Mayor announces city-funded year of college for eligible Tuscaloosa City School students through Elevate partnership with UA Early College

Mayor Maddox announced a new partnership between the city's Elevate program and the University of Alabama Early College that will let eligible Tuscaloosa City School students take up to a full year of college at UA at no cost to the student.

"We reached a partnership with UA's Early College. And now every Tuscaloosa City School high school student at Bryant, Northridge, and Central can take a full year at UA or a full year of college bridal for free through our Elevate program at the University of Alabama Early College," Mayor Maddox said. He described the combined offering as providing up to 27 credit hours beginning in 10th grade for eligible students, funded through the city's Elevate budget and partner contributions.

Maddox said Shelton State matches city-funded dual enrollment credit hours and that UA's tuition drop made the expanded offering possible. "Shelton actually matches that 12 hours, which gets you almost through your first year of college if you use your dual enrollment at Shelton," he said, later adding the city can "now provide 27 hours for any high school student beginning in tenth grade as long as they're eligible at Central, Northridge, [and] Bryant."

Maddox described the program as providing tuition, books and fees, and framed it as a local investment in young people. He credited Dr. Daria for leading coalition efforts to finalize the partnership and thanked the council for funding Elevate. The transcript records this as an announcement; no formal council action or budget vote is included in the provided excerpt.