Monday’s ruling in Montgomery County court preventing the Alabama Board of Education from baning of lawmakers from holding jobs in the Legislature and the two-year college system is disturbing.
The ban was made by the board and two-year college chancellor Bradley Byrne last year as a number of legislators are employed in some fashion or another within the system. A lawsuit, backed by the partisan Democratic Alabama Education Association, ensued.
Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick said, “You’re going to go back to doing it the way it was before this policy was in place. The people (lawmakers) need to know so their constituents won’t be disenfranchised and their livelihoods won’t be jeopardized.”
Livelihoods? Lawmakers just gave themselves a 60 percent pay raise, so it’s difficult for us to conceive that their livelihoods are in jeopardy. Lawmakers in Alabama now make $49,250 annually, compared to just $16,200 in neighboring Georgia and $27,900 Florida.
Lawmakers have lives outside of the statehouse and many are hard-working individuals who have busted their chops in a number of different industries, including education.
Some may perceive the double-dipping ban as a slap in the face of educators, or as a political play. That isn’t the intention.
Byrne’s choice to ban legislators from holding jobs in the two-year system stemmed from the disgusting revelations of corruption involving legislators drawing paychecks from two-year colleges. Some legislators were given paychecks for no work at all. This is a practice that allows the lawmakers to feast from the public trough and take full advantage of our education system.
Hardwick’s focus should not be on a few legislators’ livelihoods. It seems he is more concerned with the best interest of a few AEA-backed legislators than the best interest of the people of Alabama.
The focus should be on ending the corruption that has plagued this system for years.
Hardwick, a Democrat, is seeking re-election in Montgomery County’s District 15.
Is it fair that a Democratic judge rules in a case that clearly involves a powerful Democratic lobby group?
Would it be fair if the shoe was on the other foot?
This is another example of why judges in Alabama must be non-partisan.
His ruling may very well have been based on law and not clouded by politics, but anything that leads to a perception of politics should be avoided.
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