This is an opinion column

Who is our next Paul Hubbert? The late powerful head of the Alabama Education Association from 1969 to 2011 protected money for schools as his greatest mission in life. During his tenure, he was often called governor.

He fought battle after battle to keep every penny of the Special Education Trust Fund in Alabama classrooms. There was often a bit of back fighting over allocating those treasured dollars between K – 12 and higher education. But the call was always the same. Earmark the money for education, those students, no matter what the other needs were in the state. And there were always many other problems screaming for money.

Even with protective barriers to keep those funds in education, our schools ranked near the bottom nationwide. Except for the much acclaimed pre K program. And Governor Ivy just fired Barbara Cooper as head of that program because of a “woke” manual for teachers.

Now she wants to spend more than half of $2.8 billion of those school dollars to other state funds. Where are we heading? Who is Alabama’s voice for the classroom? Is there another Paul Hubbert out there?

Jean Lufkin Bouler is a former education reporter for The Birmingham News. She is the author of several nonfiction books.