From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Some breaking news tonight with big implications for the state of Alabama.

Workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa have rejected a bid to unionize led by the United Auto Workers.

In a stunning defeat for the UAW, 57% of workers voted against unionizing Alabama's first auto plant.

This comes after a months long persuasion campaign from UAW.

The organization has been aggressively pursuing southern auto plants and successfully unionized the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant just a few months ago.

A similar effort is underway at the Hyundai plant here in Montgomery.

State leaders, including Governor Kay Ivey, encouraged workers to reject the effort, arguing that it would come with unintended consequences, including potential layoffs.

Ivey today celebrated the win, saying, quote, the workers have spoken and spoken clearly.

We urge the UAW to respect the results of the secret ballot election, end quote.

Some encouraging news on the education front.

Alabama's third graders exceeded expectations on this year's reading scores.

You may remember that back in 2019, the state enacted the Alabama Literacy Act, which raised standards and offered students more support for reading instruction.

Part of that law requires that students be able to read proficiently before being promoted to the fourth grade.

The Department of Education today announced that 91% of Alabama's third graders tested at or above grade level for reading.

That's an improvement over just 83% a year ago.

About 4800 students tested below grade level, which will trigger efforts to get them caught up in reading proficiently over the summer to avoid holding them back.

I'll talk in more detail about this with State Superintendent Eric Mackey later in the show.

A scary accident last week after the legislative session ended.

Representative Barbara Boyd of Anniston was involved in a car wreck while riding home from Montgomery.

She was seriously injured and remains hospitalized.

Her colleague, representative Randy wood, said Boyd is resting and improving.

The Alabama law Enforcement agency is investigating the cause of that wreck.

While the session ended last week, a key part of the legislative process continued.

This week, dozens of bills passed by the legislature were sent to the governor's desk with hopes that she'll sign them into law.

Governor Ivey took the opportunity to highlight one of her own priority bills.

This week, she and other state and local leaders gathered in Demopolis to sign legislation that will make a big impact there and statewide.

Jeff Sanders has that story.

Before a packed crowd at the Demopolis Civic Center, Governor Kay Ivey ceremoniously signed into law a bill establishing the Alabama School of Health Care Sciences will help.

More Alabama students open the door to their futures.

It will bring more men and women into our health care workforce.

It will change the trajectory of rural health care in our state.

The school was established to provide high school students with educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical and health care sciences.

Republican Representative Cynthia Almond sponsored the bill in the House.

Almond credited the unwavering support of residents in West Alabama and the city of Demopolis.

The hard work is paid off.

Demopolis.

Let's get to work.

Let's build a first class school so that we can educate our young people and help move Alabama forward.

The residential school will welcome students from across the state.

Rob Pearson serves as the chair of the Alabama School of Health Care Sciences Foundation.

From the beginning of the process, we heard a common theme from everyone we talked to.

Strong community support will set you apart, and because of the people in this room, we did stand apart.

Although it passed unanimously in the House, the bill faced challenges here in the Senate.

Senator Bobby Singleton credited Governor Kay Ivey with her push to lawmakers to make sure the school became a reality.

When we were looking at economic development, I've stood with her on every economic development project that she has come out with because I believe in her vision.

There were doubters, people.

There were doubters.

Even on the night that we were passing this bill, trying to say to us, what if it fails?

What you going to do?

Who going to come to West Alabama?

Nobody really want to come to West Alabama?

No one really want to come and send their kids to West Alabama.

Well, I say to those doubters, the hell with you.

For her part, Governor Ivey said the work is just beginning.

Let's get this school opened in under two years.

Let's get this funded in my final budget as governor.

And let's get students from all over Alabama in the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences.

Reporting from Demopolis, I'm Jeff Sanders for Capital Journal.

Here's a list of other notable bills the governor signed into law this week.

House Bill 73 from Representative Philip Pettus caps at 7%.

The amount property values can either increase or decrease year to year.

House Bill 113 from Representative Puebloan Warren requires that public school children attend kindergarten or pass a proficiency test before entering the first grade.

Warren has labored for several years on that bill, and now it is finally law.

Senate Bill 186 from Senator Arthur Orr bans ranked choice voting in any state or local elections in Alabama.

Senate Bill 309 from Senator Steve Livingston brings taxes on alcohol sold at ABC stores to the same county average for private liquor stores.

House Bill 126 from representative Lee Holsey requires firefighters and other first responders to complete training on how to safely interact with those with sensory issues.

Senate Bill 157, also from Orr, sets policies for teachers expelling disruptive students from their classroom and Senate Bill 231 another or bill would make companies ineligible for state economic incentive dollars if they voluntarily recognize a union or allow for a union vote without a secret ballot.

And there's one more bill that was just signed into law this afternoon.

Senate Bill 219 from Senator Shay Shelnutt paves the way for the Alabama Farm Center in Jefferson County.

This project from the Alabama Farmers Federation is meant to attract world class agriculture events here to the state.

Well, the dust is settling from the legislative session.

The Capital Journal's Randy Scott caught up with some lawmakers for their thoughts with this session now in the rearview mirror.

The 2024 regular session is in the books.

After a few months, a few surprises and a lot of debate.

It's a done deal.

I'm only my second year, so we handled a lot of things that people have told me that we handle a lot more than we normally would.

I don't know that much different, but so I just know that we put in a lot of work.

This was probably my most tumultuous session yet.

Um, there were just a panoply of really tough bills and issues that we dealt with.

