From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd States.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

The Alabama legislature's 2026 regular session is over.

The House and Senate me for the 30th and final day today and adjourned.

Signee.

Die.

Fun fact signee die is a Latin phrase meaning without a day set to meet again.

If there are no special sessions called, the new legislature will meet for an organizational session in January.

Much of the last day was defined by bills that did not pass, legislation that would require voters to be registered with a party to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries was on the agenda today in the Senate.

But as the day wore on, it became clear that there was not enough time to even bring the bill up.

Senate president pro Tem Garland Dugger said it's possible the bill could come back next year.

Our decision was real easy.

Now.

The House adjourned and we found out about it.

I was on a phone call in the back and somebody ran in there and told me, hey, they just adjourned and I'm and Dowd.

And so once that happens, we're finished too.

And so there's not a keeping the journal open or anything because it' the last moment of the last day.

So we had to sign it up after we started going through that with the leadership of the Republican Party, and people calling us back from our districts, we actually got back on track and we were feeling pretty good about moving and making progress.

We had a substitute that we are having today workin with the Republican leadership, and thought we were all on track, but we felt very confident that, everybody was on board by the time we got there, except for just a few that would hurt them back home, they said.

And again, every senator has a vote in their own district, obviously, and he's got to take that vote for the people back home.

But I felt pretty confident that we were all going in the right direction.

Well, that I'd be back next week.

There is no doubt.

And in the House, the agenda included a bill that would have essentially forced the city of Montgomery to increase its police ranks, or ris being taken over by the state.

But like in the Senate, the House adjourned before the bill was taken up.

State Representative Reid Ingram said that issue is one of several that he'd like to address when the legislature returns next year.

Well, I think, next year, I think it's going to be important that we continue the law enforcement, I think, is continue that that we work on health care, I think is continue that we work on, taking care of whatever needs that we don't see today that comes up that we can be able to have the funding, for education, and still be able to be good stewards of the taxpayers dollars and cut taxes like we've done in the last couple of years.

So, education, public safety and the health and well-being of the citizens of the state.

Overall, legislative leaders are calling the session a successful one.

Senator Garland pointed to the restructuring of the Public Service Commissio as the biggest accomplishment, calling it a major lift he believes could impact the state for decades.

He also says the session ran smoothly, crediting strong communication among lawmakers for keeping debate on track and avoiding major conflicts.

He said that approach helped move major legislation across the finish line during the final days.

Obviously, the most stressful and the biggest one that I feel like we had was the PSC bill.

I do think it, will reduce electoral rates for people throughout the state.

Whether you're a single mom or elderly people or small businesses.

But I do think it was a huge lift restructuring the PSC, and that'll be something that will last, I believe, 75 to 100 years.

If you're talking about efficiency and moving through the operations of the Alabama State Senate for the last eight, that I can say compare it to, I truly feel like it was ran pretty smoothly, to the point where some people said, hey, y'all are starting to get boring up there.

You're not debating as much and having some fireworks, but I think it's because of communication.

Up and down the hallway before we came to the floor.

And a lot of times people said, hey, y'all feel like I'm not and I'm not going to communicate anymore.

Our jo this session was to communicate, and I owe a lot of that to my chief of staff, just for allowing us to bring us into rooms to be able to do that.

So I'm thankful for that.

I'm very thankful that I'm here.

I'm honored to be able to serve the people that, put me in this position, not only my people in the district back home and my constituents, but also the men and women of the Alabama State Senat that voted for me to be pro tem.

It is stressful.

It is tough.

It is like your hair turned gray.

But in the end, it's worth it if you put the time and effor into it to make Alabama better.

I'm so thankful that I'm here.

I can see myself being happy.

And one day down the road when I'm leaving this job.

But while I'm here if I'm not making an impact in that will probably be, the first key point that I se that I need to leave this job.

But right now, I feel like I'm making an impact with my staff and, the people for the state of Alabama.

And we're going to continue to do that.

One bill of note that received final passage today was Senate Bill 342 from State Senato Clyde Chambliss of Prattville.

It would ensure that student who use choose Act tax credits to attend private school maintai their eligibility for athletics.

State Representative Danny Garret carried the bill in the House.

This is the bill that clarifies this.

Students who are utilizing Choose Act funds may not be disqualified from athletics solely for that reason.

The language adde in the Senate further clarifies this not does not supersede any other rules of any high school athletic association.

It just clarifies that solel because you're receiving shoes that funds you're not ineligible.

If some athletics over here in Alexander City and, we can move them ove to Clark County for next season.

