CULLMAN — For Tom Beason, bringing more jobs into the state of Alabama is the most important thing to consider as the new year begins.
“It disappoints me we don’t have an environment in Alabama that entices industries to come here,” Beason said. “I want to see us do something about creating an economic environment that brings jobs to the state and encourages our young people to stay here. Many children who get college degrees often have to go to other states to get the jobs they’ve prepared themselves for. That is disappointing to me.”
Beason, a Republican, has announced plans to run for the 4th District Alabama state senate seat, which includes Cullman, Lawrence and Winston Counties. The position is currently held by Sen. Zeb Little (D).
If elected, Beason said the economic climate in the state is in need of a change.
“In past years, we’ve almost bought industries by giving concessions to them,” he said. “I want to see the state create an environment to encourage investment and expand investment in companies already here, regardless of if they employ 10 people or 10,000 people.”
Beason said he believes the state education system is also in need of reform.
“It’s not necessarily a situation of just throwing more money at it,” he said of the state’s current education budget crisis. “We need to make changes to improve the quality of education children are getting.”
The first step in education reform should be looking to teachers for recommendations on how to affect change, Beason said.
“The new ideas need to come from teachers and those directly involved with the students,” he said. “I think teachers probably have a much better insight into the changes that need to be made, likely more than the administrators do. We’ve weighed down teachers so much with bureaucracy now, but they need to be able to focus on teaching children.”
The recent growth of state and federal government also needs to be addressed, Beason said.
“I think that eventually infringes on our personal freedom,” he said. “If one looks at where we were in the 1940s and 1950s, personal freedoms have been diminished greatly in the last 40 or 50 years by larger government. I think people, in general, don’t recognize those freedoms are eroded when it happens on a gradual basis.”
Beason grew up in the Welti community in eastern Cullman County, and attended school there through the ninth grade. He gradated from Cullman High School in 1965 and St. Bernard College in 1969 with a degree in mathematics.
After college, he taught math and science and was a coach at Joppa Junior High School.
During his stay at Joppa he was drafted into the U. S. Army, where he served two years as a non-commissioned infantry officer. He later received an officer’s commission in the Chemical Corps and served another four years on active duty.
Upon his discharge from the Army, he went to work for South Central Bell working in the field of engineering and planning. Before retiring from BellSouth in 2006 with 30 years service, he was responsible for the management of BellSouth’s product testing facility.
“I managed large budgets and dealt with situations that could have been delicate for even the best politician,” he said.
Beason is married to the former Wanda Livingston of the Grand View Community. They have a son, a daughter and five grandchildren.
* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.
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