Alabama Education Association

I am a member of the Alabama Education Association. I am a member of a lot of other organizations and like you I’ll bet there are some things you support in the organizations to which you belong and some things that you disagree with, maybe even loudly and heartily. That, gentle reader is my relationship with the AEA.

For starters, the AEA apparently isn’t going to support me. Even though I’ve been a member for 27 years. Even though I have been an elected delegate to the the annual convention more years than not. I’ve sent in my dues regularly and enjoyed the benefits AEA provides to teachers. Nobody else is going to look after my well-being and my ability to survive in education like the AEA. One wonders then, Why won’t the Imperial Grand Poobah of the organization back me? AEA apparently does not even recognize my candidacy. Because I’m a Republican? Because of favors owed to other candidates? Who knows.

But, the AEA does have a couple of sacred cows which need to be de-horned. The first of these is serious review of the tenure laws. While I support the current laws for teachers in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, tenure for people who work for community colleges needs to be reformed. When I talk to people in the district the perception of teachers and administrators who remain on the payroll after they commit crimes seems to be a serious sore point with the working taxpayers.

I do have to agree with AEA's rules preventing the review of incompetent teachers who need to be removed by incompetent and overpaid administrators who also need to be removed. There is simply to much room for a qualified teacher to be removed simply because a brother-in-law needs the job. AEA can help with that but still, The tenure laws need a review.

Some years ago, Republican Representative Tripp Pittman, of Baldwin County, introduced legislation which provided for some improvement in the existing tenure law. Administrators—those people who run the colleges and their various divisions - could only obtain tenure as members of the faculty.

This meant that people responsible for academic, vocational, and technical areas would have to be members of a faculty first. My friends and I supported this portion of the measure. But hurtful to the entire concept of tenure lurked the idea that faculty members on continuing service, once fired, would place an unfair burden on men and women who can’t afford that expense.

AEA objected to this package and killed it.

In addition, community college faculty members should only be able to obtain tenure after five years’ service. And I think it ought to be expanded to require peer review evidence of superior teaching, community service, and professional growth in the teaching area.

Lost in the proceedings was a overly-wordy piece of legislation from the 1990s called “The Articulation and General Studies Agreement.” This agreement says that credit hours at our community colleges transfer to public four year institutions with the same status as if the student took the course at the senior institution. The other side of that coin must be that equal credit hours mean equal conditions of learning. First of these equalities should be the hiring, professional growth, and retention of our community college faculty. Second, but not less important is funding for facilities that are at least equal to the University setting. This is going to require a complete review of the regulatory body of the Community College System.

I’ll have more to say about the Alabama Education Association in the coming weeks. You can depend on me to stand up for honesty and ethics reform in every nook and cranny of government. That reform will start within the cranny in which I live.