Representatives Prince Chesnutt and Mike Shaw got a first person look at the action in the Alabama House.

When you look at gambling, IVF, school choice, a lot of really big, big rocks to move.

And I'm really proud.

I think we I think we got a lot done.

You know, obviously the lottery and coming up short in the Senate on that as, as well as the, the ballot, uh, you know, the ballot harvesting bill, uh, as well as the, the dye bill, those bills were extremely tough.

Citizens throughout Alabama have been talking about those lottery gaming proposals.

It was the Alabama House that put that package together.

As the session ends, House members have a lot to say about those bills.

Both men agree the lottery issue took center stage this session.

I commend the House of Representatives because the House of Representatives came through.

When it comes to the lottery, we worked through it.

Um, of course, the lottery started in the house, and, um, there were three gentlemen in particular who worked really, really hard on that bill in the House for months before it got to the rest of us.

And then we were able to get it through with more than enough, uh, votes out of the House.

But then it went to the Senate and it crashed.

And that's obviously extremely controversial.

Controversial issue for a lot of folks.

Uh, for me, I did not like the first bill.

I thought it went too far.

I thought it was bad for my district and just a lot of things that had not even been contemplated by the people in my district.

As they made some improvements, I was ready to to approve the second one.

I voted yes on the second second bill.

Um, I was it's unfortunate that that didn't move forward further, but that's politics.

At the statehouse.

Randy Scott, Capitol Journal.

Alabama has a new teacher of the year.

Debra Stringfellow, from Airport Road Elementary School in Elmore County was named Alabama's Teacher of the year at a special ceremony today.

She'll spend the next year traveling the traveling the state to promote the teaching profession, and she'll do it in a brand new car courtesy of Alfa Insurance and the Alabama Farmers Federation.

We've been doing this for 28 years.

Uh, providing a vehicle for the teacher of the year.

We're very proud to do that.

Alfa insurance provides the car for them to use for a year.

Uh, Alabama Farmers Federation insures that car with Alfa for them while they're driving.

So, uh, we are committed to this program.

We're committed to good teachers and want to stand behind them and support them.

Just want you to know that I do represent everybody here.

Um, I was really shocked.

First of all, um, just being here for two years at the beginning of this school year, started my third to be nominated.

I really was coming here just to have a mission field and make a difference in the lives of children each day, and to be honored in such a wonderful way from peers that I admire, learn from, aspire to be like each day is very overwhelming.

A who's who crowd of athletes, coaches and political leaders gathered in Montgomery this week for a special event the Jimmy Rein Foundation's annual scholarship, golf tournament and dinner.

The foundation this year is providing college scholarships to 60 students, bringing the total to 700 scholarships offered since the effort began.

Recently retired Alabama coach Nick Saban was the keynote speaker for the event.

We caught up with Coach Saban and Mr.

Rein to ask about the importance of providing a hand up to young people.

A big night for a lot of the families.

We've got 60 scholarships being awarded.

30 something I think were able to be here.

And, um, so, um, it's the biggest event we've ever had is over 1000 people here tonight, and we've raised over $2 million in one night.

And I'm staggered, uh, at that amount of interest.

And I'm sure it has a lot to do with Nick being here.

I think this is a great, um.

Cause I think Jimmy's foundation has sent over 700 kids, if I'm not mistaken.

Um, with scholarships to have an opportunity.

And the whole idea that we help someone else, we help other people.

Uh, Jimmy's always supported our foundation.

Nick's kids.

Uh, because that's the same thing we try to do.

We try to create opportunities to, you know, help other people.

And obviously, with what he's been able to do here.

Um, the operation and as well as the foundation that he has, uh, has been instrumental in a lot of people changing their lives.

And I think that's something that we all should be committed to.

And, um, you know, he and I have had a great relationship because he's all about people.

I'm all about people.

It's not all just about Auburn.

And it's not just about Alabama.

It's just about helping people.

And I think that's why we're both here tonight.

The kids in the middle.

It's not the very, very poor kids because every foundation and the federal government through Pell Grants supports a very, very poor.

And it's not the rich kids.

They don't need any help, but the children from families who have lost a parent or have a parent that's critically ill, or they have more siblings than they can support, uh, those are the ones we try to identify.

If you go to any college campus, any college campus, and go in a restaurant, you will find students working or in department stores or in grocery stores.

They're working to try to stay in college, and we want to try to help the kids in the middle, the people that kind of get forgotten.

While at the event, I ran into US Senator Tommy Tuberville.

He was in New York earlier this week attending the trial of former President Donald Trump.

Tuberville said he and Attorney General Steve Marshall felt compelled to go and speak out on Trump's behalf, since the judge in the case has limited what the former president can say publicly.

I asked Tuberville what he saw in the courtroom.

Yeah, it worked out that way, you know.

We go in there and listen, and they asked us if we'd say something media wise, and the judge wouldn't let us be in the courthouse at all.

Not just the courtroom, but the courthouse.

So we had to go out in Lafayette Square and talk me and J.D.

Vance and Steve Marshall was with us.

It was good.

And we basically, you know, gave our interpretation what the heck's going on.

And of course, he can't do that.

And so we were kind of a mouthpiece for him.

It wasn't it wasn't, uh, instigated, it wasn't planned, but I think it was good for the president and good for us to kind of give our interpretation.

I know we we got some, uh, uh, criticism for it from the left, but that's all right.

I mean, the problem is, you know, he should be able to express his own opinion, and they're not letting him do it.

You know, I spent all day with him.

