Press Release: Alabama Education Budget Prevents Future Misappropriation of Funds from Reading/Math Initiatives to Common Core--SB403 and SB404
Friday, April 12, 2013 at 07:57PM PRESS RELEASE
April 11, 2013
Alabama Education Budget Prevents Future
Misappropriation of Funds from Reading/Math Initiatives to Common Core
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Elois Zeanah (205/247-5389; eloisz@hotmail.com)
Tuscaloosa, AL: The Alabama House amended the education budget Wednesday to prevent the Superintendent of Education from diverting millions of additional dollars from the Alabama Reading and Math Initiatives to implement Common Core. This was in response to investigations by conservative grassroots groups that revealed Alabama State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice had diverted over fifty million dollars from these two initiatives to pay for Common Core.
Elois Zeanah, president of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women, stated, “If Dr. Bice had been in private industry, he would have been fired for diverting millions of dollars to his pet project! These are tax dollars of hard-working Alabamians and should be treated no differently by legislators than how CEO’s treat dollars from private investors or for-profit companies.”
Zeanah continued, “We are excited about the amendment that was passed to prevent future misappropriations. Our children have lost at least one year of the reading instruction that had made Alabama number one in reading gains in the nation and decreased the reading gap between black and white students by four points since 2003. This unauthorized diversion should anger everyone.”
Sharon Sewell, a retired teacher and director of Alabamians for Excellence in Education stated: “The state board of education seems to think they can do whatever they want without transparency and accountability to parents, teachers, taxpayers, the legislature, or even the governor. That is my view. It is very important that parents understand what Common Core is, where it came from, where it is going, and how it will impact their children’s lives.”
Conservative advocates say Common Core is “one-size-fits-all” national standards and if legislators don’t repeal Common Core, they will voluntarily give away Alabama’s education freedom under the Tenth Amendment to bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who care more about power and money than about children and education.
Sewell who taught school for 32 years added, “Common Core is not a reform as we have known in the past. It is a total transformation of schools. The federal government has our healthcare. They're trying to get our guns. Now they want our children, too!”
Bills to repeal Common Core (SB 403/404 and HB 565) are expected to be voted on by the Education Policy Committees next week.