• Support Us
  • Tales from the Meeting
facebook
rss
twitter
youtube
email
pinterest
  • Home
  • District Sites
  • Categories
    • Advocacy
    • Data and Accountability Center
    • Family-School Partnerships
    • Funding and Finance
    • School Policy and Procedure
    • Special Education
    • Standards
  • Glossary
  • Special Reports
    • Alabama Accountability Act (AAA)
    • Bullying Forum Resources
    • The Hidden Cost of Public Education
    • Student Harassment Prevention Act
    • Transparency Projects – 2010 and 2009
    • Reports and Stuff
  • About
    • About Us
    • Business Documents
    • Ethics Policy
    • Fundraising Policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Our Supporters
  • 2016 Legislative Session
    • 2015 Legislative Summary
    • 2014 Legislative Summary
    • 2013 Legislative Summary
    • 2012 Legislative Summary
    • 2011 Legislative Summary
  • Support Us
Latest News
Goodbye. But only for a moment
Special Education Services Division Complaint Resolved
Enrollment Opens for Alabama’s Non-Traditional High School Diploma
Some Answers About the Alabama Accountability Act from New Reports Mandated by Law
State Department Violated Federal Disability Laws, Test Accommodation Policy Must Be Rewritten
What the Annual Alabama “School Incident Report” Shows
Alabama’s A-F School Grading System Is Almost Ready
Wanna Know More About Who Gets Paddled in Alabama’s Schools?
More Than 90,000 Alabama Students and Nearly 15,000 Teachers Missed a LOT of School – Look Up Your School
How Alabama Compares in the Latest ACT College and Career Readiness Report

Coming Soon: The 2015 Legislative Session

Posted On Feb 19 2015
By : Trisha Powell Crain
Comment: 0
Tag: 2015 legislative session

2015 SessionThe 2015 regular session of the Alabama legislature begins on March 3. If this year is anything like the last few years in the legislature, education reform bills will fly fast and furiously through the halls of the statehouse.

So it’s time to get those tables up so you can keep up with what’s on the agenda.

Scroll to the end of this article for resources to help you get more familiar with the legislative process and how you can let your state legislators know your thoughts on the bills being considered.

During the 2014 session, we tracked 133 bills, of which 19 became law. A few more were close to passage in their second chamber, but when the session ended abruptly, so did their chance for passage.

All current bills will be housed on the current legislation page. Plans are to update the list at the end of each week.

What Bills Can We Expect to be Introduced?

First and foremost, we know there will be a charter school bill on the table. Exactly what form it takes is anyone’s guess. And the form is crucial….

Emily Schultz, Director of the Alabama Coalition for Public Charter Schools, recently told the Dothan Eagle, “I think having a cap on the number of public charter schools to start with and getting the authorization right – that is whoever has the authority to start a charter school on the local level – is important,” she said. “We want a high level of accountability for charter schools.”

Yes, there will be more on charter schools in another article. For now, be sure to read Brian Lyman’s article in the Montgomery Advertiser. He pulled a lot of good information together.

It is unclear who, if anyone, will sponsor a bill to ask for a raise for teachers. The Alabama Education Association’s Dr. Henry Mabry has proclaimed that to be a must this year.

Adjustments to the donation caps under the Alabama Accountability Act (AAA) are expected, but no one is giving out the details just yet. Awaiting a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the AAA appears to have hindered donations for the 2014 calendar year, which may trigger additional provisions and tweaks of the AAA.

We can probably expect bills dealing with workforce development and bids and health-related issues, as those were bills that almost made it through the process last year.

Unifying Alabama’s Budgets

Another issue that pro-public education advocates are concerned about is whether the legislature will attempt to unify Alabama’s two budgets: the General Fund and the Education Trust Fund (ETF).

While the General Fund is not a topic covered here in any detail, Google “Alabama general fund problem” and a host of worries will jump off the page.

Governor Bentley has now said that taxes must be raised to provide more revenue into the general fund, but no one is yet sure what that mechanism will look like.

SB12 has been prefiled by Senator Paul Sanford (R-Huntsville) and looks to provide a mechanism. That bill creates the “Alabama Recurring Revenue Fund” and would require all recurring revenue to be deposited into that fund where it would then be distributed by the percentage established in the bill to the ETF (78%) and the General Fund (22%).