One had breakfast with him, and, uh, Trump Tower went to the courthouse with him, with his entourage.

Uh, I wanted to see it for myself.

And it was the first day that Michael Cohen was on the stand.

But the prosecutor was was, uh, doing the, uh, the interview.

And, uh, what gets me is this all kind of all one sided, you know, the judge won't let President Trump even get up, but he can't make any gestures or anything.

Big gag order.

And then, uh, with Cohen and the rest of the group on the other side, it's just they can do anything they want.

But, you know, the president's doing good.

He's fighting through it.

You know, he wished he could go out and he could go out and be on the campaign trail.

But it's, uh, it'll be over within a week or so.

I don't you don't know how it's going to go being in New York, but I think he stands a good chance of getting out of this.

I haven't figured out what the charges are yet.

I mean, you know, they're struggling with that, but it's it's all for a reason.

It's a it's a political, uh, hack job.

Uh, at the end of the day, I think he'll be fine.

This week, Alabama Public Television aired Spotlight on Agriculture, a special program looking at food safety research and methods from Auburn University.

The show features practices that prevent foodborne pathogens and how scientists at Auburn develop and test technology.

It also explores Auburn's approach in combating pathogens in food such as salmonella, E.coli, and Listeria.

Here's a clip.

Food safety is extremely important for everybody in and around the world.

Just in the US, the CDC, the centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there are 48 million people who get sick because of eating contaminated food.

128,000 people are hospitalized and 3000 people die every year because of contaminated food.

This is such a huge number.

We are in 2023.

We are the latest and the biggest and the most advanced nation in the world, and we need to make sure that the food that we are producing is safe for consumers.

It's a huge onus on us as scientists as well as the industry and and government.

And so it is for us to develop new, innovative ways that we can improve food safety for, uh, for everybody and provide safe food for our consumers.

I work on developing and testing innovative technologies that can improve food quality, safety and shelf life.

My research focus specifically is on poultry, poultry, meats, and I work on poultry processing all the way to the product side.

Some of the pathogens that I work on are like salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes.

But over the period of time, we have also worked with some, uh, dairy related pathogens as well to improve food safety.

If you missed the show Thursday night.

Spotlight on Agriculture is available on our YouTube channel.

Just go to YouTube and search for Capital-journal and subscribe while you're at it so you never miss a show.

Coming up after the break, I'll sit down with State Superintendent Eric Mackey to talk about those encouraging test scores.

We'll be right back.

The DeSoto caverns is best known for its great Onyx cathedral, some 120ft high and larger than a football field.

The limestone cave, roughly 3 million years old, has a long and fascinating history.

It is home to a 2000 year old Native American burial site, and the oldest graffiti in a US cave was the source of saltpeter for gunpowder during the Civil War, and operated as a speakeasy during prohibition.

You're watching Alabama public television.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Doctor Eric McKee, state superintendent of Education.

Doctor McKee, thanks for coming on the show.

I'm glad to be here tonight.

Well, you've got some big news we do on reading scores.

We reported on this a little bit earlier.

Can you kind of walk through what you know has happened on Alabama's reading scores?

Yeah absolutely.

So we've got really good news.

And that is as we release those scores today 91% of our third graders are on grade level.

So at least 9% that are below grade level.

But I remind people that when we first rolled this test out in 2021, remember we were delayed a year because of the pandemic.

So 2021, we had 23% of third graders that year that tested below grade level.

The next year it was 22% last year, 17% this year 9%.

What it tells me is we're doing the right work.

The investments that Governor Ivey and the legislature have made, the policies that our state board has passed that have affected both classroom teachers and higher education and work we continue to do.

But it means we're on the right trajectory.

We're doing the right work.

And the beneficiaries are the children.

These are the children who are our kindergarten Covid students.

So we all have been worried about them.

But but what it shows is we're doing the right work moving these students forward.

And, you know, I feel very good about it.

I'm just very pleased with what's happening.

Cannot say enough about what our teachers have done, our teachers, our reading coaches, our elementary school principals.

It's been a lot of pressure on them to make sure students were ready when this day came.

The first first year will be, um, implementing the retention portion of the Literacy Act, and they've done their work and it's paid off.

I'm glad you brought that up.

The teachers, because here in this building in the statehouse, I remember 2019 passing the Literacy Act.

And it was a really big step in terms of policy, in terms of law for education.

But you can pass policy and law all day long.

It's the teachers that really have to get it done.

Would you say that they rose to the occasion, had a sense of urgency, especially knowing that that retention portion was coming?

Yeah, I think there's been a sense of urgency.

And, you know, in some places, maybe too much anxiety.

I've been spending a lot of time trying to remind teachers that, hey, just take a deep breath, do your job, do what you're trained to do.

And our job as a state Department of Education has been to provide our teachers with better stuff, better resources.

So what we call high quality instructional materials, it's been an effort to make sure we get the right teaching materials in their hands, the right professional development, how to use those materials, the right training.

We've we've trained thousands now tens of thousands of teachers in the letters program, which is, which is giving them the very best and newest research on how to teach reading and how students learn to read.

Um, and then good assessments.

You know, this year, in fact, one of the things I think that did lead to our success this year is we rolled out a practice test for students in third grade so they could practice the reading test before they took the test.

Well, why is that important?

The teachers need to see that how their students are doing in a practice test so they can come back.

That means some reteaching, some some maybe changing their instruction so that they know that their students are ready.

We this is a new test.

Remember, it's we changed standards in 2021.

We went to more rigorous reading standards.

