Education Issues facing Alabama

I believe one of the most important issues facing education in Alabama is defeating the adoption of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), which some accurately call "Obama's federal takeover of public education." This stealth takeover has proceeded very quickly and quietly, while the public has been kept in the dark. Alabama's State School Board will vote on this issue on November 18, 2010. At this time, nearly 40 states and Washington, DC have voted for the initiative. National or federal standards for education have always been considered (even by those pushing the current education law, No Child Left Behind) unconstitutional and off-limits for federal control. Unlike the attempt to federalize standards by Hillary Clinton and Marc Tucker (who is also involved in the CCSSI), this attempt was accomplished via a contest for grant money among the states, called "Race to the Top."To receive maximum points, states had to include in their grant applications evidence of their support for "Common Core Standards," and other criteria such as tying teacher tenure and pay to results on student assessments. Many states voted for the new math and English language arts standards before the final copies of the standards were even available. Federal assessments, currently being written by two consortia of states, will also be mandatory for participants of the CCSSI even though they are likely not to be traditional tests but assessments fashioned in the manner of the controversial "outcome based education" model of the Clinton era.

Another issue, especially critical for our two year colleges, is having a board that will stay committed to the policy changes for reform passed since former Chancellor Roy Johnson was fired. These include bans on nepotism, double-dipping, and cronyism. There are still some special interest groups who want to drop these bans. Instead, we need to pass similar bans to include employees of the k-12 systems. The vast majority of education employees are honest and appreciate these changes which have improved working conditions and increased public confidence in our colleges.

To achieve real accountability and transparency, Alabama's legislature must pass a ban on PAC (political action committee) money being transferred from one PAC to another, known as "churning."

To help reduce the recurring problems Alabama has faced with proration, the legislature must institute a new budgeting process, such as a rolling budget or basing the proposed budget on prior year's revenue.

It's also critical that the legislature pass legislation to replace the "Fair Dismissal Law," which was passed a few years ago. It has turned out to be a disaster and has resulted in such unintended and ridiculous consequences as allowing teachers to draw checks while they are in prison.

As a state school board member, I pledge to work to encourage the passage of legislation to implement the above policy changes. I also pledge to continue to strive for rigorous standards, stronger curriculum and textbooks, better teacher preparation programs, stronger and more consistent classroom discipline, and a fair and rigorous assessment system to improve achievement of our elementary and secondary school students.

And last but not least, I pledge to continue not to take contributions from special interest groups such as vendors or unions.

Betty Peters

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