steps. And throughout the year, our supporters flooded email inboxes and rang phones off the hook, contacting legislators and Gov. Kay Ivey more than 14,000 times.

Arise action alerts by the numbers This year, Arise’s dedicated members and supporters consistently reached out to lawmakers when we asked. It’s impossible to overstate just how critical it is for our legislators to know what their constituents want. We’re so grateful to everyone who sent messages from our action alerts during this session. Here are a few examples of just how many messages you sent to legislators and the governor in response to Arise and Cover Alabama action alerts during the 2021 regular session: Medicaid expansion: 12,442 Voting rights and protecting free speech: 597 Protecting public health: 406 Civil asset forfeiture reform: 266 Other criminal justice reforms: 389

 

That advocacy worked. Lawmakers passed SB 215 by Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, to promote broadband expansion to rural communities and other underserved areas. And legislators finally began to rein in civil asset forfeiture, a practice that allows law enforcement to seize property without a criminal conviction.

SB 210 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, doesn’t end civil asset forfeiture, but it makes some important initial improvements. Those changes include exempting some property from forfeiture and strengthening protections for innocent owners.

Successful defense against public health threats, anti-protest bill

Arise advocacy helped stop harmful proposals as well. Our members played a key role in blocking a plan to limit the governor and public health officials’ ability to respond to emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. After our members sounded the alarm, SB 97 by Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, lost a House procedural vote in the session’s final hours.

Arise members also helped halt a threat to free speech. HB 445 by Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, would have expanded law enforcement’s powers to arrest protesters for “rioting” and imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences on people convicted under the law. The bill passed in the House but died in the Senate.

The Legislature likely isn’t done this year. Lawmakers expect one or more special sessions to address unfinished business like redistricting, prison overcrowding and allocating federal relief funds. Whenever the next session may be, Arise members will be ready, advocating as always for a better, more inclusive Alabama.

American Rescue Plan Act offers path to recovery

By Chris Sanders

As vaccinations continue across Alabama, COVID-19’s viselike grip on our lives is loosening. The pandemic has caused immense physical, emotional and economic suffering, and those aftereffects will not fade quickly. But the American Rescue Plan Act – the federal relief package that President Joe Biden signed March 11 – includes many important policies to begin the healing.

Some of the most crucial investments come in health care. The law increases subsidies for marketplace health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. It also creates new incentives that would more than offset the cost of Medicaid expansion. The incentives would remove Alabama’s last financial barrier to extending coverage to more than 340,000 adults with low incomes.

If Gov. Kay Ivey agrees to expand Medicaid, Alabama would receive between $740 million and $940 million over two years. That would result from a 5-percentage-point federal funding increase for traditional Medicaid coverage.

Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery

“Medicaid expansion is the single biggest step Alabama can take to recover from the pandemic,” Alabama Arise campaign director Jane Adams said.

“Congress did their job. Now it’s time for the governor and state lawmakers to do theirs.”

The act also slashes poverty by boosting unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance benefits and expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. It funds rental and mortgage assistance to help prevent evictions and foreclosures. And it provides Alabama’s state and local governments with $4 billion of federal assistance to help avoid cuts to education and other vital services.

Persistent disparities – and how to end them

The relief package provides opportunities to begin dismantling longtime structural barriers in Alabama. Arise offers many such policy recommendations in our recent report, The State of Working Alabama 2021, which details how COVID-19 cost hundreds of thousands of Alabamians their jobs and fueled a rapid surge of hunger and hardship across our state.

COVID-19’s toll has been especially heavy for women and people of color, the report finds. The pandemic exacerbated Alabama’s preexisting racial, gender and regional disparities in health care, housing, nutrition and economic opportunity. These inequities – the legacy of bad policy decisions – prevent Alabama from reaching its full potential.

“Alabama’s economic, racial and gender inequities are preventable and reversible,” Arise policy director Jim Carnes said. “By making better policy choices now and in the future, we can chart a path toward a more equitable economy.”

Arise legislative recap: March 12, 2021

By Alabama Arise

Arise’s Carol Gundlach breaks down the American Rescue Plan and what it means for Alabama families including expansions to the Child Tax Credit and EITC helping to reduce poverty across Alabama.