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Employee,
teacher health insurance
Employees of public
schools and state agencies will pay more for health insurance. Premiums will
gradually rise to the average paid by public employees in the Southeastern
states.
Retiree
health insurance
It will reduce state
health insurance contributions for public employees who retire with less than
25 years' service.
Teacher
incentives
Teachers of math and
science or those willing to move to schools that have a difficult time attracting
teachers will be paid more. College scholarships are to be provided to students
able and willing to fill those needs upon graduation.
Teacher
tenure
The job protection of
tenure for teachers and support workers will be streamlined to require people
appealing their firings to use arbitration as a final step rather than the
courts. The state education department would be responsible for paying legal
costs to remove fired teachers (currently the local board must pay).
Performance-based
contracts
There will be a switching
from tenure to performance-based contracts for new school administrators,
supervisors, and financial personnel.
Testing
superintendents
It will require the
state school superintendent to educate and test local school superintendents
on fiscal management.
Custodians
of funds
The way local school
systems appoint and remove custodians of funds will be changed to "ensure
competency."
More
school days
Gradually there will be an
increase in the number of days students attend public schools. It will go
from 175 to 180 days per school year.
Teaching
teachers
Programs designed to
teach teachers how to instruct their students better in reading, math, and
science will be fully funded.
College scholarships
A college scholarship
program for Alabama high school graduates will be started. It will be based
on academic standing – B students with an ACT score of 20. To qualify
for two-year college, vocational or technical school, students must have a
minimum 2.5 grade point average. All students are eligible to qualify.
Alabama
Excellence Initiative Fund
All money raised by
the governor's package will be placed in a separate Alabama Excellence Initiative
Fund that the governor and lawmakers could spend wherever they thought "unearmarked"
needs were greatest. This should allow citizens to more accurately track these
funds.
Pass-through
pork
The plan will ban pass-through
pork. Lawmakers have traditionally reserved state money for their favored
projects without the spending showing up in state budgets.
Rainy
Day, General Fund
A Rainy Day Fund of
$72 million for the General Fund will be created. The fund could be tapped
to prevent across-the-board spending cuts caused by lower-than-expected tax
collections. The money would be taken from the $2.2 billion Alabama Trust
Fund created from royalties paid by companies that pump natural gas from the
Gulf of Mexico. Any money withdrawn, plus interest, would automatically be
repaid to the Rainy Day Fund from the General Fund over five years.
Rainy
Day, Education Fund
Rules will be changed
for the $248 million Rainy Day Fund for education to require that any money
withdrawn, plus interest, would be repaid to the Rainy Day Fund from the Education
Trust Fund over five years.
Same
per-pupil spending
It will be guaranteed
that Alabama will spend as much per student next year for teachers and support
workers as it did this year. This will be true regardless of whether or not
taxes are raised. This bill traveled separately from the linked package and
has been signed into law.