Phillip Rawls
Associated Press
Published: May 8, 2008

MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Education Association’s legislative fight against a so-called “double dipping” ban that would keep educators from serving in the Legislature while employed at two-year colleges is over but the organization pledged it would challenge the policy in the courts, the association’s officials said Wednesday.

At issue is a new policy by the State Board of Education that will in 2010 prohibit employees of two-year colleges from serving in the Legislature and statewide offices.

Critics have complained that the association has used the two-year colleges as a source of patronage and power.

The teacher’s organization and legislators employed by colleges say the new policy is a power play by the Republican governor and Bradley Byrne, the state’s two-year college chancellor, to help the GOP take control of the Legislature in the 2010 election. Byrne is a former Republican state senator.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, sought to override the new policy, which also requires those in office to use leave time to be away from their school jobs to perform their public duties. Once their vacation time is exhausted, they have to get approval from the chancellor to use unpaid leave.

The bill would allow public employees to serve in the Legislature and other elected offices and guarantee they could use unpaid leave from their government jobs to perform elected duties.

Now the teacher’s organization will fight the school board’s policy in court, Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert said.

Hubbert commented on the bill’s demise moments after the Senate Finance and Taxation-Education Budget Committee approved the legislation 5-4 on Wednesday. The bill, which passed the House earlier, will be considered by the Senate on May 19, the final day of the 2008 legislative session.
But even if the bill passes the Senate, the Democrat-controlled Legislature will be unable to override Riley’s previously promised veto.

“It’s dead,” Hubbert said of the bill.

Byrne said Wednesday that it was clear the bill was going to die - either from strong opposition in the Senate or from the governor’s veto. He had the State Board of Education enact the ban on “double dipping” after a federal and state investigation of Alabama’s two-year college system.

That investigation has resulted in agreements to plead guilty by a former state representative and a former two-year college chancellor. Two current legislators have been charged and are awaiting trial while a grand jury in Birmingham continues to review the colleges.

Voting in the Senate committee to approve the bill were Sens. Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham; Larry Means, D-Attalla; Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham; Zeb Little, D-Cullman; and Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery.

Voting against it were Sens. Tom Butler, D-Madison; Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery; Jimmy Holley, R-Elba; and Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills.