Alabama Democratic Party

We are truly living in an international economy where jobs, wealth and wages will be tied to skill sets an Alabama worker, educated in public schools, brings to the competitive global marketplace.

Alabama’s educational system has made good strides on a number of fronts thanks to a pro-active democratic legislature that values public education at all levels. This past session, a record education budget and a billion dollar bond issue for new school construction were passed and democrats rejected efforts by the Governor and republicans to divert precious dollars away from the Educational Trust Fund to fund ill-advised tax breaks for those making over $100,000.

Recent surveys show that 62% of Alabamians think Alabama is headed in the right direction and choose education as their top issue.

Vicarious political attacks by republicans on classroom teachers, lunchroom workers, coaches and school bus drivers visa-vies the Alabama Education Association should be channeled to more productive goals.

In fact, by fighting to protect school funding and by raising classroom teacher salaries to more competitive market rates, democrats and AEA are today salvaging Alabama’s economic competitiveness. The K-12 classroom teacher is a front line defender of Alabama’s economic competitiveness.

Investments in 2 year and 4 year institutions also have been on the rise and have paid many dividends in the area of industrial recruitment and high wage job creation. By partnering with industry, workforce development activities in two-year colleges have helped expand automotive sector jobs and have helped cities like Auburn and Opelika land high wage/high tech manufacturing.

Auburn University in a public-private partnership is opening a new research park that will complement its land grant mission and develop new market technologies and products for the 21st Century.

These successes are tempered however by quality inequity of school systems statewide, an intractable drop-out rate, and sub-par test scores by too many Alabama students. Too many school systems are struggling to find good teachers and have little local funding sources.

Market economic forces dictate the availability of teachers and Alabama must pay to attract and retain teachers (half of teachers quit the profession after 5 years). The DROP program offered by democrats has kept career teachers in the Alabama classroom!

We must provide every teacher with training, technology and teaching discretion tailored to their individual students. Parents must become even more involved in their children’s overall educational experience. Science, math, foreign languages as well as personal life skills must be taught more proficiently.

Learning must become fun again for students, teachers and parents by mending or ending the ‘teaching to standardized tests’ and No Child Left Behind. The best answer to school choice is that every school should become a choice school and every child should feel chosen!

Society drops all of its issues off at the school house door step. We cannot expect teachers, principals and counselors to succeed where parents, families and communities are failing. It is truly a shared challenge, but one where failure is not an option. Public education remains America’s strong backbone, but our challenge in Alabama is to fund, improve, innovate and build on success all while tackling the darkness of drop outs and at-risk students so as to prepare for the international marketplace. It is after all a journey, not a destination.