Governor Riley finally realized he has nothing to lose by taking on the most powerful man in Alabama politics, the head of the Alabama Education Association, Paul Hubbert. In an opinion piece running across the state of Alabama today, the Governor clearly states the truth about the education budget,

This is the first time ever that a governor’s budget fully funds all these education requests.

Yet if you listened to opponents of my budget, you’d think education funding was being cut or “diverted” to some other purpose.

They are being absolutely dishonest. Every dime of my education budget goes to education and to helping our children learn. The heads of state agencies appeared before a Senate committee last week and confirmed this.

Yet the leaders in the Legislature and the budget chairmen refuse to even consider the budget I presented. Their denial of an open and honest debate is a disservice to the people of Alabama and especially to Alabama’s children.

Alabamians should ask themselves why legislative leaders continue to ignore the facts about the education budget and refuse to even debate it.

I think we all know why: Too many in the Legislature listen only to Paul Hubbert, the head of the school employees’ union. Hubbert’s job isn’t to make sure our children receive the education funding they need. His job is to make sure his union members get the money they want for a bigger pay raise.

The Governor goes on to remind everyone that Hubbert’s motiviation is education employees, not Alabama’s children. It is high time that Hubbert was confronted publicly by politicians who know it is wrong that he holds as much sway as he does.

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