Educators defeat massive charter expansion bill*

Ah, Alabama.* You give us hope. If only you were nearer, so we might see more easily the lessons you offer.

Word from Montgomery this week informs us that the Alabama Senate has defied its more radical ideologues -- the far right-wingers demanding an immediate dismantling of public education in that state -- and replaced a massive expansion of Alabama charter school statutes with a bill restricting the impact area and attaching a more rigorous approval process.

And how much sadder it leaves us feeling, that in the same week that educators and public schoolchildren win in Alabama, educators and public schoolchildren lose here in South Carolina.

The Press-Register reports it:

The Alabama Senate passed a version of the Education Options Act Wednesday night, but the proposal was so watered down that even supporters doubted whether a charter school could ever be created under the bill, should it become law.

The latest incarnation of Senate Bill 513, sponsored by Pike Road Republican Sen. Dick Brewbaker, added several strict limitations to how and where charters could be created in Alabama.

A charter school could only be approved in the counties that contain Alabama’s four biggest cities: Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsville, Brewbaker said. The bill previously required that no more than 20 charters could be created statewide, and only as replacements of the state’s lowest-performing schools. Wednesday’s version kept those provisions.

Perhaps most significantly, the new version of the bill would require the local school district’s superintendent — and every state lawmaker representing the area — to approve a charter school before it could be created, according to Brewbaker. They could not be overruled.

That would include lawmakers like Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham.

"Just leave us alone," Smitherman said on the Senate floor. "I don’t want ‘em (charter schools). My citizens don’t want 'em. ... I am a full believer in public schools."

Say that man's name again: Senator Rodger Smitherman!

And listen to his words once more: "Just leave us alone," Smitherman said on the Senate floor. "I don’t want ‘em (charter schools). My citizens don’t want 'em. ... I am a full believer in public schools."

Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna.

Senator Smitherman, tribune of the people, restorer of faith in the democratic process.

But the howling has begun, and it rolls around the halls of the Capitol still.

"There ain’t no way you’ll ever have a charter school in this bill," Sen. Trip Pittman, a Montrose Republican who voted for the legislation, told reporters with a laugh, when asked about the bill’s new restrictions.

Brewbaker disagreed, saying that if their district superintendent strongly supports a charter proposal, he thinks lawmakers will go along.

He added that another change to the bill requires the state superintendent to take over schools that are consistently low-performing. If lawmakers refuse a charter, they’ll likely see such a state takeover, Brewbaker said.

"The same schools have been failing students year after year, and it just goes on like that," Brewbaker said in an interview. "If this becomes law, a year after that day, at least one thing will change, and that will be who’s making the decisions at those low-performing schools, and that’s important."

The bill passed the Senate 23-12, on a largely party-line vote, with Republicans voting for it and Democrats against.

A House version of the legislation has yet to pass that chamber, and Brewbaker anticipated that House lawmakers would focus on his version, now that it’s through the Senate.

The first incarnation of the Education Options Act mandated that only non-profit organizations could run charter schools in Alabama. Brewbaker went further in the latest version, barring non-profits with poor performance records from running Alabama charters. Additionally, he said that the new bill would only allow non-profits to sub-contract work to for-profit companies if traditional schools in Alabama use for-profit companies for similar work.

In addition to its charter and state-takeover provisions, the bill also allows local school districts statewide to apply for waivers that would let them bypass state regulations.

Alabama Education Association head Henry Mabry, once a staunch opponent of the bill, said he was pleased with the changes Brewbaker made.

"The way it came out of the Senate is a marked improvement of the way it was introduced," Mabry said. "It’s certainly something that we could live with."

In fact, it's Mabry, the teacher leader, who is being given credit by the Alabama Political Reporter, a publication similar to Andy Brack's Statehouse Report here.

One of the big ticket items on the GOP list of “must pass bills” was charter schools. What posted out of the senate last night resembled a charter school bill in much the same way a skunk resembles a cat. Both are furry but most people wouldn’t let a skunk sit in their lap.

As an adult -- and not a politician -- when you are wrong you should admit it.

I thought and wrote that the AEA would lose the charter school fight. I thought AEA head Henry Mabry could not pull off the coup de grâce of killing charter schools with a GOP super majority in control. I was wrong, Mr. Mabry, I apologize. You won, plain and simple.
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If there was any doubt that the AEA is still the most powerful political organization in Alabama last night’s vote in the Senate should remove all doubt.

Now, let me make this clear, I am not opposed to the AEA. I understand its purpose, I just wish it were a teacher’s union and not a labor union. I mean really, do we need to promise bus drivers tenure and a lifetime pension? I think not. Teachers are our best hope for a better tomorrow for Alabama’s children. I wish we could pay teacher 200k a year like we pay some government officials. If I were not a journalist I would be a teacher, in my later years I would like to teach “real journalism” something of a dying profession.