We added in to make sure we covered adequately the five components of reading, which is, you know, again, new research.

So we had a test on the old standards, the standards that I inherited when I became superintendent the first two years.

That was in the spring of 21 and 22.

By 23, we had transitioned to new teaching standards, more rigorous, more rigorous tests.

So you would think, okay, you're going to more rigorous standards, more rigorous tests.

You're, you know, your results should go the opposite direction.

But because we're aligning instruction with materials, with testing, we're seeing that great, great progress being done.

And to your point, in the end, that's all about the teachers.

I mean, we can make all the best policies.

We can buy the best books, do the best research.

But it's that teacher in a classroom that makes the difference in a child's life each and every day.

When I bet there's no bigger, um, you know, celebrator of the success than those teachers themselves.

I hope so, yeah.

Well, speaking of that, we have a new teacher of the year.

Uh, you know, talk about that, talk about, um, you know, we reported on it earlier, but this program has been going on for decades, I suppose.

Talk about the importance of honoring a teacher of the year and what goes into that.

Yeah.

So actually, the National Teacher of the year program, which we're part of, is celebrating 75 years this year.

And Alabama's been having a teacher of the year for, for most of that time.

Uh, really we we have continued to build and do better and more things for our teacher of the.

Year teacher of the Year in Alabama this year from Airport Road Intermediate School in Elmore County.

And she'll get a year off work to to be able to go around the state to meet with other teachers, to visit schools, to talk.

She'll she'll have several national engagements to.

We really want to honor that teacher.

Today we were able to give the teacher of the year a car thanks to Alfa Insurance.

They provide a car for the year.

Um, you know, it's really a special time for that person, but it's more than that one person.

It's a special time because she represents all the teachers in Alabama.

Uh, just two weeks ago, the outgoing teacher of the year who's from Shelby County, um, Oak Mountain Middle School, he and I were able to go to Washington.

He actually got to go spend the whole week in Washington.

I got to go join him for just one day.

And it really again, he said that over and over.

I am a representative of the 48,000 classroom teachers in Alabama who give back to children each and every day.

Wow.

That's really something.

And congratulations again.

Actually, we're going to try to have her on spotlight on education soon.

Um, looking forward to that.

Well, speaking of teachers, lots of policies discussed during the legislative session about workers comp, teachers bill of rights, things like that.

I know you track all this and you know, you don't necessarily lobby and things like that, but all this stuff affects you.

Are you how has the legislative session, as the dust settled, and how do you all come to grips with the policies that pass the ones that don't, because it ultimately affects the department?

Absolutely.

So we have about 30, 30 bills this year that directly affected K-12 education.

Um, you know, our process is after after they're signed, after they well, maybe before they're signed, but after they passed the legislative process, we know there won't be any more amendments.

We start going through those.

Of course, we started that process several days ago, but we really will be hyper focused on that.

We spend a lot of time today working on that.

Um, we'll send a memo out mid June to superintendents to let them know about new grant programs that will be available, um, new requirements that will be out there.

So one of them this year, a big one is EDS.

So the legislature passed a bill to require that AED training.

That's I can't I can't even tell you what it stands for.

But it's the electric machine.

Yeah.

They use the defibrillator.

Right.

If you have a have a heart episode that we'll teach all of our students in high school how to use one.

Along with CPR class, the legislature put $5 million in the budget to to buy ads for these health classrooms.

So we'll be sending out in June, you know, both guidance about what that means and also how to access the money so you can buy the machines.

That's just one example of many things we'll be doing.

Um, some of them, of course, are a little more difficult for schools to implement than others.

That's that's one that's pretty it's pretty straightforward to implement.

But at the same time, that means you've got to have, um, you know, hundreds of health teachers trained in how to use an AED and how many of them are already, but not all of them are certified yet.

So we have to get them certified.

We have to get them the machines in the classrooms.

It takes some time to do that.

That will not all be done by August 1st, but sometime during this next school year, it will be.

It's um, it's a multi week process for us to, you know, to kind of do all the guidance that comes after the legislative session.

And then what people don't understand is we will start working on next year's budget in July.

We always start in July, working on the next year's legislative budget.

Well, speaking of that, it was another record education budget.

Some held back, you know, because of the caps rolling reserve, also rainy day things like that.

But 9.3, almost $9.4 billion.

Another record spending plan for Alabama.

Were you pleased with the different line items and everything with with this education budget?

Yeah, absolutely.

So about $6 billion of that remind people comes to K-12.

So we fund our colleges.

Yeah the but the whole budget is is you know approaching $10 billion.

The K-12 portion is going over $6 billion.

For the first time.

You and I remember many years ago I remember Governor Riley getting up and talking about the first $6 billion budget.

That was a big deal where it was.

And and now we've got $6 billion just for K-12.

Um, we we got a lot of our priorities in there.

Of course.

You know, my priorities are the governor's priorities.

She wanted to make sure that we had the highest paid starting teacher salary and our neighboring states.

And that's in there, um, gave, of course, 2% pay raise to all of our employees, um, money record record amount of money for classroom supplies for teachers this year.

Uh, so several of those things are baked into the budget.

And we're also really pleased, um, to see a big number in what we call ocps.

Now, nobody knows what that is, even a lot of legislators, we have to kind of explain.

But that's basically.

Money that superintendents can use to run their school district.

It pays for the power bill.

It pays for the water bill.

It pays for a school secretary because there's no line item for school secretaries.

And so that money this year, the legislature plussed up by $100 million on top of a healthy increase last year.

