Major Huge Changes for Alabama’s Children’s Future Discussed by the State BOE

Did that get your attention?  The September 27 work session took quite a while to write up, simply because of the massive amount of information State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice shared with the State Board of Education.

Here’s the full post from the Tales from the Meeting blog.  To title it “Funding and Budget Changes” is just a teaser, trust me.  I chose the title because it all does come back to the budget:  what you choose to fund and what you choose to leave out.

Bice has proposed changes from reducing divisors back to pre-recession levels to adding monies back to the budget for common purchases, professional development, and other areas that were zeroed out when funding tanked.  He wants raises for teachers.  He is looking into more equitable state funding strategies for districts with little local support.  He wants to get counselors back to counseling and out of the administrative business.  He wants the state board of education to head up a statewide coalition of state agencies to provide wraparound services for children.  He proposes better supporting teachers through additional professional development and career pathway opportunities.  And that is only the beginning.  I won’t restate everything here.  Rather, head over to the Tales from the Meeting blog for full coverage.

I suppose you could see it as Bice’s wish list of where he would like to see Alabama’s public education headed in the near future.  If you have any desire to keep up with policy and direction of Alabama’s K-12 (even PreK!) community and if you hope to be part of the conversation (which you should!!), you should take the time to read through the discussion.  Alternately, you could review the 2-part video of the nearly-three hour meeting.

Bice has a good track record where the State Board of Education is concerned.  He appears to be moving full steam ahead with ideas and initiatives that he and his staff believe will move Alabama’s public education system forward.