Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chair, Jay Love accidentally spilled the beans about the real purpose of the Alabama Accountability Act: support private schools with public money. Love would never admit that outright, of course, but all it takes is a little math.
Let's do some.
The chairman of the House education budget committee estimated that the state’s new school tax credit program could cost the Education Trust Fund between $50 million and $60 million in 2014. [...] The new law, called the Alabama Accountability Act, allows families with children zoned for failing schools to receive tax credits – estimated at up to $3,500 annually -- to help pay tuition at a private school or a better public school. [...] Love said he assumed that 25 percent of the state’s 61,000 private school students would qualify for the credit. [...] Love said he also assumed that 10 percent of an estimated 74,000 students at "failing” schools would transfer and take the tax credit.
25% of 61,000 private school students: 15,250 students.
15,250 students x $3500 tax credit: $53 million
10% of 74,000 "failing school" students: 7,400
7,400 students x $3500 tax credit: $26 million
Total impact to the Education Trust Fund:
$53 million in private school subsidies $26 million for public school students $79 million
Again, we run across that seemingly ubiquitous GOP math impairment.
Using Rep. Love's numbers, the expected hit to the ETF is almost $80 million dollars. That's a third more than his high estimate of $60 million.
It could be that Rep. Love graduated from one of those "failing" public schools where math wasn't taught, but it's not likely. No, here's what's going on.
Look at the numbers of students expected to claim the credits: 25% of private school kids, but only 10% of public school kids. It looks like Love understands the basic finding of AL.com reporter Challen Stephens' investigative report. Most public school kids won't get to use the credit because there's no place for them to go.
Let's start with the bad news. After holding over a committee vote on HB57 (the TRAP bill), the Senate Health Committee voted 7-3 to support Mary Sue McClurkin's ill-conceived bill:
The committee turned back an effort by Sen. Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham, to amend the bill. Coleman recommended a number of changes, including a provision to grandfather in the state’s five existing clinics. [...]
Coleman said she was not surprised her amendment was rejected and said she might try again on the Senate floor. She said she did not think the bill was really about health and safety.
“This was an attempt to close these type facilities down because of personal religious beliefs,” Coleman said.
Meanwhile, outside the Statehouse, Governor Robert Bentley was busy acting as ringmaster for the anti-choice circus. Governor ("only Christians are my brothers") Bentley went himself one better with this comment:
“We need to remember we are dealing with human life and this is what God expects us to do,” Republican Gov. Robert Bentley said at a Montgomery rally organized by abortion opponents in Montgomery. The Legislature’s Republican presiding officers, Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey and House Speaker Mike Hubbard, also attended the rally.
This just begs some good journalist to ask the obvious question: Why does God want Bentley to shun the Medicaid expansion that will really protect human life?
The good news - public education advocates had reason to cheer:
Momentum on on the "Dump Common Core" effort has slowed. The Senate Education committee held a public hearing yesterday, but delayed a vote until next week. Note that's only a minor victory: look what happened with HB57!
Speaker Mike Hubbard hit a roadblock in the form of Montgomery Circuit Judge Charles Price, on the "Alabama Accountability Act:"
“The judge mentioned that not only did they violate their own rules, they also are in violation of the state constitution that says you can’t take a bill and introduce it as a bill and say it’s about one thing and substitute it with a different bill,” said James Anderson, an attorney for the plaintiff.
The judge’s order prevents the House Clerk, Jeff Woodard, from delivering the bill to Governor Bentley for signing.
Hubbard decried the so-called "judicial activism," which the GOP seems to define as "any decision we don't like." He's appealing to the Alabama Supreme Court.
And finally, Governor Bentley showed a tiny piece of common sense and vetoed the first "guns in schools" bill to hit his desk:
Gov. Robert Bentley today sent a note to Franklin County lawmakers saying he is vetoing a bill approved last month by the Legislature to allow teachers and community members there to be trained as reserve police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
In the letter, Bentley said he was concerned primarily with the training because the bill does not provide adequate training requirements.
