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Helen Hammons, formerly with WSFA in Montgomery, has been watching with interest the skirmishes around the two-year college system. She wrote this report for the Political Parlor.

The seemingly never-ending battle for control of Alabama’s two-year college system took a couple of interesting turns last week and it will be a while before the results and strategies behind both maneuvers are completely known. One move came from the governor’s office; the other move came from the Senate.

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Click image to open pdf file of an Education Trust Fund Comparison Sheet from the Legislative Fiscal Office

In a move that is causing interesting speculation, if nothing else, Bradley Byrne, chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system, was apparently getting two-legs – workforce development and adult education, of his three-legged mission stool – the other leg being the college transfer function, chopped by his own governor’s proposed budget axe. Byrne had been asked last month during budget presentations by Sen. Hank Sanders (D-Selma) what a loss of $100 million would mean to his department. "It would devastate our system…there’s no way that we can continue to meet the needs of our citizens…We’re going to have to cut something out of great importance to education and training of adults in our state. It would have a devastating impact on at least one part of our three-part mission, if not all."

So, if Byrne had been hit by cuts in the Legislature it wouldn’t have come as a surprise. As a savvy ex-senator Byrne knows in lean economic times his budget is going to get trimmed, and he knows not everyone has been thrilled with his actions as chancellor. While the first proposed trimming was around $43 million and not $100 million, the source of the trimming was a little surprising – it came in the form of the governor’s proposed budget.

Riley’s proposed budget completely eliminated more than $7.5 million in workforce development funds from Byrne’s budget, although it almost fully funding the AIDT request to the tune of nearly $42 million, for the time being AIDT still falls under the Department of Postsecondary Education. The governor has been seeking since he signed an executive order (#17) in Feb 2004 that created the Office of Workforce Development to reshape how the state provides for workforce development needs. Although the order stated, "[T]he Office of Workforce Development shall operate in full cooperation with the Department of Postsecondary Education, which shall be the primary, but not sole, provider of workforce education and training," gutting the department’s workforce development budget except for AIDT would seem at first glance to at least raise some questions as to what the words "primary provider" mean.

The governor also whacked about $14 million, or a 65.8% cut from the FY2008 approved budget number, from postsecondary’s adult education funds. The minimum standard for gaining employment in many of the new jobs available to the state’s workers is increasingly becoming a minimum of two-years of postsecondary education. The two-year college system is meant to reach out to those individuals often in the most need for training to improve their lives – educationally and economically disadvantaged adults, dislocated workers and others. "We are…providing opportunities to Alabamians who would not have the opportunity to get those jobs otherwise. It’s a tremendous thing we’re doing," Byrne has said previously.

A drastic cut in the department’s workforce development funds not only has an impact on the ability of those workers to take advantage of the new job opportunities available in the state, but will also mean fewer available workers in the long run for AIDT or companies to train for their specific needs.

The two-year system’s workforce training program – both the for-credit program in the technical colleges and the not-for-credit training the system does is seen as vitally important by Byrne, who last month told the Legislature, "There has never been a time in this state’s history when that workforce training function was more important than it is today. There are thousands and thousands of high-paying, good jobs coming to the State of Alabama. But they will not do the people of our state any good if our people don’t have the education and training to fulfill the functions of those jobs."

Byrne gave examples of training the system has done or is preparing to do in areas such as robotics and aviation. The training workers receive through the two-year college system often means workers moving from a job paying less than $30,000 a year with few to no benefits to jobs paying between $50-80,000. Byrne told legislators that the system had to continue to grow its workforce training programs. "The workforce training part of what we do is something we’ve got to do a lot more of and a lot better, because business and industry is going to improve what their technology is and we have to continue to improve as well."

The slashing of funds for adult education programs also has an impact on workforce development at a critical time in the state’s history. Adults who take advantage of the adult education program are then in a position to take advantage of other work-related training and educational opportunities and provide a feeder for programs like those run by AIDT.

Describing people in the adult education program, Byrne told the Legislature in January, "I’ve talked to the people in these adult education programs. These are people, who, for whatever reason, did not get their high school diploma before they were 18. And there are lots of reasons why that could occur in somebody’s life. But now, they have come back to school because they have realized that they can’t get where they want to get in their life unless they get that GED. And we are the vehicle by which they do that and let me tell you, it is like missionary work. They are committed to changing their lives and they’re looking to us to help them meet that commitment. We believe that that is a critically important part of what we do."

The budget process is only at the beginning, what the end result of the governor’s proposed cuts, whether they remain in place, and what the strategy was behind them remains to be seen. Byrne’s public stance to the Legislature was that he wanted to preserve two things in his budget at all costs – the department’s newly implemented oversight function and money for the two-year colleges themselves. Riley’s budget put a small dent of a little more than $1 million, or a cut of 16.79%, in Byrne’s executive department budget, under which the oversight function operates, and only cut the O&M part of the budget for the colleges by 4.62% from FY2008’s funding levels. Be careful what you ask for.

Who’s Going to Have Control?

