It is a New Year, and it is customary for predictions for the upcoming 2011. There are hope and concerns for Alabama in the coming year, opportunities to seize and pitfalls to be avoided.

By looking at the past year, here are some prognostications for the next twelve months.

Economists have told us that the recession ended months ago and the economy has had steady growth for a while. Tell that to the folks that still haven’t been able to get a job after losing one.

President Harry S. Truman, a no nonsense working Democrat said it best, “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”

For thousands of Alabama families, it still is tough economic times because a new job has yet been found. This goes for white-collar workers as well as blue-collar, people with advanced degrees and those who have been working since high school.

Unemployment remains too high, but there are hopeful signs for the future.

When 2010 started, jobless figures were as high as they have been since the 1980s. Two years of rising unemployment had hit the state economy hard. Last year finally bucked the trend and we saw job growth. People who were forced out of the job market started to find work.

Early indications are that job growth will continue. There has been a string of economic good news, expanding industries, announcements for new companies locating here, and traditional sectors finally coming back from hard times.

All signs point to recovery of the job market, and better employment opportunities for those who need them. State government, through industry recruiters like the Alabama Development Office, job training in community colleges and AIDT, and infrastructure improvement through the Department of Transportation are working every day to bring new job opportunities to Alabama.

One area we all hope to save jobs in 2011 is in education. Teachers were not immune to rising unemployment, and during the downturn we lost thousands of teaching positions. While it is unlikely we will be able to add more teachers in the next year, we can work hard to save positions and keep teachers in the classroom.

For three years we haven’t been able to buy new textbooks or classroom supplies, so tight was the education budget even before proration. There is little optimism that we will do better in the near future, and our schools will still be on an impossibly tight budget.

However, even in the most-lean times in a generation, we still saw improvement in student achievement. There have been steady gains in early reading, better math test scores, and a continued lowering of the dropout rate while there have been steady cuts across the board. As they have done so many times in the past, Alabama educators did more with less, which has become the motto in our schools.

It is not fair, but it is the reality.

Before the recession, we invested in teacher training and programs like the Alabama Reading Initiative and Math and Science Initiative. There were investments that didn’t disappear with budget cuts, and they continue to pay dividends even during the hard times.

We are poised to see continued improvement in student achievement, but we need to support our schools better.

A new governor and Legislature will see Republicans in charge. Democrats stand ready to work and find the best bipartisan solutions that support schools and help create jobs. If we do what is right, then certainly 2011 will be better than the year we leave behind.

However, if poor choices and special interests dominate, or if cheap rhetoric is chosen over action, then the optimistic predictions will just end up being pipe dreams.

Jobs and education can make tremendous strides in the coming year. Let’s hope we see real progress in 2011.

Johnny Mack Morrow is a state representative for Franklin County. His column appears each Wednesday.