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The American public is alarmed over the federal takeover of so many facets of our economy including the auto industry, financial institutions, and healthcare. Strangely, one of the largest sectors of our economy– public education–is being taken over with almost no public awareness. Congress and the state legislatures have been left out of the loop as have parents, educators and other taxpayers. However, the significance of this total federalization of our schools will be felt by parents as soon as they have a problem with school curricula or testing and can no longer appeal to locally accessible authorities, but instead they will have to look to faraway Washington for assistance from a faceless bureaucrat.

Americans have always considered education to be under state and local authority by virtue of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.. Even the controversial “No Child Left Behind” law acknowledged state authority by prohibiting “national standards” and a “national test.” This plan being promoted by the Obama administration was not termed “national standards,” but was given the name “Common Core State Standards Initiative” or CCSSI. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has helped make the medicine of federalized education more palatable by tying federal “Race to the Top” grant money to the Common Core adoption. Much like Esau of old, who swapped his birthright for a bowl of porridge, today’s state education leaders and governors are trading state sovereignty over education for the chance to compete for more federal dollars.

Although most Alabamians have no idea we are ceding the state’s authority over practically all aspects of education (content standards, tests and assessments, teacher evaluations and professional development, ed school preparation programs, and even technology integration), we are indeed moving very rapidly in that direction. It will soon be too late to put on the brakes: the Alabama State School Board is scheduled to vote in November on whether to adopt Common Core Standards.

Our state is participating in two partnerships (called consortia) to develop national assessments. Last month the consortia submitted applications for federal grants of up to $320 million for developing a “comprehensive assessment system for grades 3 and up. Until now the sparse public discussion that has occurred across the nation has focused only on the “common core standards.” But couldn’t the quality of the new assessments be even more important? What If they prove to be vague, weak, difficult to grade objectively and/or have a “low bar” for passing ? What I have read of the proposed assessments reminds me of the verbiage of the discredited OBE (outcome based education) plan of the early 1990′s. Under the guise of giving states flexibility, the federal guidelines allow states to add 15% of content. If national assessments can’t cover content not embraced by all states, what likelihood is there that the extra 15% a state adds will be taught?

And last but certainly not least, what about the costly and extensive databases mandated under this federal plan? All teachers and students from pre-k forward must be assessed, tracked, and reported on, but does anyone know if there are sufficient safeguards for their privacy rights?

During a time when the public and private sectors are in fiscal distress, why in the world would we in Alabama want to embrace a massive and expensive foray into the educational unknown? Texas and Alaska wisely refused to participate at the beginning, and eleven others have refused to apply for the Race to the Top grants. The sooner Alabama backs out of this federal takeover, the better off we will be. I hope the Alabama State School Board soon votes NOT to adopt the Common Core Standards, and thereby retains for parents, local schools and our state the responsibility for overseeing the educational content that molds the hearts, minds and futures of our children.

When I reflect on the two times I was sworn in and promised to uphold our Constitution, I feel compelled to share my concerns with the the people of Alabama. I appreciate your giving me a venue to do so.

Betty Peters
District 2 Representative
Alabama State School Board
Dothan

Many newspapers recently ran an article by AP reporter Desiree Hunter about the Alabama Community College System’s proposed search for a new chancellor. Apparently it generated several editorials. I would like to clarify what happened regarding former Chancellor Roy Johnson’s pay raise.

In 2005, a committee of several state school board members (including Dr. Mary Jane Caylor) was appointed to make a recommendation for a salary increase for Johnson. Dr. Caylor presented what I thought was a very vague recommendation to the board (it had no precise amount of the total, which included deferred compensation). Justification offered for the large raise included a comment that if he didn’t get the raise, Johnson might leave us to accept the headship of AEA. All voted for it except Stephanie Bell and myself. When I explained my negative vote, I turned to Mr. Johnson to say that I was voting ”No” because the pay raise was excessive and sent a bad message to the taxpayers and would be better used in the classrooms.

A year later Stephanie Bell and I tried to pass a motion to fire Johnson but no one would vote with us. Later in the year there was a motion to put Johnson on administrative leave with pay. Bell and I were unsuccessful in our attempt to convince others to fire him without pay.

I agree with you that “we should weigh options, come to the best conclusion on what the new chancellor’s salary should be and pursue the best person for the job while keeping future pay raises to a minimum.” And yes, as you pointed out, that 2005 raise, which was recommended by the committee and presented by Dr. Caylor, did not work out very well. And two of us knew it would not.

Betty Peters
District 2 Representative
State Board of Education

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.

State school board member Betty Peters on Thursday praised Wallace Community College students from the Sparks Campus for their individual achievements. Yet she told the students the key to success in the real world will be their ability to work as a team with others.

Peters was the featured speaker at Wallace’s Honors Day at First United Methodist Church in Eufaula.

“As you bask in the glow of today, I would like to direct your thinking on what is ahead for you and what you will do with your life,” Peters said.

“As you grow older and progress in your profession, you will see that you are never alone.

“We are all part of a team, and what we do impacts the rest of them.”

Peters also stressed the importance of integrity in life and in the workplace.

“The character of our country is the sum of the character of its people,” Peters said.

She also said for America to “remain great,” it must return to its lost values of integrity and decency.

“It concerns me, and it should concern you, that many people think that America is not headed in the right direction,” Peters said.

“Our factories are moving overseas, our economy is negatively affected by illegal immigration, our schools are less successful than in decades past and our culture is increasingly becoming more debased and vulgar and less civil.”

She cited corporate giants like Enron and Worldcom that crashed because their leaders failed to put integrity first.

“The key, it seems to me, is having a workforce composed of men and women who have both excellent training and knowledge of their jobs and the personal integrity to perform them,” Peters said.

She said morality is even important in industries like aviation.

“Aviation is a career of morality,” she said.

“Unless a maintenance tech does his job, the machine will not be reliable, and the flight engineer, the pilot and others cannot do their job.”

She said an important lesson about teamwork can be learned from Charles Lindberg, who entitled his autobiography “We” after his non-stop flight to Paris in 1927.

“It was not the story of one man,” she said.

“It was the story of every welder, every woodworker, every machinist, electrician, technician, mechanic, engineer who contributed to the record-setting flight…A practicing Christian, he knew that it was by the grace of God and with the work of the entire team who participated that he was able to make that fantastic voyage.”

Peters also challenged the Wallace students to consider the Rotary Club’s Four-Way Test for Truth, calling it “one of the best known codes of business ethics.

“Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

Peters represents District Two on the Alabama Board of Education, which includes Barbour County.

Wallace Community College President Dr. Linda Young presented Peters with a plaque and gavel for her service to the state board of education.

“She’s a sincere advocate for public education and for the students public education serves,” Young said.