Over in the Senate, the opposition party put together a maneuver, which, at least at first glance, appears designed to exert more control over the State Board of Education (SBOE) with regard to the two-year college system.

There was a first reading of a bill, SB-292, last week introduced by Senate Majority Leader Zeb Little (D-Cullman) and referred to the Education committee, that seeks to force the Board to implement new rules governing what takes place in the community college system and requires those rules to fall under the state’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA).

Senate Democrats have repeated comments made by AEA chief Paul Hubbert that they are concerned that without more oversight on the chancellor’s position, Byrne or the next chancellor, could find themselves just as corrupt as former chancellor Roy Johnson and others.  And Senator Parker Griffith, among others, has repeatedly said that Byrne was using the position as a political vehicle to run for governor in 2010 and playing politics with the system.

So what does the Administrative Procedures Act have to do with the continuing battle for control of the two-year college system?

Currently the SBOE policies governing the two-year system are essentially written and recommended to the Board through a process that goes from the Department of Postsecondary Education through the chancellor for the Board’s approval.  Some say that’s the fox guarding the hen house.

Senator Little’s bill requires the SBOE to make new rules that fall under the APA.  With a little rumbling through the Alabama Code, which I don’t think will ever top the Best Sellers’ List, how that could have an impact becomes apparent. The catch is, although the Board, as presently constituted, would likely adopt rules that Byrne would be in support of, or just carry over existing policies, the new rules under the APA would have to go through the Joint Committee on Administrative Regulation Review (JCARR), which is non- other than – the Legislative Council (LC).  Of course neither JCARR or the LC are mentioned anywhere in the bill.  They are one and the same.

The current makeup of the 31-member council, one seat is vacant, is composed primarily of known opponents of recently adopted Board policies including legislators such as Ken Guin and Terry Spicer, although it’s not clear if Spicer is still on the Council.  His one-year term expired in January and I have not confirmed whether he has continued or not. 

Here’s the complete list:

Board Members	Appointment Date	Expiration Date	Term
The Honorable Locy Baker	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Lowell Barron	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Roger Bedford	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Marcel Black	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Bobby Denton	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Bill Dukes	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Vivian Figures	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Jim Folsom	01/15/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Craig Ford	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Steve French	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Blaine Galliher	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Victor Gaston	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Betty C Graham	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Ken Guin	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Seth Hammett	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Alvin Holmes	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Mike Hubbard	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Pat Lindsey	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Richard Lindsey	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Ted Little	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Zeb Little	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Wendell Mitchell	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Hinton Mitchem	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Demetrius Newton	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Myron Penn	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Oliver Robinson	04/03/2007	04/03/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Hank Sanders	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Rodger Smitherman	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
The Honorable Terry Spicer	01/17/2007	01/18/2008	1 Year
The Honorable Jabo Waggoner	01/17/2007	01/17/2011	4 Years
Source: Secretary of State, the Legislative Reference Service

In accordance with the APA, the JCARR has 35 days once they get notice of any rules to tell the SBOE whether it approves or disapproves the rule(s).  If they disapprove the rule it is considered suspended "until the adjournment of the next regular session of the Legislature following the date of disapproval and suspension of the committee" or until a joint resolution is passed that revokes the suspension.  "The rule shall be reinstated on the adjournment of the legislative session in the event the Legislature, by joint resolution, fails to sustain the disapproval and suspension of the committee." Of course if JCARR approves the rule it goes into effect.

The committee may also amend the rule and send it back to the SBOE with the suggested amendment.  If the SBOE accepts the rule it is resubmitted as amended to the committee. In the event the agency does not accept the amendment, the proposed amended rule has to be submitted to the Legislature as disapproved.

On the first day of each regular session the JCARR chairman submits a joint resolution sustaining the disapproval, which is referred by the Speaker of the House or Lt. Gov as appropriate to an appropriate committee but not the JCARR.  The committee may schedule hearings if requested to do so.

The Legislature may sustain the disapproval by joint resolution if it fails to do so by the adjournment of the next regular session, the rule shall be reinstated.

In essence under the legislation the agency, in this case the SBOE, would have to adopt rules under the APA.  Since they have to adopt rules, according to the legislation, and since those rules essentially have to meet with the approval of the JCARR to be implemented, the SBOE would eventually have to fall in line with JCARR, although technically the merry-go-round could go on forever.

This appears to move the SBOE’s policy making away from the chancellor and his department to the Legislature, and could be used to gut policies some members of the Legislature disagree with, without having to get long winded bills passed. The Board is supposed to take action only upon recommendations of the chancellor.

Furthermore, in what may or may not be a related event, there is a note in the ETF appropriations legislation, as first submitted, that the money, about $107,000, that is slated to go to the Legislative Reference Service out of the ETF (the LRS gets its main funds from the General Fund) "shall be expended for the revision of Title 16 of the Code of Alabama 1975," which just happens to cover Education.

One other interesting note, the governor’s 2004 executive order creating the Office of Workforce Development mentioned previously in this piece also called for that office to create rules which would have to be approved, as applicable, by the Legislative Council.

And so, the saga continues – there will be more to come.

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