Tagged: Alabama Education Superintendent Tommy Bice

The sponsor of a bill to repeal the state's use of Common Core education standards has decided to kill his own bill.

The chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Republican Dick Brewbaker of Montgomery, took the action Wednesday when it became clear his committee wouldn't remove the Common Core standards.

The governor says running over his own education allies was worth it to get tax credits to help children in failing public schools transfer to private schools.

Gov. Robert Bentley says he and other Republican leaders didn't tell the state school superintendent and other education leaders that they were planning to expand a school flexibility bill into a tax credit bill because they would have opposed it. School Superintendent Tommy Bice says the final product caught him by surprise and it was not the school flexibility bill that he had endorsed.

The Alabama House Education Policy Committee has approved a bill to give local school systems the ability to waive certain regulations or requirements.

The committee voted Wednesday afternoon in favor of the measure by Rep. Chad Fincher, R- Semmes.

Supporters, including state schools Superintendent Tommy Bice, told lawmakers that research has shown reducing rules and regulations can increase creativity in the classroom. Bice called the bill a vote of confidence in teachers and school leaders.

The Alabama Board of Education will hold a work session to discuss ways to keep Alabama schools safe.

The work session will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Gordon Persons Building in Montgomery.

Superintendent Tommy Bice has asked superintendents across the state to submit the safety plans for their schools in light of last month's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

(Information in the following story is from: Montgomery Advertiser, http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com)

Alabama's state school superintendent says he expects the Montgomery County school system to have a plan by Christmas to make sure grade-changing doesn't occur again.

State Superintendent Tommy Bice said the state Department of Education wants the plan for institutional control in place before the second semester starts. The department will appoint a monitor to make sure the school system carries out its new plan.

The State Board of Education is recommending its first post-recession budget for public schools. The budget recommendation approved Thursday seeks to replace one-third of the nearly 1,400 teaching positions that were cut during the recession.

It also seeks to restore textbook spending and school operational funds that were cut.