Betty Peters

Betty’s Warning Before the Primary of 2008

Betty Peters’ warning to voters in the June 2008 primary:

As a member of the Alabama State Board of Education, I agree with and appreciate the editorial boards of practically all the newspapers in our state who have come out in full support of a ban on “double dipping” by state legislators. A typical comment from one of the state’s newspapers regarding legislation to overturn the school board’s double dipping ban sponsored by Rep. Marcel Black and Sen. Linda Coleman succinctly said: “Rather than address how a legislator can ethically vote on legislation that has a direct impact on his employment or employer, a cadre of mostly Democratic legislators, with the aid and encouragement of the Alabama Education Association, has opened the door to let every public official feed at the public trough.” This sentence really hit the proverbial nail on the head!

On August 23, 2007, after much deliberation, the majority of members on the Alabama State Board of Education approved policies to ban legislators from holding jobs in state community colleges, a practice known as “double dipping.” In the preceding days, I had received and answered over a hundred emails and an equal number of phone calls, mostly from retired k-12 educators, who demanded that I vote NO. It was obvious from both the telephone and email campaigns that AEA would do all it could to fight the ban. The visitors at our board meeting that day were generally a boisterous lot. Speakers during the public comment period included teachers’ union head Dr. Paul Hubbert and several of the legislators who were Postsecondary employees, thus the object of the ban. I was shocked by their comments, some being the most disrespectful I have ever heard at a public meeting. Even more, I was truly surprised at the almost universally rude behavior of the AEA members in the audience, as they continued to interrupt speakers who were in favor of the ban. That the AEA-controlled legislators would later pass, by voice vote, a bill to overturn our “double dipping” ban is troubling and disappointing–but certainly not surprising.

In addition to overturning the ban on double dipping, the AEA and the legislators they control want to remove the responsibility for the community college system from the State School Board. If they are successful , the citizens of Alabama had better be prepared for a return to the recent era of nepotism, cronyism, favoritism and just plain corruption exemplified by the leadership of former chancellor Roy Johnson . It is not only ironic but also grossly hypocritical that the AEA never complained about corruption or blamed the state school board for lack of oversight until the board fired former chancellor Roy Johnson and began to institute policies of reform.
I am proud of what Gov. Bob Riley, new Chancellor Bradley Byrne and the majority of my fellow board members have accomplished in the last year or so. I am also proud of the many employees who have fully cooperated with the federal investigations and in the rebuilding of our system. I am thankful that the majority of voters in District 2 trusted me to represent them on the State School Board. I am grateful for the support the board has received from the media in Alabama, and from the vast majority of the public, as evidenced by the many phone calls , letters, and emails of encouragement from citizens across the state and even from outside Alabama. It is really heart-warming when members of the public recognize me and thank me in person for what we have done to reform the college system. Other board members have shared their own stories with me about constituents personally thanking them. I have realized that only a few people in Alabama are in favor of double dipping.

Based on what happened to me personally in the 2006 election, I publicly predicted a few months ago that the two board members with whom I serve who have most strongly supported reform would be targeted in 2008 by those who want to return to the previous policies which enabled corruption. I truly hope that voters in the districts represented by Stephanie Bell and Randy McKinney, Districts 3 and 1 respectively, will remember their strong stands for what is right and their leadership in correcting the errors of the past . I also hope Alabama voters will see through any attempts by the AEA to insert confusion into this campaign.

Education in Alabama will not have the transparency, accountability, efficiency or priority it deserves until “double dipping” ceases.