“Failure to provide for specific, applicable training would create an unacceptable high-risk situation with the possibility of dire consequences, including the injury or death of a child, teacher, or a volunteer member (of the security force),” Bentley said.
Remember though: a governor's veto is worth very little. The Legislature can override with a simple majority vote and the bill's sponsor is hoping to do that as early as today.
Last night's meltdown in the Alabama Legislature over the School Flexibility Act has been chronicled exhaustively by the media this morning. But the descriptions of the GOP super-majority's breathtaking arrogance and antipathy towards the Alabama Education Association leaves out an important piece of recent political history.
Here's a sampling of coverage of yesterday's events:
This is happening now because the Republican super-majority in the Legislature sees no need for compromise and listens to nothing outside its own echo chamber. Governor Robert Bentley just goes along for the ride. He really has no choice because Alabama's governor has almost no real power over the Legislature. There's no "separate but equal" power between the executive and legislative branches. The Legislature holds most of the cards while the Governor gets to attend ribbon cuttings, hold press conferences, and rubber stamp legislation that hits his desk.
There's really no point in the Governor vetoing anything because the Legislature has the power to over-ride vetoes with a simple majority vote. And they do. Just last term, the Legislature over-rode Bentley's veto of the Dial/Laird Slush Fund Bill.
So last night, we had the spectacle of Bentley, Hubbard, & Marsh grinning like possums and taking a victory lap on the so-called "Alabama Accountability Act."
The AEA is furious. Executive Secretary Henry Mabry flatly stated: "The Governor lied to us."
Working through back channels with Bentley’s campaign, the AEA pummeled Byrne with a barrage of attack ads and automated phone calls, according to e-mails and telephone records obtained by the Press-Register.
It wasn't just robocalls. AEA ran a slew of negative ads against Byrne, who, Hubbert said "threatened to burn our house down." Once the major parties had their candidates selected - Sparks & Bentley - then-AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert made this announcement:
Alabama political kingmaker Paul Hubbert said he’s staying out of the 2010 governor’s race now that there are two candidates he believes will be friendly to education.
Hubbert, executive secretary of the powerful Alabama Education Association, almost single-handedly defeated Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Bradley Byrne with a series of third-party ads. [...] In an interview last week, Hubbert said either Bentley or Sparks is acceptable to the AEA or at least will listen to AEA concerns.
You have to wonder how AEA feels now. Byrne did pick a fight with AEA, but he also hailed from the "business wing" of the Alabama GOP. That's a group with little love for the social conservatives pushing the Legislature to drop Common Core standards, outlaw abortion and most forms of hormonal birth control, and remove employer's ability to ban firearms on their own property.
A Governor Bradley Byrne might not be able to stop it, but would he be as complicit in the effort as Governor Bentley?
We'll never know that for sure, but one thing is clear: GOP super-majority is intent on "burning down" AEA's house. And Hubbert handed the current governor a big box of matches when it helped him win the GOP primary.
In hindsight, it looks like a very bad return on investment.
Hey, when even someone like Dale Peterson calls you out for being a dick, maybe it's time to reconsider your career choices. Senator Shadrack McGill showed his butt so plainly at the hearing on SB190 (to repeal Alabama's Common Core standards) that even Dale Peterson had to comment......
"Watched several minions today...such as a "Republican" senator by the name of Shadrick McGill from DeKalb County as he acted like a disrespectful mornon by laughing at those who supported ridding Alabama of federal common core standards and then "sharing" with his buddy, "Republican" Ed Henry, - represenative, also a disrepctful jerk. Apparently their job was to act like disrespectful jerks. Both did a great job of being jerks."
Note that we faithfully reproduced Peterson's Facebook typos...
