Paul Hubbert

[AFTiger 282]

Paul Hubbert and the AEA run the state legislature for their own purposes.

Power over school board pushed through panel

Thursday, February 28, 2008

CHARLES J. DEAN

News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - On disputed voice votes Wednesday, a state lawmaker who works for a community college rammed through for final legislative action a bill that would give legislators power to overturn state school board rules for two-year colleges.

The action by Rep. Terry Spicer, D-Elba, an employee of Ozark-Enterprise Community College, drew harsh words from some committee members. They charged Spicer with ignoring repeated pleas for roll call votes and then using his position as acting chairman to declare the outcome of each vote in favor of the legislation.

"I'm not very pleased with the way this committee meeting went," said Rep. Mike Ball, R-Huntsville. Ball sat next to Spicer during the meeting and at one point jumped from his chair and, leaning toward Spicer, waved his hands and arms repeatedly asking Spicer for a roll call vote. Spicer ignored the move.

"I wanted a roll call vote. It's fair play. What's the use of having a committee if the chairman can just pass what he wants?" an angry Ball said.

Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, was even angrier.

"I'm very upset. I was elected to represent the people of Jefferson County and I wasn't allowed to do that today," Treadaway said. "They ignored us when we clearly were trying to get their attention. When the motion was made to send it to the subcommittee, the ayes had it and it was ignored.

"It's just wrong," he said. "I've never been more disappointed as a representative as I am today in what went on out on that House floor."

`We have a process':

Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, made the motion to send the bill to a subcommittee that would have effectively killed it. He said he was sure his motion had majority support after the voice vote, but Spicer ruled the nays in the majority.

"We have a process and that process says this is how we do things and you can be defeated and I can live with that if you follow the process," Mitchell said. "But the process here was not followed, and I question the auditory acuity of the chair. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth."

Efforts to reach Spicer after the meeting failed.

State school board member Randy McKinney, an Orange Beach Republican, said Spicer is an example of why the board last summer approved rules that by 2010 will force state lawmakers who work in the two-year system to choose between their elected seats and their jobs. Some of those lawmakers have become focal points of an ongoing federal investigation into corruption in the two-year system.

"This goes to the very core of what I was trying to address at the microphone," McKinney said, noting that Spicer gave him only two minutes to address the committee during its public hearing Wednesday. "It has to do with the conflict of interest.

"We're tying to establish a policy to end the double dipping but they didn't allow that to continue here today. This person (Spicer) has a personal interest in this bill because he is a double dipper."

Tit for tat?:

Paul Hubbert, leader of the Alabama Education Association, which is pushing lawmakers to approve the bill, defended Spicer, saying what he did to opponents of the bill Wednesday was no more than what the state board of education did to him and lawmakers last summer, when it approved rules banning double dipping.

"I think what happened today is exactly what happened at the state board meeting. Legislators went over to speak about a policy they were concerned about, and they were given two minutes and then the board immediately voted. Mr. Spicer was one of the people over there then, so I'm sure that had some effect on what happened out here today," Hubbert said.

"I understand his actions today because that is what happened to him when he went before the board."

Not so, said McKinney.

"The board listened to all of the legislators who wanted to talk and then we held a roll call vote. We didn't attempt to ram anything down anybody's throat," McKinney said.

The bill now goes to the full House for action. A similar bill is pending in the state Senate.

E-mail: cdean@bhamnews.com

© 2008 The Birmingham News

© 2008 al.com All Rights Reserved.

Question: with this kind of power, the Alabama Education Association runs Alabama; why aren't the schools better?

[MDM4AU 332]

Paul Hubbert is a thug. I have met the guy. I know people that have worked with him. I have yet to meet a soul that likes Hubbert.

[AFTiger 282]

More nonsense in Birmingham: The school administration is too large, there too many buildings to maintain but that makes no difference.

City school closing plan frustrates lawmakers

Morton backs proposal; Hayes students walk out

Thursday, February 28, 2008

KIM CHANDLER

News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - Members of the state House of Representatives from Birmingham expressed frustration Wednesday when state schools Superintendent Joe Morton told them he stood behind the Birmingham school board's decision to close 16 schools.

Morton said the school closures are necessary because the system has too many buildings and is losing students, and thus state revenue, every year. "You are losing a small school system every year in Birmingham," Morton said.

At least one lawmaker became visibly angry at the end of the one-hour meeting they called with Morton.

"If he wants a fight in the Legislature, he's got it," Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said after the meeting. Rogers said he would filibuster the education budget and "fight till we drop."

Rogers said he wanted Morton "to back the pressure off just a little bit" to give time for Birmingham leaders to address the budget bleeding.

Morton said the school closings are just the first step the Birmingham school board needs to take. The board still needs to address staffing levels and the amount it spends on lawyers, he said.

Several lawmakers said they are concerned that Birmingham schools repeatedly find themselves in financial trouble, that high-performing schools are being closed and that vacant schools will become a magnet for vandals and troublemakers.

Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, predicted one school in her district would become a "gang facility" within 24 hours of closing the door.

Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Midfield, said "two of the schools in my district have risen up and are performing well. I don't understand why they are on the chopping block."

Morton said he understood school closings were painful. "Nobody wants change in their backyard," he said. "That's human nature, but things are changing in Birmingham."

Rogers said he will ask the Examiners of Public Accounts to audit the Birmingham school system.

Walkout at Hayes High:

Meanwhile, about 100 students at Hayes High School began a walkout Wednesday morning in protest of plans to close the school this summer, but they made it only as far as the parking lot before administrators coaxed them back inside, said Michaelle Chapman, spokeswoman for Birmingham City Schools.