Figures from the Alabama Legislative Fiscal Office show the average split between the two funds over the past four fiscal years is 77% for the ETF and 23% for the General Fund.

Here is more from The Anniston Star’s Tim Lockette on Sanford’s bill.

Insiders say there is little chance of actually unifying the two budgets this year, but most folks know to never say never where Alabama elected officials are concerned.

What’s Already Been Prefiled

As of today, the ASC is tracking 12 bills, including Sanford’s.

Topics include:

  • Religious expression in schools (HB1)
  • the Flexible School Calendar Act (HB5 and SB22)
  • the Alabama Ahead Act (SB1), which provides a funding mechanism for districts who choose to participate in moving to electronic textbooks
  • Providing grandparents with more rights to visitation to their grandchildren in custody cases (SB3)
  • Allowing “winter celebrations” in schools (SB7)
  • Strengthening state department of education intervention mechanisms into school districts (SB18)
  • Strengthening the Alabama Open Meetings Act (SB21)
  • Moving the deadline for a student to turn six years old to the first day of the second semester of first grade (HB21)
  • Requiring public schools to teach cursive writing before the end of the third grade (HB23), and
  • Deleting “obsolete” portions of the Code of Alabama (HB40)

These bills will be explored in more depth in future coverage, but if you want to read the bill yourself, click on over to the Current Legislation page and click on the link.

And, just to get everyone fired up for the session…..

Resources

The ALSDE has put together an extremely informative page, complete with names of members of committees likely to debate education-related bills. Check it out to get caught up quickly.

Here’s a list of all states’ legislative session dates.

Here’s a look at how to find and contact your legislators and how to organize your thoughts before you contact them.

Here’s how a bill makes its way through the legislature.

Here are links to other education organizations’ bill trackers.

 

Share this

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
    Previous Story

    Talking About Education in Alabama: A Conference for Education Information Professionals

    Next Story

    Questioning Education Reform in Alabama

    Related Posts

    0

    What the Legislature Did: The K-12 Education Version

    Posted On Jun 09 2015
    , By Trisha Powell Crain
    0

    Legislators, Influencers and Policymakers in Their Own Words

    Posted On Mar 27 2015
    , By Trisha Powell Crain
    0

    Legislative Update, March 12 – Midnight

    Posted On Mar 12 2015
    , By Trisha Powell Crain
    0

    Wednesday’s Legislative Committee Meetings Packed with Education Bills

    Posted On Mar 10 2015
    , By Trisha Powell Crain

    Alabama School Connection Tweets

    Tweets by @ALSchoolConnect

    School Tweets – direct from Twitter

    Tweets from https://twitter.com/ALSchoolConnect/lists/al-k-12-twitter
    Creative Commons License
    This work by Alabama School Connection is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

    Terms of Use
    Privacy Policy

    Past Editions of K-12 Must-Read News

    August 29 to September 25, 2016
    July 25 to August 28, 2016
    June 24 to July 24, 2016
    May 23 to June 23, 2016
    May 2 to May 22, 2016
    April 18 to May 1, 2016
    March 16 to April 17, 2016
    February 23 to March 15, 2016
    February 1 to February 22, 2016
    January 11 to January 31, 2016
    December 21, 2015, thru January 10, 2016
    November 30 thru December 20
    November 11 thru November 30
    October 21 thru November 10
    October 6 thru October 20
    September 14 thru October 5
    August 24 thru September 13
    August 3 thru August 23
    July 16 thru August 2
    June 18 thru July 13
    May 19 thru June 17, 2015
    May 18, 2015
    April 27, 2015
    March 30, 2015
    March 11, 2015
    February 2, 2015
    January 5, 2015
    December 16, 2014

    All past editions available on Storify at https://storify.com/ALSchoolConnect

    This website is intended for informational purposes only. The ASC is a nonprofit news organization and exists only to keep the public informed of issues as they relate to the K-12 education system in Alabama. In the event you feel an error has been made, please contact us immediately at the e-mail link below. The ASC does not maintain offices nor a working telephone number dedicated for the organization. Links are provided as a courtesy, not as an endorsement.
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.