Those of us who have played close attention to McGill's antics since assuming office - particularly his rather awkward public meetings - aren't as surprised by this behavior as Peterson seems to be. Perhaps he was too preoccupied with that horse to pay much attention to his fellow party members....
Peterson went on to discuss how many members of the committee appeared to be woefully ignorant of the legislation and its implications (see the image). Now, that won't surprise many of us who have watched the Alabama legislature debate many topics - like female biology - that they don't understand at all.
I first realized something was amiss when I heard "WHAT THE HECK IS THISI!?!?!" from across the room (OK, so she didn't say "heck"; for that matter, she didn't say "hell", either). My wife, who's a teacher, had stumbled across this article. Here's the meat of it:
Huntsville Superintendent Casey Wardynski on Thursday spoke out against a proposed bill that would repeal the state's adoption of the Common Core State Standards for curriculum and limit how student data is shared and used.
Wardynski said that Senate Bill 190, introduced earlier this month by a group of 15 Republican senators, would set back public education in Alabama and hinder the ability of new students coming into the state to have a smooth transition to their new curriculum. [...]
"Folks see this as a state's rights issue," Wardynski said. "I see it as a kids' rights issue."
State school board members Mary Scott Hunter of Huntsville and Tracy Roberts of Mobile last week co-authored an editorial supporting the Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards, saying that a return to previous standards would send the wrong message to the rest of the nation and would frustrate teachers who have been working hard to teach the new standards.
So, it isn't enough to strip services away from the poor, it isn't enough to put women at risk, now they want to ensure that our children get an even worse education?
Amendment 4 is the latest really awful choice inflicted on Alabama voters by our legislature. Do we keep the (no longer enforced) segregationist language in our constitution, or do we get rid of the right to a public education?
What imperils Alabama’s future is not language. It is chronic under-funding of public schools. It is an increasingly large pool of indigent students, an unprepared labor force unable to compete successfully in a global economy, a frightful high school drop-out rate, high school students not prepared for college and many of our brightest college graduates who leave Alabama for better careers elsewhere as soon as they graduate.
After often switching sides during the past six months, I finally decided to vote against Amendment 4, though I agree with its intent. I vote “no” because we need to have a serious conversation about the pernicious policies of our racial past, not about its hateful language.
Flynt also has an interesting comment for the amendment's author, Sen. Arthur Orr (R, Decatur) who has made much of the "offensive" nature of the language he now wants to remove from the Alabama constitution:
But I do find it curious that Orr only finds the language offensive, not the racist policies which gave rise to the language. Furthermore, I find it amazing that he has endorsed Roy Moore as Supreme Court chief justice, the very Republican who mobilized a coalition that defeated the last attempt to remove the same racist language.
Alabama Arise, an extremely effective progressive organization and long-time supporter of constitutional reform, is now advising Alabama voters to reject Amendment 4 because the current amendment retains troublesome wording regarding public education. Specifically, it says "nothing in this Constitution shall be construed as creating or recognizing any right to education or training at public expense."
This is via email from Arise:
At first Alabama Arise supported Amendment 4 with reservations. Of course we agree that the racist provisions should be removed from the state constitution, but we were disappointed that the amendment does not restore the state's responsibility to provide public education to all students, as the original 1901 Constitution did. Alabama voters rescinded that right with passage of Amendment 111 during the segregation era.
In legislative floor debate last spring, the Black Caucus fought to restore the education right to the amendment. When that effort failed and the amendment was scheduled for the November ballot, we joined other groups who planned to support the imperfect Amendment 4. Our reasoning: It would not be good for Alabama's reputation if we reject an amendment to remove racist language, as we did in 2004.
Over the last week, we became wary of this sentence in Amendment 4: “Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed as creating or recognizing any right to education or training at public expense. . . .” It’s a sentence from Amendment 111, and some say it wouldn’t have any practical effect. After lengthy discussion of the pros and cons, Alabama Arise has decided it’s not wise for voters to approve an amendment that re-states a provision that was intended to protect racial segregation of schools.