So they they preparing to move now.

And so when football season start, they may be playing football.

They're pretty strict about monitoring those moves.

So you have to have proof of residency and proof that you don't live in the other place.

And so we're going to move in with Bo, Bo and Ami.

I don't think that's allowed.

I think I think there's I'm just asking I don't yeah, I don't know all their rules, but that certainly this bill doesn't impact those rules.

I mean, those are the rules, but, so what this bill does, I can get that through the money and not be penalized and still be athletic.

You got to meet all the other rules.

You just can't be penalized because you're getting Tuesday fines.

We'll take a quick break and be back with tonight's guest.

Stay with us.

Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

Free professional development for educators and childcare providers with access to free, curriculum aligned videos, lesson plans and instructional resources with PBS Learning Media and all the PBS kids programs, parents know and trust.

Learn something new every da with Alabama Public Television.

Visit us at AP tv.org/education to learn more.

The USS Alabama is a World War Two era battleship that first served in the Atlantic theater, but was better known for helping to take Japanese held islands in the Pacific between 1943 and 1945.

During the battle of the Philippine Sea, the Alabama State of the Art radar alerted the fleet to incoming aircraft, providing the American enough time to scramble fighters and decimate the attacking force.

Later, the Alabama serve during the Battle of Lady Gulf and anchored in Tokyo Bay t unload Allied occupation forces.

In 1964, the state of Alabama took possession of the battleship Alabama.

School children raised $100,000 in nickels and dimes to help bring the ship to mobile an create battleship memorial Park.

The park features the Alabama, the World War II era submarine USS Strom, and an American military aircraft collection battleship memorial Park as one of the state's most visited attractions.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Terri Collins of Decatur, chair of the House Education Policy Committee.

Madam chairman thanks for coming on the show.

Glad to be here.

Glad to be here.

It's the last day.

Sunny day.

Sunny day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This.

Explain this.

So Napoleon Bracy has his start, his tradition, I guess, several years ago.

I think so.

Everybody wears the bow ties.

Even the ladies.

Even the ladies.

He brings a whole box ful of them and matches our outfits.

Okay.

It wasn't just a random fashion choice.

No, no.

Well, look, it's not just th end of the legislative session.

It's the end of your legislative career.

You're retiring this year.

I think a lot of folks were hoping they could talk you into running yet again.

But.

But I've heard a lot of that.

But.

Nope.

I think it is time to be done.

Is that a bittersweet feeling for you?

I don't.

Right now I'm just looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to being able to do more things with my family.

Take trips.

No.

I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, well, you've earned it.

And I wanted to get to your career because, I mean, I remember when you came in 2010.

Because I was working up there, you worked for the speaker's office and of course it was a historic class and everybody kne it seemed like including staff.

So but you flash forward now, you are known universally in this building and in the education community as an education policy maven.

You're the one people go to.

It didn't start out that way.

No, I wasn't even on education policy at first.

So take me back to thos beginning days and how you chose education policy as your legislative mission and how that evolved?

Well, one of the things running for office in 2009, and being elected in 2010, I looked at different things.

And one of the things I learned was that Florida had move from the bottom 10% of schools, which is where Alabama was to the top ten in less than ten years.

And so I looked a some of the things they'd done.

And one was a school grade, which I've worked on some this year.

And so I knew some issues that I wanted to work on, but I was and I was on education Ways and Means, which was really good.

And I'm thankfu that the speaker put me on that.

And in the last year of that first quadrennial, he actually moved me to education policy.

So I did serve that, but I started going to, ESRI based Southern Regional Educational Board.

The governor put me on that.

And excelling at some of the conferences where I was seeing successes from other states, and I wanted Alabama to have those successes.

So I just kind of learned how they worked.

And I worked with different groups, and have had a lot of success and a lot of the things tha even people fought back against.

Now they're all advocating for, you know that's been the funniest thing.

One of the first fields we passed was the rowing reserve, which was going to be, you know, the death knell to education policy.

I mean, education budgets.

And now it's their first their favorite meal we've ever done because we've not had proration since then.

And so, so many things.

Literacy at every singl education group spoke against it the day it unanimously sailed out of my committee.

And then we worked together.

But sometimes you have to get things moving and sometimes people.

It's such a big change.

They don't want to see that change.

They're afraid of that change.

Yeah, I was going to get to that because look, all policy areas are challenging in their own right.

Even though it's another level because anything you try to do from that very beginning with grading, you know, you get through well, whether it's rolling reserve, whether it's, you know there were some tenure reforms.

