| A Historic Day in Alabama |
House and Senate Republicans threw down the gauntlet Thursday evening and gave Alabamians the education reform they’ve been seeking for decades. Passage of the Accountability Act of 2013 finally gives hope to families with children in chronically failing schools, and signifies a power shift that only happens once every few decades.
The education employees union (AEA) and their Democrat allies in the legislature have unapologetically fought for over 40 years to maintain the status quo in education, causing Alabamians to live with one of the country’s poorest education systems. By using their seemingly limitless resources to launch massive missinformation campaigns, the AEA even stopped initial Republican attempts at reform after they took over the legislature in 2010. But yesterday evening, conservatives finally won fair and square.
“This will probably be the finest day of most of our legislative careers,” one longtime Republican Senator told Yellowhammer after the vote. “We’ll look back decades from now and remember the day education policy in Alabama finally became about what’s best for the children.”
How it all came to be will live forever in the annals of Alabama political legend.
| The Accountability Act of 2013 |
The Local Control School Flexibility Act began as a bill to give local school systems flexibility in their programs and budgets. Conservatives touted the bill as a more localized approach to education. Not surprisingly, the AEA propaganda machine went into overdrive and scared teachers into believing the bill would end tenure and cut teacher pay, among other falsehoods.
Two weeks ago the School Flex Act overwhelmingly passed out of the House. However, when it was passed by the Senate in the early afternoon yesterday, the AEA had successfully added an amendment to the bill. At that point the bill was returned to the House where they could decide whether to concur with the bill as amended, or non-concur and send the bill to a conference committee which would consist of three House members and three Senate members tasked with reaching a compromise. The House chose to non-concur and a conference committee was assembled consisting of four Republicans (Senators Marsh & Dial and Representatives Fincher & Love) and two Democrats (Senator Ross and Representative Hall).
The Senate recessed for about an hour, and when Republicans finally entered the conference committee room, they dropped a bomb on the Democrats.
The compromise bill would not only allow the flexibility measures from the original School Flex Act, it would also include tax credits for families with children in a chronically failing school to attend a private or non-failing public school, and a tax credit for individuals and businesses who donate to a nonprofit that provides scholarships for students to attend a private school or non-failing public school.
Democrats suddenly realized they were facing lasting education reform, the likes of which the state of Alabama had never seen.
Chaos ensued.
Over the next couple of hours, the bill now known as The Accountability Act of 2013 passed out of the conference committee (4-2), then the House (51-26), and then the Senate (22-11). All done completely within the rules of the legislature, but in a way that no one — even insiders who’ve been around the state house for a half century — had ever witnessed. Teachers union lobbyists were left standing in the Senate lobby literally in tears as they realized their stranglehold on public education was starting to slip away. Union boss Henry Mabry cursed loudly as Republican Senators passed by.
When Republicans first took over the legislature in 2010, they held a conference committee and none of them even knew what to do because they’d never been in one. In spite of the rules, Democrats rarely even held them during the time they were in the majority. One longtime State House insider summed it up this morning when he noted, “For all that’s already been said about how this played out, no one can say they didn’t follow the rules and procedures.”
Senator Del Marsh, with the cooperation of House Speaker Mike Hubbard, Governor Bentley and a small group of legislators and staffers, masterminded and executed one of the most dramatic political maneuvers in State House history.
As the long day came to a close, conservatives from all over the state were trumpeting the victory. Governor Bentley called it the “most significant piece of legislation that has been passed in Alabama in years,” and promised to sign the bill early next week. ALGOP Chairman Bill Armistead called it “monumental,” and the Alabama Policy Institute tweeted that “kids in failing schools will have real education options thanks to the courage of Alabama’s legislature.”
It’s not often that you get to witness something truly historic. But anyone fortunate enough to be at 11 South Union Street in Montgomery yesterday did exactly that.
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