What Kay Ivey has right and wrong about Amendment 1
I’ve held a strong opinion about Amendment 1 since the first day I heard about it. Let’s make no mistake about what this is – a power grab. This amendment would take away the voters right to elect their own member to the state board of education and instead make each commissioner a gubernatorial appointment. Now the language is nice, fluffy and misleading as hell as it doesn’t come out and say that’s what they’re doing. They sell it as a way to get better-diversified representation, add term-limits, and rename the board, but truly I’m going to say it again. This my friends is a what? Oh yeah, a power grab. The vote should truly be a no brainer for everyone. The answer is no. I mean, not just no, but heck no. What in the world are you people thinking? NO. Are you kidding me? For real? NO. What are you trying to say? Your constituents are too stupid to pick a good candidate themselves? Still, NO. I’ll come back to that though. We, the voters, may be partially to blame for our state’s education problems, but that’s not quite the end of the story. The buck doesn’t stop there. Imagine my surprise when during the State of the State speech last night Governor Kay Ivey made this point for me. Thanks, gov. No really. Thank you. Here’s the line from her speech: Ask yourself this question: Is there any high school in Alabama, much less any college or university, that would continue to keep a head coach who produced teams that were consistently dead last? Would Auburn or Alabama? Well no, Governor. I don’t believe they would. We love our football like we love our, wait for it, kids. Which is why we should get rid of the “head coach” of the Alabama Board of Education. Let’s see, who that would be? Wait, I have an image from their website. Looking at the titles, looking at the titles, wait, who’s “President?” Oh, yeah. Hmm. So about that head coach analogy, it doesn’t really work the way you intended it to, does it, Ivey? After all, there’s no way you would have called us voters, your constituents, the proverbial head coach or insinuated that we needed to be fired. No! You would not have dared to put it that way. Would you? But the more I think about it, it seems clear that’s exactly you’re saying there. So allow me to address that. What the governor and the legislators who support this amendment have said, repeatedly, is that it’s necessary to pass Amendment 1 because we have failed. In her state of the union, Ivey all but blamed us voters for the failures of our current education system and to some extent she’s right. They’re right. Let me explain. To be honest, up until the time this amendment came up in the last six years I’ve lived in Alabama, I haven’t spent a lot of time worrying about the SBOE. I was guilty of not recognizing the importance of the board. I think it’s because my three children are still so young, only one is of grade school age and she attends a private school. The reason for that is because the school we are zoned for is failing. Not only is it failing academically, but it is also failing in every other imaginable way, including failing in providing a safe, nurturing and engaging environment and there is no continuity in administration. So, yeah, that’s a no go. No one should be forced to send their child to a school like I’m zoned for, which is why we need school choice but I digress. I wasn’t paying attention to the system quite yet because I was overwhelmed by it’s failing results in my own world. Let’s take a second to read what the governor had to say in her speech: But first, I want to, once again, level with you, the Members of the Legislature, and perhaps more importantly, with the people of Alabama. During last year’s session, the Legislature gave the voters of Alabama an opportunity to help move our education system in a bold, new direction, by having an opportunity to vote on AMENDMENT ONE, which will be on the March 3rd primary ballot. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten all-too-complacent to being at or near the bottom of national education rankings. Ask yourself this question: Is there any high school in Alabama, much less any college or university, that would continue to keep a head coach who produced teams that were consistently dead last? Would Auburn or Alabama? Sadly, too many of our third graders are not proficient in reading. In fact, according to the Nation’s Report Card, we are 49th in the nation in reading and we are 52nd in the nation in math! And it only gets worse as they get older… too many of our high school graduates simply aren’t ready for college or a career. Let me be abundantly clear… this isn’t the fault of our hard-working teachers, principals or local superintendents…Folks, it starts at the top. Alabama is one of only six states that still has an elected state school board and this board has selected 5 State Superintendents in the past 5 years. Very simply, Amendment One will create term limits for the State Board and no member will serve more than two six-year terms, thus bringing fresh new ideas to the commission every few years. Equally important, the newly constituted board will reflect the racial, gender and geographic diversity to reflect the make-up of students in our public school system. There’s no other way to say it but our current system isn’t working. Page 5 of 10 For us to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s opportunities, it is time we get serious: It’s time for creativity. It’s time for accountability. It’s time for stability. It’s time to vote YES for Amendment One on March 3rd! She lost me when she gave the coach analogy because SHE
Medical marijuana advocates up in arms over Jeff Sessions
The head of a medical marijuana advocacy group is criticizing President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General. Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, said in an email Friday that the Republican Sessions “has criticized the morality of cannabis users and has stated that cannabis is more harmful than alcohol.” Sessions, a former federal prosecutor, once “rebutted (President) Obama’s observation that marijuana is safer than alcohol by citing a renowned expert on substance abuse: ‘Lady Gaga says she’s addicted to it and it is not harmless,’” according to Forbes. On the other hand, Sherer said, Trump “repeatedly said he supports medical cannabis and that he believes states should be able to set their own policies in this area.” The president-elect “needs to reassure the more than 300 million Americans living under some sort of medical cannabis law that his attorney general will honor his campaign pledge to respect state medical cannabis programs,” Sherer said. “Plain and simple, medical cannabis is a critical therapy used by millions of patients to alleviate symptoms of epilepsy, chemotherapy, HIV/AIDS, chronic pain, and more,” she added. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized medical marijuana under state law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A ballot initiative giving Floridians a state constitutional right to medical pot passed earlier this month with 71 percent of the vote. But marijuana is still outlawed by the federal government. The Obama administration has given states a pass, saying federal prosecutors should not charge those — particularly “the seriously ill and their caregivers” — who distribute and use medical marijuana under a state law.