Anything you do, you are movin somebodies cheese, if you will.

You're messing with somebody and you're going to get pushback.

So talk about the challenge that that is because to me, I mean, I see these these, efforts over the years and the, the roadblocks that are put up and, you know, over and over again.

Talk about the challenge that that is and how you see that through.

The biggest challenge, I think, is the passion that people have on both sides of every issue that we do.

I think that's it.

And in my mind, it's always been a passion for status quo, which is not working.

So I'm wanting us to do some different things, and I don't want to change what we do every year.

That's not good.

Consistency has a lot of merit, but when something's not working to keep trying to d the same thing is just foolish.

So I think sitting around a table, I have a nice office with comfortable chairs and a lot of meetings have gone around that, that in that more comfortable setting, trying to find places where we could compromise, where we could work together, how we could each get part of that bill that we fel like we could live with better.

But then you see the successes of it, and then you're really proud that you fought the good fight all the way through.

And it is a fight.

Yeah.

Well, you mentioned Literacy Act.

Yeah.

And I remember that fight that was 2019.

And you're right, there were a lot of folks lining up against it.

I mean, it's almost amazing thinking back that it got through numeracy act after that.

But it's so cool now.

And you're right, there are folks, you know, absolutely praising it now that maybe weren't back then.

Oh, definitely.

But, looking at it now.

So these results come in last year where we have there's, there's this market success, right where obviously moving in the right direction with literacy, with, you know, seeing numeracy as well.

So that's got to be encouraging to you have to, you know, see that those numbers move because it takes a while.

It does take a whil and it takes a lot of hard work, hard work of students and teachers and of the coaches that are out there.

I mean it's been a lot and you had to create that sense of urgency.

We also had a delay that I had everyone working with the governor to veto a delay, which we ended up delaying it a little bit, but not until the very end, because we wanted to keep that sense of urgency, to keep our foot on the pedal.

And I think that's why we saw such market results.

And I think that is truly helping improve things.

I'll tell you another one you had mentioned earlier, kind of highs and lows.

And, my daughters are with me today for the last day, but, my firstborn actually had my grandchild while I stayed for four hours on the floor.

Passed in the charter school bill.

How about that?

And, with me sharing details.

Her water just spray.

Just got the epidural to the whole gallery.

You're on the body and I'm on the floor.

And I heard a rumor later that at the very end of the night, they were like, she's got the votes.

Let her go.

Well, how about that?

Well, that was the money.

It was a high.

It was a high.

And that was a monumental law.

And there was there's so much has happened on school choice since then that everybody kind of focuses on the music.

But that first step towards that charter school law was a big, big, huge, huge.

Yeah.

Well, look, what do you I wa this is kind of inside baseball, but that's what we do here on Capitol Journal.

We share with our audience kind of the inside game.

I was wondering what you wish people kne about the legislative process.

So we talk about the challenge that exists there.

You know, people see what bills passed, what bills didn't, they see the results of sometimes the policy and things like that.

But they may they may not understand what gets left on the cutting room floor.

So what do you wish people knew about how the legislative process works, especially when it comes to education policy?

Wish that they knew.

And I have always tried to also respond when you're, you know, the work on a bill is done in committee and you have a public hearin and you hear not just two sides, but any different side.

And a lot of them have more than two sides.

There are all over the, you know, board reasons for or against something and what people don't see, they only know their perspective.

And so I always liked when people would email or, you know, try to reach out to me and share what they thought and then allow me then to share back with them what I've learned about that, because a lot of times there's way more.

There were other di an unintentional consequences.

There are there are things that they don't realize.

And a lot of people also still think of any bill we pass as the first version.

They heard.

And what they usually heard were was often misinformation about the worst thing that could happen.

Back to that rolling reserve.

It's going to be the end of education.

Now it was the salvation of the budge so that we live within our means and that we continue to have money.

I remember the first time we actually, when we were trying to expand broadband aid, and we didn't have to take a loan out we could use the money that we had not spent the year befor because we had that there today and save us that money and everything else, and we were ready to move forward that year, not wait a year.

And so there are so many good things, but people only sa the first version of that bill.

And so you have to watch a bill through all the steps of it.

It changes.

We had one fought yesterday with 11 amendments on it.

Wow.

And, they continue to change and I wish people would reach out and share their concerns about things so that maybe they can hear the end.

Well, that's not really a concern because of this issue that we've put in this exemption.

Yeah.

And they don't know those things when there's so much out there on social media these days.

To paraphrase that old saying, you know, misinformation can make it around the world before the truth.

