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state school board

2021 special session is about “simple” lines on a map

While the census controls where the new lines are drawn, so do expectations and requests from legislators and other elected officials.
November 1, 2021

State Auditor Jim Zeigler’s son, Win, passes away

James Baldwin “Win” Zeigler, the son of State Auditor Jim Zeigler and State Board of Education Member Jackie Zeigler, unexpectedly passed away in his sleep Friday. He was only 26-years-old. The Zeiglers’ daughter Maggie Zeigler, a senior at the University of Alabama, made the social media announcement for the family. “Deeply saddened to announce the … Continued
May 18, 2020

Amendment One goes down in flames

We’ll pick our own school board members, thanks.  That was the message Alabama voters overwhelmingly sent to Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama Senate President Del Marsh on Tuesday, defeating a measure that would have replaced the current state school board with an appointed one.  More than 75 percent of voters had voted against Amendment One, … Continued
March 4, 2020

An open letter to Senator Del Marsh

Senator: While you and I could not disagree much more on what we need to do to help Alabama schools and educators, I have never questioned that you are a successful politician and businessman. You could have tremendous impact on education in this state–if you would listen to real educators and teachers instead of latching … Continued
January 13, 2020

George Wallace was right

For some of us who are long in the tooth, we can recall that when George Wallace ran for president as a third-party candidate, he often said  “there was not a dime’s worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans. And looking at Alabama today, it’s hard to argue with what he said. For all intent … Continued
November 18, 2019

Education solution lies in breaking the status quo

This past week “IT” finally happened. Mississippi surpassed Alabama in overall rankings for K-12 education. What absolute fresh hell is this? In truth it is not that fresh. Alabama has been limping behind the pack for decades and this year’s “Nation’s Report Card” by the National Center for Education Statistics represented a final bottoming out. … Continued
November 7, 2019

Alabama schools finish dead last in math

Wednesday, the latest National Assessment of Education Performance math scores were released and once again the Alabama scores were among the worst in the entire country. In Math, Alabama public schools finished dead last in the entire country. Alabama public school students scored lower in math than all of the other 49 states, the District … Continued
November 6, 2019