Alabama Arise now recommends a “No” vote on Amendment 4.
This is a good call. Yes, the racist language needs to go; it undoubtedly does hurt Alabama's image and recruitment efforts, but consider how hard it will be to recruit new industry to Alabama if the state declares it will no longer provide public education to all children -- and there are still people in this state who believe that is a good idea. Some of them may even be serving in our legislature.
(Have some controversy with your Monday morning coffee ... - promoted by mooncat)
It occurs to me that the states that have the highest per capita churches seem to be the least interested in education. Like Alabama ranking among the top for cuts in education. I don’t see these things as being exclusive. I see that taking a poor group of people and asking them to give 10% of their income to the church leaves them with less to spend on their educations. After all who needs education that teaches children to think? Having a well-educated group graduating school every year would be detrimental to the Christian way of life.
Christianity needs people to remain uneducated. It is necessary for the survival of the church. The largest growing group in the world is one of nonbelief. Having said that and understanding that education and rationally thinking things through are among the leading reasons given for leaving the religions of our ancestors. Churches don’t want children to receive the education that allows them to think rationally.
This is why we strongly oppose religion in schools. This is why we feel that all religion should be removed from politics. If you want to pray to your imaginary friend at home… Then do it. Don’t sit back and let the RNC sing amazing grace, or the DNC to use the word God in their motto without speaking up. Jefferson started building a wall of separation. It is now our turn to place a brick in that wall.
This nation was established as a secular nation. That is not up for debate. The Constitution of The United States made no mention of God and it made only one mention of religion. “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” That is it. No other mentions of religion. So why so many people are convinced that the United States was built on Christianity puzzles me? Atheists make up 16% of the American population. To give you an idea the Jewish population is only 2 to 3% depending on the poll you look at. So why do we sit back while Christians pawn off their religion on the masses?
We must fight to keep these religions out of our “secular nation” and push for more education. This is not the fight of all Atheists. It is the fight of all Americans, or at least it should be.
I leave you with some words from Thomas Jefferson & Christopher Hitchens:
" ... no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."--Thomas Jefferson
"Jefferson build up that wall"--Christopher Hitchens
"It's a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach.
...
"And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It's just in them to do. It's the ability that God give 'em. And there are also some teachers, it wouldn't matter how much you would pay them, they would still perform to the same capacity.
"If you don't keep that in balance, you're going to attract people who are not called, who don't need to be teaching our children. So, everything has a balance."
After adjusting for inflation, Alabama will be spending $1318 less per pupil in FY2013 (which begins in a few weeks) than we spent in FY2008. That's quite a cut, yet the job of educating Alabama's children is no smaller than it was 5 years ago.
We're number one, but it's nothing to be proud of, no matter what Senator Shadrack's convoluted biblical interpretation tells him. Alabama's budget can't be balanced through continued shortsighted and counterproductive cuts to education. It's a path to increased poverty, not prosperity.
A better educated workforce is key to a more prosperous Alabama. These cuts have got to stop. Education and teachers are not the enemy, folks.
Where do I start? I will say that Birmingham school district is royally fucked if this isn't solved very soon. In my opinion, they seem to have such a dilemma that most urban school districts these days possess. That problem is fiefdom mentality when it should not even be this way. (Preference, what I am about to say is the honest yet objective truth). When it comes to the Birmingham school district, the whites that mostly now live in the suburbs such as the municipalities Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Gardendale, Fultondale, Clay, and Trussville or incorporated areas like McCalla and Grayson Valley, or western Saint Clair and northern Shelby counties were the ones that screwed up the school district because they didn't want their children to attend schools with blacks back in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, but it was the mismanagement of the majority black and AEA (Alabama Education Association) led administrators that has led to the school district's problems since the 1990s. This is nothing new because school districts in New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, Washington DC, and many others across the South has this problem as well.