With this bill we can only pray that it will be a start toward pulling a few of our children out of failing schools. I have little hope. I really care about education. My teachers and professors helped shape the man I am today (some may think they didn’t do a very good job), but with all my failings I work hard to do my job to educate people about Alabama politics.
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I commend Senator Brewbaker for getting this bill through the Senate, you did the best you could under tremendous opposition and wavering from within your own party.

But the real winner last night was Henry Mabry. He fought with guts and conviction, working the floor and making the rounds.

Congratulations from a humble journalist.

So let's ponder this question: What do educators in Alabama know, that educators in South Carolina do not?

I have to wonder: Does unity of purpose, and unity of action, have something to do with their victory?

Alabama's McGill doubles down, questions critics' faith

Last week, I brought to your attention the lunatic remarks of one Shadrack McGill, a first-term legislator in Alabama who defended pay increases for legislators like himself but opposed pay increases for public school teachers.

He said paying lawmakers more protected them from lobbyists' temptations. He said paying teachers more would violate Biblical principles, but he didn't cite any specific Scripture.

(I assure you, the photograph at the right is an accurate portrayal of young McGill; nothing has been done to cause him to look pointy and narrow, the photograph appears precisely as it was found at the website of WAAY-TV.)

Well, it appears that what odd lawmakers in Alabama say sometimes makes it to the attention of the national media. McGill's story did and, just as stars once fell on Alabama, a rain of hellfire has fallen on McGill's tiny little corner of the state.

Here's the news from the coincidentally-named Fort Payne:

Ft. Payne, AL - Alabama State Senator Shadrack McGill is in the national spotlight this week after making some controversial comments about teachers at a function in Ft. Payne last week.

According to the Ft. Payne Times-Journal, the first term Republican from Jackson County was asked a question about a recent salary hike for lawmakers, and how it might relate to increasing teacher salaries. According to the Times-Journal, McGill argued that paying lawmakers more made the less likely to accept bribes, but then turned around and said increasing teacher salaries would attract undesirable candidates to the profession. "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." McGill is quoted as saying by the paper.

Mind you, McGill was speaking to a friendly crowd; this was no heated campaign debate. He was under no pressure to think quickly. He had plenty of time to consider a response before speaking.

And it appears that McGill is known for this sort of behavior.

In addition, McGill has been taking heat for comments he made in a WAAY 31 FirstNews exclusive story earlier this week about the Jackson County "Bible Man". In an interview with WAAY 31's Ellis Eskew, Senator McGill said "I don't believe you keep God out of state. Church represents the body of Christ, Christ being the head of that body. No, I don't believe in that separation,"

McGill was raked over the coals by commenters here on waaytv.com, and on the nation-wide political sites as well. On Thursday, McGill sat down with WAAY 31 to clarify his remarks, and stand by them as well.

"Some things got taken out of context. I'm not hearing any negative feedback out of those who were there." McGill told us Thursday afternoon.

McGill says that his remarks at the prayer breakfast made sense to those in attendance, but came out wrong when printed in the paper. "The point that I was trying to make in the speech is simply that .. Things ought to be in balance. I believe God made everything to be in balance. He weighed the Earth and the valley and the mountains and the hills on a scale to keep them in balance because he knew he was going to be spinning it real fast, so that's the jist of it."

Now, I have studied Genesis and the subsequent works of the testaments -- o, how I've studied them -- and I'm utterly convinced that McGill's edition bears no resemblance to any I've seen. He clearly refers to Isaiah's concept of Jehovah measuring creation. But who in the name of holiness has read that the Almighty "knew he was going to be spinning it real fast"?

'Tis McGill who is spinning it real fast, I conclude.

Back to the point -- which is, for the casual reader, that individuals so tenuously bonded to reality ought not wield even a fraction of Constitutional power over the affairs of state:

Still, the comments caught some off-guard. Many commenters online asked if McGill thought he deserved more money, or if there was some irony to saying that paying teachers more will cause problems, but paying legisators more won't. McGill doesn't see it that way.

"Legislators pay ought to be in balance. They don't need to make too much, they don't need to make too little, both lead to corruption. Likewise, I think with teachers salaries, things need to be balanced on their education, based on the performance, class size, etc.. Work load. But by no means was I insinuating that a teacher should make less."

McGill didn't "insinuate" that teachers should earn less, he said so plainly and directly. To insinuate means to suggest obliquely without saying a thing in a straightforward fashion.