So what we're seeing is real investment in just the money that's needed to run a school on day to day basis.

That's important to me because of inflation.

So the, you know, the price of running the front office of a school has gone up significantly.

The price of keeping the grass cut, paying the power bill, those things are all going up, you know, exponentially.

And so the legislature saw the the need for that.

Well, we've got to give the governor credit.

She put that in her request.

Um, and the legislature kept that money there.

So I feel good because about that, because it means we are keeping pace with and even slightly outpacing inflation on those everyday expenses.

Otherwise, you start seeing delayed maintenance.

If you don't keep that money flowing, you see things like people don't cut the grass often enough, you don't have leaky roofs that are repaired and then down the road you really do pay for those things.

Um hum.

Well, speaking of the budgets and and like you said, the 6 billion coming to K through 12, there's talk in the legislature.

They passed a resolution to kind of study how we fund education, period.

Right.

How we kind of come up with the funding plan, I guess the foundation program was passed back in the 90s, I suppose.

So, yeah, it sounds like about time to to revisit that.

Where do these discussions go?

I know Tennessee did something with that.

Talk about how why that matters in terms of how we actually go about funding education.

Yeah.

So Alabama's funding system, the the the old, old funding system was passed in the 30s.

It was a product of the Great Depression.

37.

They passed a new funding plan and the bill and passed for the first time a big tax to support schools.

And that was the first time Alabama got the income tax.

So income tax was dedicated to K-12 public school teachers.

Um, then there really was not a significant change till 95 and 95.

They introduced this hybrid model that we call the Foundation program.

It's not a true foundation program.

And so now I think that's what the legislature here 30 years later is looking at.

What do we want to to make the next step to a true foundation program.

The difference is that in a true foundation program, you do what's called student weights.

So I might be a one.

And that's, you know, a one is like $7,500 is the base price it costs to educate a student.

But you're a gifted student, so you might be a 1.15 and somebody else might have a it might be an English language learner.

So they might be a 1.25.

And then we might have a student who has autism, they might be a 1.75.

And we would add all those students up by and then multiply $7,500, you know, in your case times 1.15 or times 1.25 or 1.75.

And that way you get your base allocation.

That's called the foundation.

What we have now is a student divisor system.

So we figure out how many students we have that we divide that by a certain number like it's 14.75 for kindergarten.

And then you earn teacher units.

And then we base everything on the units.

So so it's.

Just a headcount.

Really.

It's a headcount.

It's a different way of looking at it.

Um, the good thing about a foundation program is and as you just mentioned, Tennessee is the most recent state that went to that, um, is that you get a true a more true measure of what it cost to educate a student.

And we know there are some students that are significantly, um, you know, cost significantly more to educate if, if they have special needs, if they come to us not speaking the English language, then it costs a lot more to educate them.

Um, we'll see what it means.

You know, Tennessee did pass the model.

They are now in the process of implementing it.

It's not not been all roses implementation.

Of course they did.

It did mean that several hundred million dollars to a few billion dollars more money flowed into their education budget.

So I think that's one of the things the legislature is going to have to look at.

Um, you know, how much more money is going to be needed to go to a foundation true Foundation program?

Um, with this study, they did a study in 2012, 1314 somewhere in there, I think 13.

Right.

Yeah.

And the study came back and said, we need about $1.5 billion more.

That was when we had, um, about $6 billion in the education budget.

Total budget, about about 3.5 was going to K-12.

So, you know, when you look at that number, you were talking about increasing your spending by about 25 to 30%.

Um, so now we're at $6 billion.

So at the 20.

A 30% increase would be a lot.

I don't know that that the state would be able to bite that chunk off in one bite, but that's something they'll have to certainly think about as they do this study.

Yeah, and talking with Chairman Orr and Chairman Garrett, they're well aware that this is going to be a transition process.

I want to ask you about a bill that passed this session finally, after years being debated, is the kindergarten bill right?

First grade readiness is what they call it, essentially requiring students to either attend kindergarten or, um, pass a proficiency test to enter the first grade.

Representative Pebble and Warren has been working on this, um, yes, for years.

And we're, you know, thinking about you, Representative Warren, talk about this.

What does this mean policy wise?

What can we expect in terms of kindergarten?

Yeah.

Well, first, a big congratulations to Representative Warren.

I know that I have been working with her on this bill for ten years.

Wow.

And it's it's a it's a real, really important piece of legislation to her.

It's certainly to me to and to the legislature.

It became a very, very much a top priority for our state school board.

A couple of years ago, we had a lot of discussion about it, and this year really pushed hard to get to a compromise deal.

So we've got to it's we offer kindergarten for every child in the state.

Most children take us up on that.

But we do have several hundred.

I can't remember the exact number now, but several hundred to a couple of thousand students every year that just skip kindergarten and show up in first grade.

Some of them are ready for first grade.

We want to welcome them on in and they'll go to first grade.

But every year we have students who show up for first grade, who've not been in kindergarten, who've not been in a high quality pre-K program like Alabama's first class pre-K, who've not been in a really good daycare program.

And they don't know their colors.

They don't know the difference in a circle and a square.

They don't know how to, um, uh, they don't really know how to address themselves in some cases.

You know, they, they maybe have always worn, um, just kind of lounge pants or whatever.

And so when they have to dress up and go to school, that's a whole new thing for them.

And so we, we don't need first grade teachers trying to, you know, teach those skills, like the difference in red and blue and a circle and a square.

That's for kindergarten.

That's right.

That's why we have kindergarten.