Well, the good news is that #45 is a better rank than the state had last year. The bad news? Child poverty is growing worse in the state, with more than a quarter of Alabama children growing up poor.
Remember when our wise and compassionate Gov. Dr. Robert Bentley said this, back when he was just a legislator?
I understand and I'm fully sympathetic with people who are poor, they don't have enough money to buy food. But, you know, there—there are avenues through which if they really are poor that they can get some help. They may not be poor in spirit, they may just be poor in not being able to buy all the conveniences that you think they should have. That doesn't mean they're not happy. You can be happy and be poor.
Well, if poverty makes people happy, there's a capacity crowd rocking out in Alabama's poorhouse. We made the top 10 (again!) in income inequality:
Alabama has the sixth-worst income inequality in the nation. Median income in 2010 has increased from $39,980 in 2009, when it was the third lowest in the country. However, the poverty rate also has increased from 2009’s level of 17.5% to become the second highest in the country, at 18.1%. Some 14.3% of the state’s residents rely on food stamps, the eleventh-highest percentage in the country.
Alabama's 274,000 poor children are especially happy. They must be laughing at how little they have -- both in terms of 'conveniences' andof opportunity to better themselves.
Alabama has a poverty problem. Too many people in this state can't make ends meet. That has negative life consequences not just in terms of economic security, but in terms of health, life expectancy, educational achievement for children and -- yes -- prison population. Poverty sucks the opportunity out of lives; it's a tremendous source of suffering and a waste of human potential.
People like Robert Bentley, who won't admit that poverty is a problem, can't be trusted to do the difficult work of expanding economic opportunity so people can lift themselves out of poverty. Those who are content with the current situation -- the second highest(!!) level of poverty in the nation -- will never change it.
Here's some advice for Gov. Dr. Bentley:
Step one is to admit you have a poverty problem. If you skip step one, Alabama's poor are never going anywhere.
Alabama's high school graduation dropped 15% this year, to 72%. This according to a new formula that state officials think is more accurate. Several high schools in Alabama have graduation rates of less than 50%, which is totally unacceptable.
Bessemer Opinions has an excellent post that cites studies about why kids drop out - and how to keep them in school. These in particular caught my eye:
The relationship between students and teachers is the most important factor in student’s school experience, whether positive or negative.
The disruptiveness of peers in school causes students to feel distracted and unsafe, leading to increased chance of dropping out. (Remember my experience trying to address bullying in Bessemer? Still haven't heard back.) [...]
Foster academics. 70% of dropouts said that “increasing supervision in school” and 62% said “more classroom discipline” was necessary to ensure success. 57% said that their schools “did not do enough” to help student’s feel safe from violence. (This is where stricter anti-harassment policies would help.)
Promote close relationships with adults. Only 41% of dropouts reported having someone to talk to about personal problems. 62% said they would like to see schools do more to help students with problems outside of class. Only 47% said the schools even bothered to contact them after they dropped out.
Many students are dealing with a full plate of problems - poverty, homelessness, unstable family situations - that schools can't fix, but there is one big issue that schools can address: relationships. Between students and between students & teachers.
In related research, Cornell and others found that schools with more reported bullying had higher dropout rates. They also categorized discipline approaches in Virginia high schools according to four styles of parenting: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and indifferent.
The schools that used the “authoritative” model — firm and demanding in discipline, but warm and supportive toward students — had the least reported bullying and teacher victimization.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals recognizes not just the psychological toll of bullying, but also the financial impact on schools:
A 2009 study noted that 8% of middle school students reported skipping school at least once due to fear of bullying; 25% reported skipping class or going home “sick” to avoid encountering a bully (Perkins, Perkins, and Craig, 2009).
There is a financial consequence associated with absenteeism. One way to calculate this loss is to look at truancy rates. [...] Truancies can then be multiplied by a school’s reimbursement rate [in most states, this is defined as the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) rate] to compute the average financial loss due to truancy.
