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Alabama NewsAlabama Politics
AEA Sets Alabamaba Legislature's Priorities
By Gary Palmer
Posted on: February 24, 2005
Paul Hubbert may have given the people of Alabama the clearest evidence yet of what is wrong with state government …and he put it in writing.
Some, if not most of us, have had the mistaken notion that the top priority of state legislators is the interests of Alabama citizens. But Hubbert has dispelled that silly myth. In a recent letter that he sent to every state legislator, Hubbert made it clear that the top priority of every state legislator is the well-being of education employees and retirees.
And all this time we have been thinking that "we the people" elected our legislators and the governor to represent us, and that we could trust our elected officials to draft budgets that wisely and efficiently use the limited resources of this state within the framework of the proper role of government.
OK, I admit I am being highly cynical. But the fact that a union boss is dictating budget priorities to both the governor and the legislature should make everyone cynical and should go a long way toward helping us understand why our state is such a mess. Imagine trying to deal with the funding problems that Alabama faces when almost 90 percent of our revenue is earmarked for one entity and that entity is controlled by a union that has far too many of the Alabama legislators in its back pocket.
In his letter, Hubbert outlined for the state legislators "his" budget for spending the $554 increase in education funds for the next fiscal year. Counting the pay raise and benefits costs, he wants the state legislature to spend $323 million just on education employees and retirees and hold another $62 million in reserve for the 2007 budget just in case education revenues don't grow enough. Add to that what Hubbert's budget gives to higher education, out of over half a billion dollars in additional education revenue only $31 million will go toward meeting the educational needs of Alabama's school children.
Most of us would not have a problem paying teachers more, in fact, many of them deserve much more than they are making. But too many Alabama classrooms are being filled with incompetent teachers and staff that will get the same pay raise as the excellent teachers and staff. This bears repeating - bad teachers and incompetent staff will get the same raise as the excellent teachers and excellent staff.
Hubbert has been a staunch opponent of efforts to base the pay of teachers on the competency of each teacher. Keep in mind that for years Hubbert opposed real teacher testing that would help ensure that a quality teacher is in every classroom. Hubbert has also been instrumental in getting laws passed that make it so difficult and expensive to remove an incompetent teacher that many schools simply move them into administrative positions in order to get them out of the classroom. And these education employees will get a raise too.
In addition, for years Hubbert has opposed allowing local school districts the ability to contract out non-academic services that would save $60 to $80 million per year that could be used to pay good teachers more and to pay for essential programs. That is because his priority is not the improvement of education in Alabama, but the expansion and protection of his union.
Just a year and a half ago, Hubbert was campaigning for a $1.2 billion tax increase claiming that if the taxpayers did not approve it, teachers would leave the state, schools would close, and children would suffer. But I don't recall that anyone made a pay raise for education employees and education retirees a major point in their arguments for supporting that massive tax increase. What I recall is a major emphasis on funding essential programs such as the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative that actually have potential to improve education outcomes for Alabama schools.
Have the legislators' priorities changed, or have our students' abilities in reading and mathematics improved so much that we no longer need the Reading and Math Initiatives? Or was all that talk of funding these programs just the usual baloney from Montgomery? Given that a recent report shows that Alabama's graduation rate is 47th in nation, I think it is very evident that these programs are still needed. Is spending almost $200 million on pay raises for education employees and retirees more important than making sure poor children have access to health care by using some of the money to help fund Medicaid? Aren't many of these children sitting in Alabama classrooms?
Perhaps the taxpayers and parents of Alabama's school children should ask their state legislators to answer these questions. And they should ask their state legislators one more…Are our children your top priority or is your top priority whatever union boss Paul Hubbert says it is?
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