So what we're saying is, look, you're going to have if you show up and you're not ready for first grade, then we're going to strongly counsel you.

We're going to do an assessment and strongly counsel you to to go to kindergarten.

Um, I don't think we'll have that many students.

But as this bill comes into play, I hope that what it does is raises the awareness for those parents that your children need to be ready for first grade.

We can't have them reading if they are, if they don't even know their colors and you know, they don't know what print is.

So people say, well, what's the assessment like?

Well, we're not talking about some rigorous academic assessment, but here's a key thing.

If I hand you a book and I ask you to read, you may not be able to read that book, but you should know if the letters are upside down or not, like you should be able to turn the book so it's right side up.

If we have a student that doesn't know if a book is right side up or upside down, then that student probably needs to go to kindergarten.

Interesting.

Well, let's revisit reading one more time while I have you, um, great scores.

I think we can all celebrate that we are going to have some retentions.

Um, but talk about the steps that are in place under the Literacy Act over the summer reading camps, things like that, to actually not hold students back but prepare them for the fourth grade.

Absolutely.

We have some of the the best summer reading programming in the country.

We're continually recognized for our summer reading camps.

We call them camps, not school because they're different, but we're reiterating those strong reading skills.

And so we'll have about 9000 students next week.

Excuse me, I shouldn't have said that about 9% of our students, about 4800 students.

So about 9%, 4800 students.

That will get a letter next week that they tested below grade level.

And many of them will need to go to summer reading camp.

They can take a test again in late June or in early July, and we'll get those results back.

Some of them will be promoted because they have an IEP, and their IEP team will recommend they be promoted.

This is the portfolio.

They can be a portfolio assessment.

So so in some cases you have students.

You know I hate to say this but I hate to see it.

But some some third graders get test anxiety.

Unfortunately at that age I don't want to see anybody having anxiety over a test.

But they do.

And so we're going to have some teachers that say, I know that this child can read and reads well, but just doesn't test well, and so they can use a portfolio to prove that, and that student might get promoted that way.

So there'll be other good cause exemptions.

Some of these students, these 4800 will be promoted under good cause exemption.

Some of them will go to summer reading camp, then they'll be promoted at the end.

But, um, but we'll have some, you know, we'll have some students retained and probably about twice what we normally have retained.

Um, and so that's we normal.

Normal retention rate is pretty low.

It's in the one and a half, two, 3%.

And I do expect that to go up significantly this year.

But but not the huge numbers that we were worried about four years ago that we might be looking at, you know, a quarter of our students being retained.

Yeah, I mean, there it's called accountability for a reason.

That's right.

Well, look, I've kept you too long.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

And congratulations on the on the reading scores.

Thank you very much.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next are my Capital Journal colleagues Randi Scott and Jeff Sanders.

Gentlemen, thanks for coming to the desk.

I appreciate it.

It's been.

A while.

Well, yeah, I think we we last did this really at the beginning of the session.

Right?

Seems like so long ago.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, it really does because this has been such an action packed session from beginning to end.

I wanted to kind of get y'all's reaction on that.

Just y'all are in.

Jeff, you're on the Senate floor.

Randy.

You're on the House floor.

Y'all see it up close every day.

Was it like they say, more action packed than than normal.

Well, I mean, I'll start with the Senate.

I mean, it, you know, we had especially early on with the three meeting days a week.

It was for folks who don't understand, you know, normally, you know, Wednesdays are just a committee meeting day, but actually meet on the floor on Wednesdays.

It was very busy.

We didn't have as many, like, late, late nights, and we had a couple here and there, but just overall, it just seemed like it was a grind each and every single day as a lot of legislation was being pushed through.

Yeah.

About the House.

I think it's a little different in the House, because there were a few nights that we were here until 10:00 and a little bit after or almost midnight, but like, like you said, Jeff, you had the three day work weeks combined with other meetings going on, especially dealing with things that we're going to talk about shortly, which kept the ball rolling, which kept people talking.

But you still had that that flux of bills and other items coming in for them to discuss and discuss it is what they did.

Yeah.

Same in the Senate, too.

You know, they had a lot of red meat issues early on as Senator Bobby Singleton likes to say, those red meat issues, you know, the Republicans I felt, especially in the Senate, really wanted to get those in and out of the way early.

And then they could really kind of concentrate on some of the more, I hate to say normal bills, but, you know, some of the, the more typical standard legislation.

Yeah, there were.

I'm sorry, there were some high output bills, like you said, that they knew were going to get people talking within the House and those who were not in the state House, across the country, across the state getting some attention.

And they wanted to get to that because, as they said, there were some other items, but primarily the budgets that they know they had to take care of.

And then the other things that came up, some expectedly, some unexpectedly, that they wanted to get to.

Yep.

I think the word grind is correct.

I ran into the speaker last night at the Rayne Foundation event and said, you know, have you have you been able to decompress?

He's like, you know what?

I got on my tractor and rode around my farm, didn't do any work, just rode around and that was enough to I was like, that's that's a pretty good way to do it.

Look, before we get into specific issues, Randy, I wanted to ask you for an update.

We reported Representative Barbara Boyd was hospitalized after a car wreck.

And also Representative Warren has been in the hospital.

Is there any update?

I know you cover the house and I wondered if you had an update.

Yes, this took place really Sunday when everyone got out.

Everyone was going home.

Representative Boyd from Anniston was on her way home.

And law enforcement always tell you, please make sure that you're buckle up and secure, because a lot of accidents happen within that 30 minute time period from your home.