For example, if a school has 1,000 students and a truancy rate of 6% (the national average), 60 students will be truant at least 9 times per year, resulting in 540 days of lost ADA funding. The average ADA rate is $40/day. When you multiply that rate by the 540 missed days, it’s staggering to see that our sample high school would lose $21,600 per year due to truancy.
Of course, not every high school drop out leaves because of bullying. There are as many reasons for leaving as their are drop outs.
But this is an issue where schools have looked the other way for far too long. They've tolerated bullying as a "kids will be kids" affair - and when it's GBLT kids being bullied, the administration often gives tacit approval.
Stopping this behavior won't solve the drop out problem, but every little bit helps. And for some students, the change will make all the difference in the world.
On a more positive note, let me brag that our Young Cone graduated from high school last week with honors - in the top 5% of her class!
How would the cafeteria workers who gave this 6 or 7 year old kid crackers and water instead of a meal want their own child to be treated in the same circumstances? Or the teachers who surely saw what was happening?
Probably the same way kids were treated in my (extremely small town) first grade class. If one of us forgot or lost our lunch money, the teacher told us to bring it tomorrow ... and we got lunch, same as everybody else. My second and third grade teachers would do the same thing. Sometimes they actually paid for the lunches when kids just couldn't come up with the money.
My mother saw this story on the news and is more exercised about it than I've seen her in a long time. "If that was my kid, or my grandkid," she said, "I'd be on that school like a duck on a June bug. There's no excuse for treating a little first grader that way."
That pretty much says it all. The adults at Mountain Gap Elementary did not do right by this child.
Anybody over 15 or so knows the right way to treat other people. Sometimes having a lot of rules gives us a convenient excuse for ignoring the right thing to do. We need to check our complicated rules against the one most of us learned along about first grade -- the Golden Rule -- and follow that one.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
What do you get when you cross a bunch of Grover Norquist "no tax" acolytes with a group of political cowards? The Alabama GOP supermajority in the legislature. Unwilling to make any hard choices, they want voters to do it for them on Sept. 18 - in a $3.4 million special election.
What if voters say no and instead expect legislators to, say, do the job they were elected to do? Governor Bentley warns that the world supported by the General Fund budget might come to an end:
Bentley says he will have to cut the General Fund budget across the board if the voters turn down the constitutional amendment Sept. 18. This raises the specter of the state's releasing thousands of state inmates and laying waste to the Medicaid program and other vital services such as mental health and human resources.
And then they'll blame the voters. Or try.
But just imagine an alternate Alabama - one where we invest in our future through education and support our existing businesses instead of spending hundreds of millions to lure new industry. (We'll vote on doing more of that in November).
In that Alabama, we'd recognize the importance of education as a tool to keep kids out of prison. And that Alabama would save money. Instead of kicking the budget can down the road, we'd be packing our nest egg with educated workers who'd be paying taxes. That's a lot better for the budget than spending money to incarcerate them.
Alabama has a deep gap between what the state spends on its pre-K education and what it spends to incarcerate prisoners, today's report says. Alabama spent $17.6 million for pre-K education in 2011, and it spent $605 million to house, feed and guard its criminals.
States, on average, spend nine times more on corrections than on pre-K education, according to the "Pay Now or Pay Much More Later" report. Alabama, in contrast, spends 34 times more on corrections than it does on pre-K education.
"It's common sense," said Falls. "Kids that otherwise don't have a lot of resources and don't have access to preschool education are often the ones who end up, down the line, faced with crime. ... Regardless of your political philosophy, it's important to spend money on education."
That last comment bears repeating & should be tattooed on the forehead of every state legislator:
Regardless of your political philosophy, it's important to spend money on education."
It's not just good for the state, it makes financial sense as well. How is it that our "college-educated legislators" can't grasp this simple fact?