Nor did he insinuate that Alabama's public employees and retirees shouldn't be concerned with their retirement benefits. He said plainly that he expects the world to end before such benefits would be paid out to those who have earned them:

McGill was asked repeatedly about changes to the Retirement System of Alabama. Nearly two and a half hours into the breakfast a man asked McGill another retirement question. McGill replied, "Well, you know what? I think we're going to get raptured out of here before it comes that time for you anyway."

McGill said what he meant to say, which reflects what he believes.

McGill says he's learned from his first major brush with controversy, and he now has a better understanding of why politicians say the things the say. "I have learned from the situation, and I understand why politicians become politicans and how they answer questions. It's hard to be human and answer questions straightforward and truthful with someone because they have a tendency to want to turn that into a dagger and stab you with it. Hence, politicans sidestepping direct questions." McGill said with a smile.

Thus, a young man with political ambition learns to hide his true thinking from the public and to "spin" in order to keep a grip on the reins of power -- AND to discount the rational thinking of others, in one fell swoop:

"I'd say I've had more positive feedback than I've had negative, but it's amazing that those would claim to be Christians would give me negative feedback in regards to that, so but never the less, it's where I stand."

So Christians who recognize the fatuousness of his commentary are not quite fully Christian?

Bless his heart.

Y'all make sure one another is registered to vote over there, now, and has a way to the polls this year. We'll be praying for you.

Alabama Sen. Shadrack McGill: Bible justifies poor teacher pay

Thank God for Alabama Senator Shadrack McGill, who diverts attention from the foolishness of South Carolina's own legislators, if only for a moment.

McGill -- hopefully no relation to the McGill families of our own state -- illustrates the wisdom that elections have consequences. When we elect people who have no business holding Constitutional authority in their hands, this is what we get.

State Sen. Shadrack McGill defended a pay raise his predecessors in the Legislature passed, but said doubling teacher pay could lead to less-qualified educators.
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McGill, R-Woodville, said a 62 percent pay raise in 2007 - passed first by a controversial voice vote and later in an override of a veto by then-Gov. Bob Riley - better rewards lawmakers and makes them less susceptible to being swayed by lobbyists.

To be clear, this is a real state legislator in Alabama who defended a pay raise to Alabama's state legislators, but who has now said that paying teachers a higher salary violates Biblical principles.

Come, and listen closely to this man. What he has said in Alabama is sure to be said in South Carolina, probably pretty soon.

Lawmakers entered the 2007 legislative session making $30,710 a year, a rate that had not been changed in 16 years. The raise increased it to $49,500 annually.

"That played into the corruption, guys, big time," he said. "You had your higher-ranking legislators that were connected with the lobbyists making up in the millions of dollars. They weren't worried about that $30,000 paid salary they were getting," McGill said, adding that lawmakers have to pay for their expenses out of pocket.

McGill said that by paying legislators more, they're less susceptible to taking bribes.

"He needs to make enough that he can say no, in regards to temptation. ... Teachers need to make the money that they need to make. There needs to be a balance there. If you double what you're paying education, you know what's going to happen? I've heard the comment many times, ‘Well, the quality of education's going to go up.' That's never proven to happen, guys.

"It's a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach.

Notice that he doesn't say that raising legislative salaries will attract people who aren't "called" to serve in elective office. He reserves this imaginary violation of Biblical principle for teachers, and teachers alone.

And, if anyone is familiar with Scripture that describes this principle, please cite it for me below.

"To go in and raise someone's child for eight hours a day, or many people's children for eight hours a day, requires a calling. It better be a calling in your life. I know I wouldn't want to do it, OK?

How about this: To "go in" and wield Constitutional authority to raise necessary revenues to fully fund a state's essential obligations and institutions requires intelligence, integrity, discernment and wisdom -- some of the same qualities we hope to find in our education professionals. People who don't have these basic qualities ought not seek to teach OR to serve in public office.

"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.

Perhaps it's likely that some Alabama lawmakers might perform their duties with integrity and honesty, regardless of the degrading influence of evil lobbyists, without a substantially higher salary, simply because they are people of principle. Since Alabama's lawmakers found it necessary to raise their own salaries -- in an attempt to ward off those bad influences -- maybe they didn't feel strong enough about their principles to perform to standard.

"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."

Quite right, just as the promise of power attracts people into public service who aren't equipped and qualified, and who don't need to be serving in public office and holding Constitutional authority.

It IS a balance: There are bright lawmakers, and there are dim lawmakers. Sometimes the bright ones hold a legislative majority, and sometimes the dim ones do. Here's hoping the pendulum swings quickly, before real and lasting damage can be done.