And this was the case because Representative Boyd and her driver, she's 86 years old, so she doesn't drive that much or hits by someone head on.

And she was immediately taken to the hospital for surgery.

She was in ICU for a few days from what I was told, but I was also told recently that she is still in the hospital, still hospitalized, but is under-watched and she's doing much better.

It's still touch and go because when you're hit head on, no matter who you are or where you are, it's going to be rough.

That's scary.

Uh, representative Kevin Warren, on the other hand, was ill for the last couple of weeks of the session and missed some days and was in a hospital for a while.

But she, too has been getting better.

And last I heard, she was, uh, communicating with some of her representative members.

She was actually able to call in to some of them that last day and express her, play her her pleasantness, if you will.

That's a word.

I don't think it is for the.

For the bill, for the.

Bill, the kindergarten bill, which she had been working on for a number of years.

And it finally made it through.

And Representative Barbara Drummond, out of mobile, spoke to her and relayed the message from her to her housemates.

Basically, thank you all for getting this through because she has been working on it for a number of years.

So to both ladies, we wish them well and hope that they are basically getting better because it was real scary there, especially when it came to Representative Barbara Boyd.

Yep, yep.

Absolutely.

Our thoughts are certainly with them.

Um, talking about issues, Jeff, what do you think I'm going to ask you about gambling?

What is this.

Gambling?

I don't know much about this gambling you're talking about.

Well, it was interesting, you know, that last day.

Yes.

We're all just kind of sitting around waiting, you know, playing this waiting game, wondering what's going to happen.

There was a lot of talk about it coming back to the Senate.

I guess ultimately it didn't.

What was the chatter like?

Um, both that last day and and as the fallout has happened because ultimately it didn't pass.

Yeah.

It was crazy that last day.

You know, if you're up in the Senate, obviously you see what's happening on the Senate floor.

But a lot of the conversations happen off the floor.

They happen in offices, they happen in the hallway.

And you tend to overhear a few things here and there, and not to go into too much detail about those conversations.

But there was definitely back and forth with the House as those last minute negotiations were, were trying to take place.

You felt some frustration and maybe some apprehension from some of the Senate members about what the House was trying to do.

Um, and, you know, they really just could not get it across the finish line, as we are well aware.

Where.

But it was really interesting this year because I think there were just a lot of frustration.

Normally it's with the House, but with the Senate this year that the gambling really just kind of ran into a buzzsaw in the upper chamber, and.

Some frustration from House members that worked really hard on that.

Frustration is putting it mildly.

They were, as some people would say, 38 hot.

Because yes, this is a package that they were charged with putting together since in some cases some people said, well, the Senate has been taking the lead on this for a couple of years, let's let the House do it.

So they had gone through and had been working for well over a year on this.

Representative Andy Whitt, who was one of the three, uh, House members who are on the panel to help charter this through Representative Whitt, Representative Chris Blackshear, Representative Sam Jones, representative Whitt had done his jurisprudence, if you will, of going around several places around the state or really throughout the whole entire state just to get a feel of what is this like in Alabama?

So they got the package done, they passed it, and they passed it with a vote that as Representative Prince Chesnut said, you know, we had clear and present passing of this bill in the House, right?

We sent it to the Senate.

And as Representative Chris Blackshear said, in many, in many conferences with us reporter types down in the House, they ripped it to shreds.

Yeah, well, they did rip it to shreds.

And, you know, the Senate version passed, was mightily scaled down, really just had the lottery, excuse me.

And it kind of took out sports betting and took out a lot of the casino elements that, you know, they went to the conference committee and that version was still very much like the Senate version, the House, but the House still passed it.

The House looked fine.

We we you know, what Blackshear will tell you is and what Whitt will tell you, Representative Whitt, is they want to get a hold of illegal gambling in the state.

That's what they keep saying.

And then obviously, you know, all Britain, Senator, all Britain who pushed the legislation in the Senate, didn't even vote for it because the Porch Creek Indians were upset that it did not give them another location.

We can go on and on.

It just goes to prove that the issue of gambling in this state is not simple.

It is layered, it is complex, it affects a lot of people, a lot of special interests.

And we talk about the Senate.

But, you know, there's a you know, you just change 3 or 4 seats in the Senate from what we just had, uh, 3 or 4 years ago.

And those are the votes that really matter when it comes to getting this.

Passed and to what he said about it affecting a lot of people, a lot of talk.

As we went down, even to the last day, Representative Blackshear came up to talk, especially when they were talking about getting the education budget out and people were concerned about some programs maybe struggling to get through or get a good bit of what they need from the budget.

He said, well, you know something, we had some money on the table with a proposal from the lottery, with the education lottery, that could have taken care of a lot of this, but people voted no on it.

We could have had some more money for other programs for this, for that, for this.

But people voted no on it.

And now you're asking, well, what do we do since we're going to run possibly short of some money and maybe have to look for some other funding in the years to come?

Well, we had we had a solution for it.

I'll just add this one last thing, Todd.

And when people ask me about the legislature, they never ask me about, you know, about workforce or budgets or die or ballot harvesting.

They always ask about gambling.

And I know they get tired of us asking the questions, but we ask the questions because that's what everyone asks us.

Sure.

Yeah.

It's it's an issue.

Yes.

Because it's an issue.

I mean, it's just there.

Uh, well, we'll see what happens next year.

It looks like no special session.

And y'all saw I asked the governor point blank and she said, why would I do that?

So doesn't look like we're going to be having a gambling special session.

So if you.

