Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
April 12
The Anniston Star on legislative proposals:
With the Alabama Legislature, a deliberative body scarred by its repetitive and self-inflicted sins, inaction can count as victory. Alabamians often win when legislators fail. This is one of those times.
Two measures making their way through the Statehouse this spring have defied all logic, and the fingerprints of state Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, are on both. It’s a bad look for the state Senate president pro tem, especially if he decides to enter the U.S. Senate race.
First, Marsh has led an effort to repeal the Common Core educational guidelines from Alabama’s schools. His bill is ill-designed, detrimental to public education in our state and fraught with, as they often say in Montgomery, “unintended consequences.”
Second, Marsh is co-sponsor on a bill from Republican Sen. Greg Albritton that would have installed sweeping changes to the state’s ethics laws and allowed lobbyists to offer unlimited gifts to public officials.
Both efforts are either dead or nearing extinction. Can we get a hallelujah?
The ethics bill has expired because the Senate Judiciary Committee saw it for what it was - a sham. “I have a hard time seeing it coming back,” committee Chairman Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, told The Associated Press. “It’s just too controversial, too fast. There are a lot of questions in there, a lot of concerns.”
Albritton claimed the bill was necessary because the existing ethics law - which Republicans famously wrote after taking control of state politics in 2010 - wasn’t clear. But vague on what? In a radio appearance this week on Birmingham’s 99.5 FM, Marsh tried to paint Albritton’s ethics overhaul as an economic necessity because stringent governmental transparency might submarine development deals whose authors prefer secrecy.
When 99.5 host Matt Murphy pushed Marsh to name one development deal Alabama had lost because of its ethics laws, he couldn’t - or wouldn’t. And then he hung up the phone in anger. That’s hardly senatorial behavior.
As for Marsh’s Common Core vendetta, it’s transitioned from a Republican charade to a full-blown disaster that’s stalled in the Alabama House. State educators and administrators, by and large, oppose it. Power-brokers of the state’s business communities are against it. The state’s military officials are against it. (For starters, they value national guidelines that ease military families’ frequent moves.)
What’s more, Marsh’s announcement last month ignored the fact that Alabama withdrew from the national Common Core consortium six years ago, and that the state’s K-12 schools were operating with homegrown guidelines that had been repeatedly tweaked - by Alabamians, not federal overseers. Facts matter less the closer we get to Election Day.
Marsh has wasted his beef with the state Board of Education’s inability to dramatically raise students’ academic results - a legitimate complaint - by shrouding it in a foolish attempt to repeal Common Core, a talking point frequent on the far right.
If these bills became law, Alabamians would lose. Their state’s ethics laws would be gutted and its public schools would fall farther behind the nation’s best. Score not one, but two, for Alabama.
Online: https://www.annistonstar.com
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April 10
The Opelika-Auburn News on training the workforce and making it happy:
The connector road is a direct drive from Interstate 85 to the Opelika Sportsplex and Aquatics Center. Among the top factors new industry and businesses consider before moving to a location is good roads and quality-of-life attractions; and to keep a good workforce, quality of life such as good recreational offerings determines much, experts say.
Developing a well-trained and dependable workforce continues to be among the priorities Alabama communities should be setting for themselves, an Auburn University economist says.
Beyond that, however, communities must ensure that they not only develop and properly educate such a workforce, but they must work hard to retain it.
Meaning, make young graduates and veteran skilled laborers happy to live in your town.
It’s sound advice, and too often, taxpayers and tax-spenders tend to overlook how important quality-of-life factors are in recruiting good-paying, desired jobs from industries and businesses willing to move here and provide them.
Joe Sumners, executive director of the Government & Economic Development Institute at Auburn University, recently shared his remarks with a business audience at an Opelika Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.
While having a good education system is critical to prosperous economic growth, what is it about a hometown that will keep them there, he asked.
“In a lot of communities these days, the top export isn’t cotton or soybeans, but high school graduates,” he said.
Quality of life consistently ranks among the top factors industries say they consider before moving somewhere, Sumners said, referring to one Top 5 list from Area Development Magazine, which listed as priorities, based on a survey:
1. Highway accessibility
2. Labor costs
3. Availability of skilled labor
4. Quality of life
5. Construction costs
And among the top factors that determine a quality-of-life rating?
Low crime rates, schools, healthcare and housing.
Thus, those areas all must be included when a community sets goals for future growth and development.
The good news is, Auburn and Opelika already offer many of these qualities, and both seem to be on path to ensure positive lifestyle opportunities are here for years to come.
Also, big-name venues and events such as the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Opelika and the athletic programs of Auburn University, or the fast-growing interests in performing arts and outdoor venues, all add up to good things for Lee County and east-central Alabama.
But Sumners’ point is we can’t stop there.
Just as with a constant effort required to improve our schools and infrastructure, we must always be looking for other ways to improve our quality of life.
That, in the end result, tends to make everyone happy.
Online: https://www.oanow.com
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April 4
The Dothan Eagle on park security improvements:
The City of Dothan’s plan to install additional surveillance cameras in the city’s parks is a positive move that should give residents an added sense of security simply by being there. The city’s parks are meant to be refuges, places for residents to unwind and have a good time with family and friends. People shouldn’t have to be in a state of heightened awareness.
Unfortunately, people tend to default to that out of self-preservation. Our world has become more treacherous, and often even the most innocuous activity can be spoiled by someone with criminal - or at least inappropriate - intent.
This week, Police Chief Steve Parrish and Leisure Services Director Elston Jones asked the city commission for permission to launch the first of several security enhancements. That’s a worthy endeavor from a deterrence standpoint.
Even if security cameras are never relied upon to help solve a misdeed, they’ll be well worth the cost.
Online: https://www.dothaneagle.com
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