Alabama NOW members write Letters to the Editor

(do they ever!)

Also full-length Op-Eds!

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Letter to the Editor printed in the Montgomery Advertiser, October 18, 2009

Irony: Restricting abortion kills

Call it ironic; On October 14th, the Montgomery Advertiser carried an excellent AP article reporting the results of the Guttmacher Institute’s latest report, which showed an encouraging decrease in worldwide abortions due to an increased use of contraceptives. The article went on to highlight the continuing problem of deaths due to highly restrictive, unsafe abortions in developing nations, with more than half of the deaths among women in sub- Saharan Africa.

In the very same issue, the Advertiser also printed an article about gubernatorial candidate Rep. Robert Bentley. He is prefiling bills that would severely restrict legal statewide abortions. Bentley wants these bills to be a litmus test for anti-choice candidates. He would use state monies to defend and further his assault against a woman’s right to choose.

However, restricting abortions does not end abortions. It only makes them unsafe, and kills women. In Mr. Bentley’s proposed future, this state would return to back alley abortions and wire hangers. These unsafe abortions would soon result in Alabama being ranked with regions such as sub-Sahara Africa for death among women.

Guttmacher’s data shows the better path; increase the use of contraceptives to reduce the need for abortions and provide safe abortion services for those in need. Let us not allow Bentley and other anti-choice proponents to saddle Alabama with legislation that would be ineffective in reducing abortions and lethal to women.

Amy Applegate

Montgomery NOW member

Guest Column printed in the Montgomery Advertiser, November 20, 2009

ALABAMA VOICES:  Equal opportunity

Cheryl T. Sabel, Montgomery NOW member

Our U.S. secretary of education has stated, "Education is the civil rights issue of our generation. Every school must provide every child with a quality education that offers the path out of poverty and toward equal opportunity. Forty-five years after Title VI, the promise of equal education for all has yet to become reality for all."

Unfortunately, in the state of Alabama, this reality of unequal opportunity is glaringly evident.
Earlier this year, the Southern Education Foundation's report, "High School Dropouts: Alabama's #1 Education and Economic Problem," estimated that in 2007, only 58.6 percent of Alabama high school students graduated on time. The report found that Montgomery County's graduation rate was an average of 45.3 percent.

Note the shocking differences in the Birmingham area between the wealthy, mostly white districts and the lower-income, mostly African-American districts. Vestavia Hills City Schools' graduation rate was 90.3 percent, and Mountain Brook City Schools' was 95.3 percent. Fairfield City Schools' graduation rate was 39.2 percent, and Bessemer City Schools' was 37.7 percent.

Soon, the state of Alabama will begin to publish data that reflects these kinds of graduation rates for schools and school districts, because the U.S. Government will require by 2012 that states use a method similar to that used by SEF. Accurate reporting and accountability will be enforced.

These numbers will expose an old problem in Alabama: how lower levels of education limit Alabama's prosperity and sustain high rates of poverty. (In 2008, a report by the Children's Defense Fund ranked Alabama fifth highest in the nation for children living in poverty, and third in the nation in children living in extreme poverty.)

SEF's report documents that Alabama's failure to graduate more students from high school and college is now the single biggest reason why the average Alabamian has $10,000 less in annual personal income than the average American.

Alabama is caught in a vicious cycle, where low graduation rates increase poverty and, in turn, where poverty increases dropout rates. In 2006, for example, 93 percent of Alabama children whose parents had less than a high school diploma were low-income. These children are also most at risk of failing to graduate from high school and, in turn, becoming themselves low-income parents.

Low graduation rates adversely affect everyone in Alabama. Those of us who are retired or elderly are impacted by high dropout rates, because the revenues needed for Social Security, Medicare and other public benefits come from taxes. As the number of high-earning workers declines, the quality of life for the elderly is jeopardized. And statistics show that dropouts have a higher infant mortality rate and a lower life expectancy.

Additionally, eight of 10 in the prison population are high school dropouts.

We pay directly for these educational failures. Thicket magazine, published in Birmingham, reported last year that we spend $625 million each year in Alabama in non-medical welfare costs. In 2007, Alabamians spent $300 million to care for those in the prison system. What if we began spending on the front end, investing in quality public education and programs for all our children?

As individuals, we must raise our voices and demand action from our policymakers. The Alabama Select Commission on High School Graduation and Student Dropout will make some important recommendations for changes in state policies and practices by the end of this year, and its work will outline a good beginning for what the state can and should do.

In the long term, we must develop public schools in every community that will provide students with a high-quality education. We must have schools with safe and welcoming learning environments, with each student valued and noticed. We must hire only the best teachers, pay them well, and allow them professional training throughout their careers.

We must have quality, free public pre-K as a right of every 4-year-old in Alabama, where too many children start school behind and never catch up. (Alabama has one of the best pre-K programs in the nation, but from lack of funding it reaches only several thousand children.)

Students in low-income families must have state and federal grant money to continue their education beyond high school, and low-income adults will need support to return to education for a better life.
And we must be willing to vote to raise taxes to adequately fund our public schools, and afterwards, hold them accountable for helping students succeed.

We also must take personal actions to help Alabama's children succeed. Volunteer at a school in a low-income neighborhood. Be a reading buddy. Be a mentor.

Make both a personal and a policy difference in the lives of your community's students. Education is the primary way to realize individual dreams, and to move Alabama forward.

Cheryl T. Sabel of Montgomery is a consultant for the Southern Education Foundation.

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Previous Letters and Op-Eds can be found HERE.