In the Weeds with Alabama Daily News

A new episode of "In the Weeds" is out!

This week, Mary and I host Alabama Department of Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield to go in depth on the economic development incentives bills currently before the Legislature.

We also chatted about the more granular details of industrial recruiting. A truly weedy conversation!

Listen HERE or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mary and Todd visit with State Rep. Rex Reynolds, chairman of the House General Fund budget committee. They talked budgets, obviously, but also hit on other issues: the Huntsville police shooting, prisons, a possible grocery sales tax cut and much more!

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

Todd and Mary review the week that was in the Alabama Legislature. No guests, just informed commentary about what happened and curiosity about what's next as Spring Break comes.

 

Todd and Mary talk with House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels of Huntsville about the Democrats' agenda for the upcoming legislative session. Among the topics discussed are un-taxing groceries and overtime income, school choice and economic development incentives.

The term triangulation refers to a political strategy used by the Clinton administration in which the former president would claim the popular middle ground on issues by making the right and left positions seem extreme. It came up in this conversation because of Daniels staking out what would seem like Republican proposals in any other year: tax cuts on groceries and overtime income.

Really interesting conversation. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter comes "in the weeds" to discuss what the upcoming session might look like.

We talk some issues, but mostly stick to process and how the House of Representatives will be different under his leadership. What will it mean to empower committees more? Will there be a difference in the way the floor operates? How are new members getting acclimated and is there any truth to this idea of a state-level "freedom caucus?"

These questions and more get explored in the weeds!

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - As Alabama state leaders ramp up budget discussions, Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey presented his department's funding requests during a budget hearing on Thursday, asking for an additional $984 million in new funding in the next fiscal year.

Gov. Kay Ivey and lawmakers last year approved a record $8.2 billion education budget for public K-12 and higher education institutions. On Thursday, several agencies outlined their need for more money in 2024.

The largest portion of the newly requested K-12 funds, Mackey said, would be used to both increase teacher salaries and recruit new teachers amid continued staffing shortages. Teacher shortages have plagued Alabama’s public education system for years, with the state’s greatest shortage areas being in special education, early childhood and elementary teachers.

“Over 30 years in education, I never thought we would see the day where we have more money than we have people,” Mackey said. 

“When I was a principal, I had 80 teaching applicants for one opening in third grade. The trouble was I had money for maybe one and I'd like to hire three; the problem now is they have the money but can't find the people.”

Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey shares a presentation on his department's 2024 budget requests to a joint legislative budget committee at the Alabama State House on Thursday.

Mackey said $264 million of the new funding would go toward adding 3,000 teaching positions across the state, as well as additional counselors and assistant principals.

“Some of our very rural communities can't find more people to hire,” Mackey continued. “They're even having a hard time finding teacher assistants, not just certified teachers. They can't find teacher's aids in some of our communities because the job market's just so tight.”

Mackey said that the state’s public school system was short on teachers by 300 in special education, 104 in early childhood (K-3), and 183 in elementary.

The proposed budget would also raise classroom supply spending from $900 to $1,000 per teacher, add an additional $20 million toward transportation operations, allocate $24 million toward summer math camps and other math improvement initiatives stemming from the Numeracy Act.

Another hurdle facing Alabama’s public school system is the impending deadline for federal COVID-19 reliefs funds to be spent.

Federal dollars went to school districts across the country by the billions with the passage of three legislative relief packages; the CARES Act, the Appropriations Act, and the American Rescue Plan Act. Mackey said that the entirety of funds from the CARES Act have been spent, most of the funds from the Appropriations Act have either been spent or committed to be spent, but that a large portion of ARPA funds still need to be allocated.

“It's been a struggle in many districts to spend the funds they have because one of the best ways to spend these federal funds is on people, and they can't match people to the money,” Mackey said.

“All of our districts have spent their (CARES ACT) funds, most of the (Appropriations Act) funds are spent, it's that third trunk of money that was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in the spring of 2021 that was the largest bucket of money, and it has to be spent by next fall.”

While Mackey said he and his colleagues are diligently working with school districts to get those funds spent, he called on the U.S. Congress to extend the deadline for ARPA spending.

“We're working with districts, we're being proactive in trying to help them identify...

Mary and I welcome State Rep. Terri Collins, who chairs the House Education Policy Committee and who is known for being a subject matter expert on the issue of education. We talk about what the Legislature might tackle education wise this session, from literacy and numeracy to choice and the budget surplus. A very "in the weeds" discussion if we don't say so ourselves!

Todd welcomes Stephen Boyd, a veteran Washington operative who writes the new "MONDAY BRIEF" about the latest from the nation's capital.

Topics include:

The Alabama Delegation's committee assignments and what they mean;

What's really going on with debt limit negotiations with historical context;

The realities of divided government from someone who has seen it all;

Why we haven't seen a decision on Space Command to Huntsville;

And what we should think about the Trump / DeSantis poll.

Todd and Mary interview State Sen. Arthur Orr, who chairs the Senate Education Ways and Means Committee. The issues are myriad, from allocating ARPA dollars and when a special session might be called to how a tax rebate might materialize and what school choice items are actually on the table.

Todd and Mary break down the week that was in Alabama politics. Topics include the inauguration and reading between the lines of speeches, the first pre-filed bill of the 2023 regular session and where Alabama's Congressional delegation landed on the committee carousel.