Get that special message coming across your cell phone, special session coming up, what are you going to do?

No, no, not not anytime soon.

Um, you mentioned workforce development.

That was an issue that really had a lot of agreement this session, that seven bill package, I think all of them passed.

Um, one is a constitutional amendment.

Um, talk about that because I know Senator Reid, uh, pro Tem Reid was really a driver behind that.

Plus Lieutenant Governor Ainsworth.

Lieutenant governor, uh, pro Tem Reid really pushing that.

And you mentioned bipartisan support.

I know in the Senate, Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, uh, was on board with that as well, helping get it pushed through.

In fact, I was in Demopolis earlier this week, as you saw earlier in the show and, uh, wasn't in that particular story.

But he did, you know, talk about how the governor, he's been behind her with her workforce development plans the last few years.

So it definitely is something that they feel to kind of build the workforce in Alabama, to kind of create more jobs, to get the participation rate up.

And, you know, that was something that you talked about some bipartisan work that was probably the most bipartisan legislation we saw this year.

Right.

Um, well, and Anthony Daniels in the House, because he carried along with Garland Gudger that, uh, one of the most impactful bills, the child care tax credit, meaning, you know, incentivizing companies to develop their own child care and also offering some support for, you know, working parents to afford child care.

That's a big deal.

Um, talk about Daniels has had lots of these legislative wins the last couple of years.

That's another.

One.

I was just about to say it's two for two because previous session he had the.

No tax on overtime, pay for workers, doing a lot of things to give relief to those hard working people in the state.

And then as you as you both pointed out, the child care passage that he went through, very monumental, because there are a lot of people who will tell you this is really hurtful, because if we're working, we got everything taken care of.

But then you have to figure in the cost of child care, which is constantly growing every year.

It does a lot of good to help improve job.

Those seeking jobs in the state of Alabama, and those who may be interested in coming to Alabama because we want a workforce that's ready for people to come in and ready to step in and do the jobs that are before them.

So to get that overtime tax bill passed last year to get this jobs, I mean, this tax for those with kids for child care, very big.

And as you said, good big wins for him.

And it's been two in a row.

And he's been working on items like that for the last couple of years and working with the leadership both houses to get those done.

You don't see that kind of stuff in Washington, where a Democratic leader gets, you know, a really bipartisan bill that just well, and.

Let me add this quickly, because I know before we run out of time here, you talk about Dei, you talk about the ballot harvesting bill, those kind of red meat issues we talked about.

Senator Singleton.

Singleton talked about.

Yeah, they knew those were going to pass.

But, you know, they knew the rules and kind of worked hardest, as they said, to kind of add some amendments they thought watered it down.

And and, you know, the Republican leadership, you know, they let that go through.

They still got their bills through.

So I it is interesting to see that there is more you know, the minority here, I think gets a little more done in Alabama than you might see in other states.

Yeah, punch above their weight.

And because it's about cooperation.

And why do you want to shut down the Senate if you can just kind of come to an agreement over something while we have just a few minutes?

Um, big news today on this union vote.

And the reason I bring it up is this was a big legislative issue this year.

Everybody knew both Mercedes and Hyundai were going to have to have this unionization effort.

There was legislation from Senator or about, you know, clawing back incentives from companies that don't allow secret ballot things like that.

I mean, I was kind of surprised, maybe all this lead up to it.

What was y'all's take and what have you heard from lawmakers in the wake of this?

You know, Mercedes workers rejecting the UAW?

Well, I'll start.

I mean, obviously, Republicans are very happy the governor put out her press release today and praising that.

Lieutenant governor, I saw something on Twitter from him and the pro tem, Greg Reed, saying that obviously it's about, you know, we're a right to work state and it makes us stronger.

Uh, but, you know, there's there's still a lot of discontent, you know, you know, you look at the vote, 2000 people still voted for the union at Mercedes.

And and, you know, there's been a lot of complaints there about promises not being kept.

Um, so obviously, you know, that kind of gets down.

You know, the Democrats are more pro-union than Republicans are, but no doubt a big victory for for those in the state who don't want unions, do not want unions.

It's still interesting to see what happens at Hyundai.

A lot of the members of the House that I spoke to, that that touched on this issue said it's going to definitely be a new dawn of a generation here in the state after votes are taken, what they think is more attention is going to be placed on these companies who have these vested interests in Alabama and want to do work and want to produce a product that's going to put Alabama on the map, even that much more.

So whether or not they voted for a union or voted against the union, it's going to definitely change a lot of minds and get people to think about it from here on out.

What would a union do or what do we need a union for?

So it's it may be over with the.

Vote and a generational shift too.

I think I would be curious.

I know you really probably can't say because of secret ballot, but to see the breakdown, you know, from from the age of the workers at the Mercedes plant.

Yeah.

And I think the fact that it was a secret ballot is probably very significant.

We think Hyundai is next, but a big win for the governor who really encouraged workers to reject this for Business Council of Alabama.

They were really involved behind the scenes.

So really interesting development, especially considering Chattanooga just unionized.

So, well, gentlemen, we're out of time.

Unfortunately.

We'll catch you up next time.

But thank you again.

Let's, I guess, get a little bit of rest now that the session is over and we'll get back to weekly reporting.

Well, we'll.

Try to, but you said that's word earlier special.

So got to keep the radar up.

Don't keep your fingers.

Yeah.

Not knock on wood.

Knock on wood.

Thanks, Todd.

Thank you all.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week at the same time right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team I'm Todd Stacy.

We'll see you next time.