CULLMAN —
The legislature’s Senate Education Committee last week voted for a flexibility bill that would grant more powers to local school boards and superintendents.
The move by the committee is promising, because local school districts need the ability to come from beneath the weight of blanket rules and regulations made from afar. While oversight is always advisable, as checks and balances, local school districts need more freedom to move in the direction that best suits improving education in their communities.
Standing in the way of this bill, which is supported by Gov. Robert Bentley and most of the Republican leadership, is a looming argument over teacher tenure. The Alabama Education Association, has already inserted an amendment through the committee to protect tenure. The tenure amendment got through the committee on a 5-4 vote.
The AEA, the ever-powerful union representing the state’s teachers, has long pressed its will in the Alabama political process. Expecting the organization to step aside for the sake of improving how school districts operate is nothing more than a dream. Lawmakers will have to ensure that the AEA is appeased or simply stand up to the organization and deliver the message that a new day of leadership and progress has arrived in Alabama.
While long, productive service should be appreciated in any profession, it goes against logic to tie the hands of leadership with union-demanded rules that don’t examine the larger picture. In the private sector, personnel is retained because of productivity and commitment to the business. The rule should not be different where education is concerned.
Lawmakers are on the right path with their effort to provide more flexibility for school districts. If the AEA threatens to derail the plan, legislators should stand firm and do what is right for the state’s children.
Editorials
Editorial: Stand firm for what is right
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Taking the lead in education
The once-heralded ‘No Child Left Behind” education initiative from the federal level has just about run out of gas.
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Moving into the future
Hundreds of local high school seniors are accepting their diplomas and preparing to turn the page in the next chapter of their lives.
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Editorial: Seizure of AP phone records insult to independent press
This amounts to spying on an American news organization -- common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press.
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EDITORIAL: The IRS' Turn to Answer Questions
Washington is now sinking its teeth into a real scandal: the Internal Revenue Service using ideological criteria to choose the targets of its attention.
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Editorial: The house of death
The grisly details emerging from the murder trial of a Philadelphia abortion doctor place a glaring spotlight on a national disgrace.
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Editorial: Murder, insanity and guns
James Holmes, the accused movie theater shooter in Colorado, would like for the public to believe he killed a dozen people because he was insane.
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Lasting partnerships
Economic development officials have long noted the importance of expansions by existing industries and businesses in a community to lead growth.
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COMMENTARY: Why does young adult fiction keep giving its heroines makeovers?
Over at This Ain't Living, s.e. smith (who, full disclosure, has guest-blogged for me at ThinkProgress) has an excellent post about one of the most pernicious trends in young adult fiction.
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A spirit for moving forward
This weekend marked the two-year anniversary of a deadly day of tornadoes that streaked across Alabama, claiming lives and property and changing the landscape of many communities.
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Faith and bombs
The investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing is pointing to the all-too-familiar theme of religious faith playing a major role in violence.
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