Senators, Representatives, PTO leaders discuss state education issues
Alabama still has a tough road ahead when it comes to balancing its budget, several state leaders agreed today, but there are currently no plans to ever again shift funds away from the education budget and into the General Fund. Sen. Slade Blackwell, Sen. Jabo Waggoner, Rep. David Faulkner and Rep. Jack Williams today agreed that while it was an uncomfortable solution, due to the General Fund deficit in 2015, it was a necessary one.
During the 11th annual legislative forum hosted by the Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills’ PTO Councils at the Mountain Brook Board of Education, all four state leaders voiced their opinions and projections on the state’s education issues. Each took turns answering pre-selected questions on everything from homeschooled athletes participating in sports to charter schools and the possibility of changing teacher retirement funding.
Superintendents Dicky Barlow of Mountain Brook, Sheila Phillips of Vestavia Hills, and Superintendent Bill Cleveland of Homewood were also in attendance and chimed in to the discussion from time to time.
Each participant stressed that as the time approaches to enter into the next legislative session, they’ll welcome input from their constituents.
Here’s a summary of the topics covered:
Finances
Part of what caused the General Fund deficit, said Waggoner, was the lack of revenue going toward it. Though it was “uncomfortable” and “very painful” to take the $80 million from the education fund and use it to plug the deficit in the general fund, Wagoner said that because he and others were not going to allow taxes to be raised, it was something that had to be done. Faulkner said that what is “killing our general fund is Medicaid and the corrections department.” There are no growth taxes there he said, yet the costs are skyrocketing. Williams said the budget could have been passed without taking the money from education, but it would have caused a domino effect in other areas. Medicaid would have been damaged, he said, which helps countless children, as would have funding for troopers and jails.
In the end, said Blackwell, only about $30 million was actually taken from the education budget because of the backfills that took place. The backfills, said Blackwell, in conjunction with the changes made to the Rolling Reserve Act—which will lower the percentage of money that must be put away from 20 percent to 7.5 percent—will help the education fund.
When asked if taking money from the educational fund will happen again, Waggoner said he doesn’t ever see it happening again, though he expects passing the budget to once again be a problem.
Merging the general and education funds
Williams said the polling numbers he has seen indicate that such a thing would never happen. Blackwell said he is opposed to the idea.
“The problem with merging them,” said Blackwell, “is that with Medicaid and prison costs going up, you’d be naïve to think that funding those things from the same account wouldn’t take away from education.”
Faulkner explained that putting the two budgets together wouldn’t create more money.
“Having a separate education fund,” said Faulkner, “protects those funds.”
Rumors on teacher pensions, retirement systems and raises
Blackwell said that there is in fact a task force looking into the workings of pensions and retirement.
“Before we pay a single teacher or buy any books” said Williams, “we pay $1 billion a year to prop up the retirement system.”
Homewood Superintendent Bill Cleveland chimed in and said his employees are very concerned about what may come.
“You are talking about their futures,” said Cleveland.
When asked about teacher raises, Waggoner said there is currently more conversation on the topic than ever before.
“I’ll venture to say that there will be a pay raise this coming year which would make it effective in October of 2017,” said Waggoner.
Williams said while he does see a pay raise coming, he doesn’t anticipate it to be a big raise in one year, but rather modest raises over a two to three-year period.
Blackwell said it “all boils down to money."
“If revenues are up,” said Blackwell, “there’s a good chance there will be raises and all indications are that revenues are up.”
Homeschooled athletes
Blackwell said that with “100 percent certainty” he is opposed to the idea of homeschooled students participating in school sports.
“It’s a huge disadvantage to kids in school,” said Blackwell, “when homeschooled kids have the ability to train as much as they want. Then the kids who have to go to school are forced to compete against elite athletes.”
Asked about all the rules in place for homeschooled athletes, Blackwell said he doesn’t see a credible way to police those rules.
“It’s not a level playing field,” said Blackwell.
Charter Schools
"Because Alabama was so late in the game to allow charter schools,” said Faulkner, the state had the opportunity to study what worked and what didn’t work. Faulkner said he does not see charter schools popping up in areas like Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills or Hoover.
“Will it affect us?” said Faulkner referring to his constituents, “no. There are people in Alabama who do not have access to great schools. Charter schools are about helping those in the state where public schools were failing them. They needed another option.”