Just two months ago, Gov. Robert Bentley showcased a radical, far-reaching charter bill that would have allowed wholesale privatization of public education in the state, threatening schools and the jobs of educators across Alabama.

With one day remaining in the 2012 regular session, the House sponsor of the bill waved the white flag.



"I feel like I'm speaking at a funeral," Rep. Phil Williams, of Huntsville, told the House education committee Thursday after a Senate-passed version of the bill was carried over by the committee and proclaimed dead for the session.





Dr. Henry Mabry, executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association, consistently told lawmakers during the session that the state didn’t need a dual system of schools when it couldn’t afford to adequately fund the single system it has.

Mabry noted the state has lost more than 12,500 education employees since 2008, and stands to lose hundreds more in the 2013-14 fiscal year budget.

“This is a victory for the schoolchildren of Alabama and the underserved public schools all over the state,” he said. “We don’t need to dilute even further the precious little funding for our elementary and secondary students to gamble on the unproven model of charter schools.”

AEA was an unyielding opponent of charter schools, supported by many other education groups, most importantly the State Board of Education. Only one education group, the Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB), supported charter schools.

The bill’s failure was a major blow to the Bentley administration, which had summoned Michelle Rhee, a highly controversial figure in education, and her group, StudentsFirst, to lobby for the legislation.

StudentsFirst, a group formed by Rhee after she resigned in disgrace as Washington, D.C. school chancellor, amassed a team of six lobbyists to push the charter schools bill in the Alabama Legislature.

Rhee was brought to Alabama earlier this year by state GOP leaders to work on charter schools, although there’s been no public disclosure of who is paying her California-based group.

Bentley’s office did not notify the State Board of Education or the state school superintendent in advance of a meeting earlier this year between legislators, state officials, and StudentsFirst that Rhee’s group would be working in Alabama.

The next fight over charters schools could come sooner. There is a possibility that a charter bill will be put into the call during the upcoming special session on legislative redistricting starting May 17.

The compromise charter bill the Senate sent to the House would have authorized up to 20 schools to be established in Alabama, with the requirement that they be placed near low-performing schools.

If a local school district with a low-performing school were to reject a charter proposal, a state panel would have the authority to overrule the decision and approve the charter.

The Senate bill would have also capped the number of charter schools at 20 but required they be conversions of low-performing schools, rather than new schools created alongside low-performing ones.

Charters could only have been created in or near the state’s four largest cities: Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsville.

The original charter bill unveiled by Bentley at a March 14 press conference and later introduced by Williams was wide-ranging and could have eventually led to unlimited charter schools around Alabama being operated by out-of-state for-profit companies.