Anniston Star - Speak Out Education under attack

Anniston Star - Speak Out Education under attack:

Speak Out: Education under attack

Mar 28, 2014 | 1760 views | 0  | 25  |  | 

As a retired educator with 35 years of teaching experience, I see the time has come to save our children’s education from an attack by the Alabama Republican House and Senate. These new-style Republicans are not our parents’ (or our) Republican representatives and senators. The aim is the control of public education (and public education funds) and the shifting of those funds to their specialized ends.

These “reformers” have an agenda much like Michelle Rhee’s failed takeover of the D.C. school system. One has to wonder if there isn’t also a dislike of public education generally. It is difficult to imagine any of them ever being one to “thank a teacher.”

Let us examine the legislative work of these new style Republicans. Their Alabama Accountability Act, after labeling the bottom 6 percent “failing schools,” then spent $40 million from the Education Trust Fund ($25 million for scholarships and $15 million for tax credits and rebates for relocation costs). Of the 30,005 students in “failing schools,” 719 transferred within their system, 18 went to another system, and 52 could go to private schools. ($40 million for these 52?)

These failing Republicans also believe that teachers’ health insurance (PEEHIP) should be raised $504 a year, with no pay raise. (Retirees, as usual, get nothing).

Parents, it is time to remove this Republican impediment to educational progress. We always knew that these Republicans would give rich corporations nearly whatever they wanted; now we know what they will do for private schools and to public schools. Vote these Republicans out.

R. E. Blanton, Ph. D.

Professor Emeritus
Jacksonville

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