The authors discuss the status of college algebra and related offerings and their relationship to introductory statistics education. They also describe an innovative approach to college algebra that integrates a significant amount of statistical reasoning and concepts and statistical methods as natural applications of basic ideas that are part of a modern college algebra course. This can serve either as an introduction to a subsequent introductory statistics course or as a reminder/ reinforcement of key statistical ideas for students who have previously taken an introductory statistics course.