Hayes is among five Birmingham schools set to close this summer in the first round of 16 school closings approved this week.

Chapman said administrators at the school knew students would be upset and scheduled an assembly for 10:15 a.m. to "allow the students to protest peacefully."

Just before the assembly began, she said, some students left the building through the front door and walked to the parking lot. But they ultimately attended the assembly, where board member Carolyn Cobb spoke to them and they were allowed to express their concerns. Reporters were not allowed in the assembly.

News staff writer Marie Leech contributed to this report. kchandler@bhamnews.com

© 2008 The Birmingham News

© 2008 al.com All Rights Reserved.

[OldNewby 27]

After 15 years in the classroom, my wife quit teaching. Actions of Paul Hubbert and the AEA led to her contempt of the system - too many administrators, too few competent teachers. Her 5th grade classes averaged 36 kids. Her principal and the "folks downtown" failed to stand behind her and her fellow teachers, especially when what was needed was discipline.

If you cannot teach, they make you an administrator.

[AUTiger1 0]

After 15 years in the classroom, my wife quit teaching. Actions of Paul Hubbert and the AEA led to her contempt of the system - too many administrators, too few competent teachers. Her 5th grade classes averaged 36 kids. Her principal and the "folks downtown" failed to stand behind her and her fellow teachers, especially when what was needed was discipline.

If you cannot teach, they make you an administrator.

I am waiting on the day that my wife comes home and wants to do something else. She tells me all the time that she wishes that Representatives, Paul Hubbert, State and County School Board members and the Governor would all come in and sit in her classroom for a week. I have a degree in education and decided that during my student teaching that it wasn't for me. You will have an administrator stand behind you on discipline until a parent comes in to the school office raising cane and then you all of a sudden you lost their support. Not only is this an everyday thing, you then have the "No Child Left Behind" to deal with. What a worthless piece of legislation. Mainstreaming is not what needs to take place in the classroom. What happened to the days when we were in school, and we were taught the textbook and not the standardize test? Also, what happened to the day when you got in trouble "Coach or the principal" would set your butt on fire when you got a paddling?

[OldNewby 27]

what happened to the day when you got in trouble "Coach or the principal" would set your butt on fire when you got a paddling?

… and your self-esteem was the last thing on your mind?

[Ranger12 46]

When I went back to school a couple of years ago to change careers and because I could not work full time because of all the back surgeries I was having, I did some substitute teaching for about a year.

I had decided my career change would either be teaching or engineering. I love history and it is a hobby of mine, but I also wanted to be an aerospace engineer and be involved in the space program ever since I was a kid. However, after seeing the crap that went on "behind the scenes" for the first time, I decided teaching was not for me either. It was just not one school or system I was seeing this in either, because I was subbing in three different schools system that were made up of both city and county school systems. The city school systems were worse then the county. The teachers are so handcuffed in what they can do with the troublemakers, not to mention the state mandated curriculum is pathetic.

I really got pissed when I found out this year that my son, who is in the 4th grade, is being taught how to speed read, which I was told was another ridiculous state mandate. Even the teacher thought it was stupid to be teaching speed reading, especially in the 4th grade.

[AUTiger1 0]

When I went back to school a couple of years ago to change careers and because I could not work full time because of all the back surgeries I was having, I did some substitute teaching for about a year.

I had decided my career change would either be teaching or engineering. I love history and it is a hobby of mine, but I also wanted to be an aerospace engineer and be involved in the space program ever since I was a kid. However, after seeing the crap that went on "behind the scenes" for the first time, I decided teaching was not for me either. It was just not one school or system I was seeing this in either, because I was subbing in three different schools system that were made up of both city and county school systems. The city school systems were worse then the county. The teachers are so handcuffed in what they can do with the troublemakers, not to mention the state mandated curriculum is pathetic.

I really got pissed when I found out this year that my son, who is in the 4th grade, is being taught how to speed read, which I was told was another ridiculous state mandate. Even the teacher thought it was stupid to be teaching speed reading, especially in the 4th grade.

I know exactly how you feel on that one. I could tell you some of the things I had to deal with and it would make your head spin. My wife teaches forth grade and she complains about some of the mandated stuff that she has to teach. I think it to be a really sad thing that education has become what it has.

Old Newby: I don't that self-esteem was the last thing on your mind or not. I would say most of the time it was the last thing on your mind though. I remember once getting a paddling from my baseball coach for throwing paperwads in my senior English class and b/c he had to have a witness he got the Varsity Girls coach, who happened to be smoking hot, and he waited until I was in the middle of PE to call me out. I had on gym shorts and he lit me up, all I could think about was not showing any signs of pain so that she wouldn't think that I was a wuss. My self -esteem came into question at that moment.

[OldNewby 27]

Old Newby: I don't that self-esteem was the last thing on your mind or not. I would say most of the time it was the last thing on your mind though. I remember once getting a paddling from my baseball coach for throwing paperwads in my senior English class and b/c he had to have a witness he got the Varsity Girls coach, who happened to be smoking hot, and he waited until I was in the middle of PE to call me out. I had on gym shorts and he lit me up, all I could think about was not showing any signs of pain so that she wouldn't think that I was a wuss. My self -esteem came into question at that moment.

I was poking fun that positive "self-esteem" seems to be so important to today's public education, even at the expense of discipline and actually earning an accurate grade. I don't think students should be put down or bullied by their teachers, nor should false praise and grades be manufactured just to make students feel good about themselves.

I knew when I was misbehaving and not trying to learn. Thanks to Coach Legg, Mrs. Webster, and nearly all of my teachers and coaches, I learned true self-esteem is earned, not given.

[AUTiger1 0]

Yeah the whole, lets make everyone feel good BS makes me ill.