Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
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Helen Hammons continues to follow the unfolding saga in the two-year college system and provides this report to the Political Parlor.

On Valentine’s Day at the State Board of Education work session, Chancellor Bradley Byrne tried to reassure members of the State Board of Education (SBOE), his college presidents, and members of his staff that Governor Bob Riley still loved them and supported what they were doing, regardless of dramatic proposed cuts by the governor to the two-year college system’s budget.

Byrne said Riley was still an "ardent advocate" for workforce development and adult education and that there was no “vindictiveness” behind the governor’s proposed budget that cuts 100% of postsecondary’s workforce development funds and two-thirds of the system’s funding for adult education as a previous report discussed. These are two of the system’s three core functions.

Asked by member of the Board Dr. Ethel Hall if there was any vindictiveness to the cuts and why they came about, Byrne responded:

"There was no vindictiveness to it at all. I think the fairest statement we can make, the fairest and most honest statement we can make is that there was a misunderstanding by the Executive Budget Office as to what the effects of those cuts would be. And because they had a misunderstanding, that got translated into the budget. Let me assure you the misunderstanding has been corrected. We’re over that part. Now we’re on to how do you correct it. Even under the best of circumstances, with the best of understandings, when they have to cut $400 million out of the education budget, we’re going to be cut somewhere and we’re going to be cut somewhere significantly, we can’t avoid that. What we can do is work with them to better prioritize things to make sure we’re not cutting into core functions of our system. I can assure you I have frequent conversations with the governor and his staff about how we’re going to do that. We have the governor’s direct commitment that we’re going to fix it."

"He is enormously supportive of what we do in both workforce development and adult education." The chancellor said after talking with the all those involved in the budget process, "I am confident, based upon those conversations that we will have the money that we need to have to run our workforce development, for it to function within the department and within the system and we will have the money we need to have to at least continue our present level of services in adult education."

“There’s sometimes when I have to tell myself, my staff and everybody else we just need to take a deep breath and remember that this is a long process and this is just the first step. We will get there. We need to have confidence the system will work.”

The chancellor told the assembled crowd jamming the auditorium almost to capacity the most important thing was to not get distracted by the process and “focus on our mission. Remember the things that make the biggest difference in the lives of the people of this state and make sure that we make expenditures that are appropriate.”

The need for adult education to meet the workforce needs of the state is huge. According to a data from the 2000 Census, more than 570,000 Alabama citizens between the ages of 18 to 64 do not have a high school diploma and there are another 340,000 that have completed some high school. This is a pool of people the system believes with the right education and training can help fill the state’s growing need for trained workers. Radio advertisements targeted to this population began this week.

On the legislative side of things, Byrne minced no words about a bill, SB292, sponsored by Senator Zeb Little (D-Cullman) that as previously and first reported here would put the development of postsecondary policies by the SBOE under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).

"Here is a very dangerous bill. This is bill SB292 by Senator Zeb Little. It’s an effort to put postsecondary policies under the Administrative Procedures Act. Make no mistake about it, this is an effort to give a veto to the Legislative Council over Board policies. This is a direct attack at reform efforts. No question about it….The Legislative Council is big, it’s composed primarily of the leadership of the House and the Senate…We started doing reforms, they want to have oversight of that. It is a direct attack on reform efforts.” Byrne said later he believed the bill, which has only had its first reading and was assigned to the Education Committee, would have difficulty getting past the budget isolation resolution process.

The man that runs things over at the Alabama Education Association (AEA), Dr. Paul Hubbert, said to me this week that AEA wasn’t responsible for Little’s bill, but “We’re in favor of the bill because the State Board of Education in the K-12 section has always used the Administrative Procedures Act when they promulgated policy. They don’t do it when they meet as the board for the two-year colleges and it’s the same group of people, they just meet one time for K-12 and another time for two-year colleges. And the law, as I read it, says they should be covered but this makes it very specific."

Hubbert said the APA covers “every other board, commission and every other agency in state government and that board recognizes they’re covered in K-12 so I don’t know why they think they’re not covered under the postsecondary part of their duties." Hubbert rejected the idea that it was an attempt to control the chancellor or get at reform efforts. “No, it’s an effort to make the board comply with the law as we read it."

Byrne said later he had said just about all he had to say on the subject and asked if Dr. Hubbert really believed it had nothing to do with controlling Byrne or the Board, the chancellor responded, “I have no idea what’s in Dr. Hubbert’s head. Whatever he says is in his head I guess is in his head.”

There were a ton of important issues discussed at the SBOE meeting, including a look at a program that has been an afterthought for the system, but one that has the ability to have a major impact on the state – the Prison Education Program. There will be more on what’s being proposed in this program in a future post, as well as a more in-depth look at the Adult Education Program.

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