Governor Bentley didn't like the Beach Bums Bill because it substitutes the Legislature's judgment for that of local school officials when it comes to setting school start and end dates. When the bill reached his desk, Bentley offered an executive amendment that would allow local systems to opt out of the Legislature's requirement for a 12 week summer break, then sent it back to the Legislature ...
“I believe local school systems know what’s best for the students they serve, and I believe local school boards should be able to establish their own school calendars,” Bentley said. “If a local system determines that the new calendar guidelines are not in the best interest of local students, my amendment would give that system the ability to provide notice to the State Superintendent of Education and opt out of those guidelines.”
Did the State House reconsider their big government, nanny state ways and agree that local schools should be able to opt out if they choose? In a word: No.
The House doubled down on micromanaging local schools and voted to ignore Bentley's suggestionby an even larger majority than originally voted for this bill. This time it was 71 to 21 instead of 62 to 30.
The following Legislators changed their votes between April 12 and yesterday:
Representative
Party
Vote 4/12/12
Vote 5/8/12
District
Ball
R
N
Y
10
Black
D
Y
N
3
Boman
D
N
Y
16
Boothe
R
N
Y
89
Forte
D
P
N
84
Galliher
R
N
Y
30
Givan
D
N
Y
60
Grimsley
D
N
P
85
Hammon
R
P
Y
4
Harper
D
N
Y
61
Holmes
D
P
Y
78
Johnson (K)
R
P
Y
7
Johnson (W)
R
N
Y
22
Knight
D
Y
P
77
Lindsey
D
Y
P
39
Love
R
Y
P
74
McAdory
D
P
Y
56
McCampbell
D
Y
P
71
McClammy
D
A
Y
76
McCutcheon
R
N
Y
25
Mitchell
D
P
N
103
Newton (D)
D
P
Y
53
Oden
R
N
P
11
Patterson
R
P
Y
21
Poole
R
P
Y
63
Vance
R
N
P
80
Wallace
R
Y
P
42
Warren
D
Y
P
82
Williams (P)
R
N
Y
6
Wren
R
Y
P
75
I notice that quite a few Representatives from North Alabama (Ball, McCutcheon, Williams, Hammon, the Johnsons -- all Republicans) switched their votes from No to Yes or from Present to Yes. This looks like an "I voted against big government before I voted for it" moment for a number of folks who got elected by screaming for small government.
Our legislators are really getting down in the weeds micromanaging public schools. They just outlawed fall break and shortened the Christmas holiday -- in every school district in the state! This is on top of an earlier vote to lengthen the school day.
Who benefits when the Legislature meddles in local school choices? The tourism industry.
"The uniform school start date is not advanced by education advocates, but by the tourism and summer camp industries who wish to have school age workers available to staff restaurants and hotels until Labor Day," reads the AASB [Alabama Association of School Boards] position statement.
Parents are begging local school officials to save their kids' fall break. They should direct their pleas to the Legislature and the Governor, because folks in Montgomery can't let locals make important decisions like when school starts or whether kids get a fall break.
Who are these small government conservatives in the Alabama Legislature who voted to overrule local school boards and set the school calendar from Montgomery? See how the Alabama House and Senate voted on the Beach Bums Bill, HB360, below the fold.
Republican Sen. Trip Pittman of Daphne voted for the bill, but said the approval process won't work.
"You will never have a charter school under this bill," he said.
Are opponents of charter schools pleased by this "in name only" charter bill? Does AEA regard it as a victory to kill the idea but keep the name? Are proponents of charter schools taken in by the sleight of hand? Relieved to have established a beachhead and vowing to expand it next year? Who is happy with this bill?
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put out a column on Al.com Friday that concluded Governor Bentley is an 
Well, if poverty makes people happy, there's a capacity crowd rocking out in Alabama's poorhouse. We made the 
A Huntsville first-grader who didn't have his lunch money was given crackers and water