Death has breakfast, you know?

So I definitely think that's true.

And that's why we like, you know, having this program to talk like this.

Let me ask you this.

There have been just lots of reform to education during your tenure.

Most of them because of you, frankly.

But as you look back and as you, you know, kind of have the benefit of hindsight now, what are we lacking?

What would you say are a couple of things that that, that Alabama really needs to do, and that are achievable.

Right.

There's no one silver bullet.

But you know what?

What are we lacking in terms o policies that could be enacted, that could move us forward in education?

One of the things I tried to do this year and have not been successfu is that we did pass that school grade bill A through F in 12 took us six years to actually get one.

So we tend to in within agencies and department just dig our heels in and delay.

And that is frustrating to me.

Who usually ha that sense of urgency about all things I do that, I, No one's ever modified that A through F since we started it, and we know there are some things that need to be changed in it.

We have.

If you don't have a graduatin class, the weight of absenteeism is 15%, which for a poverty school that struggles to get their children, there is just a 15% right off their their grade.

And that's not fair.

And it's not a judgment of how they're doing.

Really wanting to simplify that s that we're waiting achievement.

But we're waiting growth.

And I really wanted us to close the gap.

The bill even called for a gap measure, which would be like having an additional weight on that.

Whoever your bottom 10% are in every school or bottom 25%.

But trying to bring up that bottom because they have the opportunity to have the most growth.

And so there are some things I would like to look at.

We have college and career indicators.

I wanted us to be able to say, when you get one of these indicators, is it truly an indicato you're ready to go to college?

Is it truly an indicator you're prepared to go into the workforce or do we need to address those?

And that was very important to me, an I hope one day they will do it.

I mean, look, like I said, all change takes time.

It's tough.

What is the resistance?

Is it just, you know, we'd rather not.

We all know how this system works and we all know how to get our grade where we want.

It is what I think.

And so manipulating it to be successful.

And you don't want to take a chance, just like a school grade a lot of schools where you know, they're getting their first A's or their first B's, and I'm proud of that.

That's due to the successes we're having.

But you don't stay flat with your bar.

You continue to raise that bar so that you continue to trend up, because we still want all our students to read.

We want our students to be able to do math.

We won't.

I mean, I would like ou students to understand science, and now we have career paths in Alabama that we need to be able to feel right.

I mean, we've got people circling the moon.

We need to have students that are prepared to go into those workforce and, you know, environment only a little bit of time left.

But we don't know who the next policy educatio policy chairman is going to be.

But what advice might you hav for whoever takes over that job?

I think your best, the best advice would be to listen to, to reach out and listen to to all the concerning parties.

Even when you don't agree, it's good to hear because there ar a lot of things that you can do that you can compromise on and reach that balance.

But to keep pushing and when you know something's the right thing to do, the right thing, I mean, and to focus on the kids.

Because ultimately, to me, in education policy, it should be about what's bes for the students, what's going to give them the most chanc to be successful in this world.

And that should be our focus, not on, well, this might hurt someone's jo or this could cut something out, or it shouldn't be about the adults in the room.

I don't believ it should be about the students.

Okay, well, look, enjoy time with your family.

Enjoy your trips.

Thank you, thank you.

We will certainly miss you from the legislature, but, you.

Congratulations on a meaningful, impactful career in the Alabama legislature.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

aptv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes on Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

Free professional development for educators and childcare providers with access to free, curriculum aligned videos, lesson plans and instructional resources with PBS Learning Media and all the PBS kids programs, parents know and trust.

Learn something new every da with Alabama Public Television.

Visit us at AP tv.org/education to learn more.

The World War Two era Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American pilots in U.S.

military service.

Because Tuskegee was the only training facility for black pilots in the United States during World War II.

Potential pilot came from all over the country.

The first African-American flying unit was the 99th Fighter Squadron, which deployed in the spring of 1943.

The 99th earned a Distinguished Unit Citation, flying missions against enemy targets over Italy.

The second flying unit, the 332nd fighter Group, flew several successful bomber escort missions throughout the war.

Its P-51 fighters ha distinctively painted red tails, earning the unit and its planes the nickname Red tails.

In 1948, Presiden Truman issued an executive order mandating the racial integration of all military services.

The way was paved by the Tuskegee Airmen of Worl War Two, and in 2007, President Bush collectively awarded them a Congressional Gold Medal.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow nigh for our Week in Review episode.

We'll.

We'll wrap up the week that was in the session.

That was this year in the Alabama legislature for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.

My brother.