AEA’s future looks a lot like its past, minus the power and influence (opinion)

After spending millions of dollars to influence Alabama’s Republican legislative primaries, and in spite of the state’s increasingly conservative electorate, it appears that the Alabama Education Association’s (AEA) present — and likely future, as well — will continue to be in the hands of Democrats.

First, here’s what we know for certain:

On Monday, the eight Democrats remaining in the 35-member Alabama Senate elected four-term senator Quinton Ross of Montgomery to the position of Minority Leader.

Ross, who was first elected in 1998, has long been a close ally of the AEA. Perhaps most notably, he got into a shouting match with Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (video below) on the Senate floor during debate over the Alabama Accountability Act, a school choice bill that the AEA vehemently opposed.

(More after the video)

Ross was at one point a principal at BTW Magnet School in Montgomery and worked in Alabama’s two-year college system as director of adult education at Trenholm State Community College. But when Republicans took the majority in the Alabama House and Senate in 2010, one of the first laws they passed prohibited legislators from holding two state jobs, a practice commonly referred to as “double dipping.” The law finally went into effect Nov. 5 of this year, the day after the General Election. So Ross and other legislators who held two state jobs had to choose which paycheck they wanted to keep.

Ross chose his legislative job, but was quickly able to land a position with his allies at the teachers union. He is currently employed as a consultant for the AEA. It could be argued that taxpayer dollars are continuing to flow to Ross — since taxpayers pay education employees and their dues are paying Ross — but it does not appear to violate the law.

With an AEA employee heading the Democratic minority in the Senate, it is unlikely they will be making any attempts to build bridges to the Republican supermajority any time in the near future. But if recent comments from GOP leadership are any indication, they’re probably not interested anyway.

“The AEA’s days are done,” Sen. Marsh said on election night. “We want to work with the education community to establish good education policies. We’re committed to that. We want to make sure our teachers are paid well. We want to make sure they have great benefits. But we can do all of that without the AEA union. Their mentality is ‘attack, attack, attack.’ I want to work with our state’s teachers directly, not with the AEA.”

Now, here’s some speculation:

After spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million of teachers’ dues on a disastrous election strategy, most people assumed AEA head Henry Mabry was on the way out. How could he not be? But we are now coming up on a month since election day and he still has a job.

There could be several reasons for that, none of which include anyone actually believing he’s done well since taking over for the late Paul Hubbert, who turned the organization into the most powerful force in Alabama politics over his four decades of leadership.

Democrat Roger Bedford, who had served in the Alabama Senate since 1982, was finally beaten this year by Republican Dr. Larry Stutts by just 66 votes. The race was so close that it triggered an automatic recount that finally concluded this week with Bedford conceding defeat.

As it became apparent that Bedford might be going down on election day, speculation immediately began to spread that he would be in the running to succeed Mabry at the top of AEA. He’s long been considered one of the savviest operators in the Senate and in spite of their constant disagreements on policy, he’s managed to maintain a solid working relationship with Republicans. With Bedford’s tenure in the senate finally officially over, will the AEA now turn to him to lead the organization forward?

And what about Ross? Is the decision to bring him in as a consultant a concrete step toward grooming him for a more elevated position within the organization?

The AEA’s initial founding took place when the traditionally white teachers organization under Hubbert joined forces with the traditionally black teachers organization under Joe Reed. Could Bedford and Ross be the AEA’s new Hubbert and Reed?

Regardless of how it plays out, it has become clear that the AEA has no plans to shift its overall direction, even with a leadership change. That means it won’t be addressing the fundamental problem — its liberal agenda is out of step with the state, and increasingly out of step with its members.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims