This week on Capita Journal, we're covering the week that was in Alabama government and politics.

Jeff Sanders reports on a meeting of four state governors in point clear to talk energy.

Randy Scott has an update on the electric vehicle industry in the state.

And Alex Angle reports from Capitol Hill on the latest will be government shutdown.

And the Alabama congressional delegation response.

And our guest this week, state Senator Donnie Chesteen , chairman of the Senate Education Policy Committee.

Doctor Scott Harris, Alabama's public health officer.

And Ryan Hankins, executive director of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.

It's all next on Capitol Journal.

From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey, welcome to Capitol Journal.

The federal government shutdown is expected to stretch into next week, as the Senate has left Washington for the weekend.

Republicans and Democrats spent the week blaming each other for the funding lapse.

Alex Angle reports from Capitol Hill with the reaction from Alabama's congressional delegation and what comes next.

Not having voted in the affirmation, the motion is not agree to.

The government entered a shutdown on Wednesday after the Senate failed to advance a Republican led stopgap funding measure.

The short term bill would keep spending levels flat and fund the government for seven weeks.

It puts forth no new Partizan spending and, importantly allows for us to have more time to get back to a semblance of regular order and pass bipartisan appropriations bills.

Senator Katie Britt and other GOP lawmakers insist their continuing resolution should not include Democrats demands of extending the Affordable Care Act.

Subsidies would expire at the end of the year, but Democrats disagree.

Alabama has some of the worst health care outcomes and worse health care access in the entire country.

And so we have to fix that.

We have to prioritize that.

Congressman Shamari fingers joined other House Democrats Tuesday on the Capitol steps to fight to get their health care priorities in a spending deal.

The House took no votes this week as the funding bill alread passed the chamber last month.

Our colleagues and House leadership are not here.

At the end of the day, the reality for millions of people has been since January, this governmen has been shutting down on them in a variety of ways anyway.

This week, each side doubled down on blaming the other party for the shutdown.

If federal workers go without a paycheck, if things go awry, that will be Democrats burden to bear.

But the shutdow has real impacts on Alabamians, with thousands of workers furloughed or forced to work without pay at places like Redstone Arsenal.

There's quite a bit of, you know, civilian contractors that are employed up there.

And, and the nation as a whole.

So when that happens tha that can have potentially some, you know, sizable, negative, economic, macroeconomic consequences.

The House and Senate will return next week to keep working to end the shutdown.

Republicans say they're open to negotiating on those ACA tax credits, but not while the government is shutdown.

But Democrats argue those subsidies need to be addressed now, so the two sides are still very far apart.

Reporting on Capitol Hill Alex Angle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Alex, back here to Montgomery, what is usually a pretty uneventful meeting turned dramatic this week when the Legislative Council met here in the state House.

The issue at hand was a proposed rule for deer hunting with dogs.

Six landowners around Talladega National Forest ask Alabama lawmakers for assistance in keeping hunting dogs off their property during deer season.

After more than an hour of spirite debate, the legislative Council moved to ban the so-called dog hunters from allowing their animals to roam onto private property without permission.

Before the vote, one legislative leader sai he didn't want to get sideways with the hunters because of threat they've made to him in the past.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to warn you.

You do not want to deal with dog hunting days.

Last time we did this, the dog hunters pulled me aside and told me in no uncertain terms, if I did not vote with them, they would burn down my house and they would burn my timber down.

They had all the time in the world to burn my stuff up.

So I want you to kno what you're dealing with before you cast this vote.

That's the reason why I' not voting for this regulation.

Because I cannot jeopardize what I own over dog hunting a deer that, well, you're not right, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes, Senator.

I would have to say I don't fear, man.

But I do try to treat people the way I want to be treated.

And if I was threatened before by the gun owners, that I wouldn't get reelected.

So if that's what they want to try to do, then bring it on, just like I said.

Then you said you don't own the place, bu they don't tell me how to vote.

Nobody threatens me to vote.

One way or another.

I got to vote my heart.

I want to come out clearly against this rule.

I do not want the dog owners burning my stuff down.

I'm going to stan with the people that threaten me and threaten.

Yeah.

Can we move?

Yeah.

I voted on the prevailing side.

I moved to reconsider all the time, but that's all I can do.

I got it right?

Right.

Hey, they threatened me, too.

All right, you got it, sir.

Calm down.

Gentlemen, I' the chairman of this committee.

You want me to have you removed the.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a motion to reconsider.

Clerk.

Call the roll.

I do all in favor reconsider and say I all opposed.

No, no, no, I I have haven't.

Alabama leaders and physicians gathered in Birmingham this week to celebrate a new maternal health care la that took effect on October 1st.

The law creates what's called presumptive Medicaid eligibility.

It lets doctors begin caring for low income pregnant women immediately without waiting to confirm their eligibility.

Medicaid will cover outpatient visits for up to 60 days while an application is still being processed.

Supporter say the change could save lives by cutting delays to prenatal care and helping address Alabama's high maternal and infant mortality rates.

They also called it a bipartisan success with lawmakers from both parties working together to improve health outcomes for moms and babies.

Alabama has a high infant mortality rate.

We know that a lot of the deaths, in particular when it comes down to women and even the children, could have been avoide had we done early intervention.

Presumptive eligibility is one of those, tools that removes those barriers to the eligibility so that, proper diagnosis in an at an early stage can be made.

The health of our mamas and babies is just one of the most important, maybe the most important thin we can do to raise Alabama up.

And I'm committed.

This is a first step.

It's a big step.

It's a great day for all of us, but there is much more work to be done.

Southern governors gathered this week in point Clear along Alabama's Gulf Coast to talk about the future of energy and how artificial intelligence could reshape the region's economy.

Governor Kay Ivey hosted the Southern States Energy Board's 65th annual meeting in Point Clear, where leaders explore everything from grid reliability to AI driven data centers and the balance between market forces and government policy.

Capita Journal's Jeff Sanders has more.

In the Southern States Energy Board's annual meeting brought together governors, regulators and industry leaders from across the South.

The multi-day event tackled energy policy, infrastructure and the rise of artificial intelligence.

Governor Kay Ivey kicked off the Governor's Energy Caucus part of the meeting by emphasizing the state's energy strengths.

Like many of your states, Alabama is energy rich, and we have long touted the affordability and reliable technolog of our entire energy resources.

Charles McConnell executive director of the center for Carbon Management moderated the governor's caucus.

He said the path forward can't be one dimensional, not a transition where we thin about running away from things, but in fact transforming what it i we have, what's available to us.

A major theme of the meeting the rapid rise of AI driven data centers.

Georgia Governor Bria Kemp pointed out they are huge energy users, but also potential tax revenue generators.

I talked to County Executive the other day that was telling me they're working on a huge data center project, and he believes it'll wipe out completely all the property taxes for their citizens.

It's going to be so much revenue off the data center.

So there's definitely positiv things from a tax perspective.

Mississippi Governo Tate Reeves echoed the potential economic impact, especially on a local level, where we've announced one of these complexes.

They're going to collect somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half to $3.5 billion over the next 30 years in property taxes, which, again, is mitigating any necessity for property tax increases.

And hopefully we'll see significant, significant property tax decreases.

But Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe said states and companies must address local concerns early.

There can be some resistance locally when these companies start looking to locate.

So we're going to have to do a really good job.

The industry along with with us is going to have to do a really good job of making sure that there's not a fear factor built into this particular project going forward, and the need for a diverse energy mix was another key point.

The governor's pointed out in moving forward over the next several years.

Electricity generation is powered by a balanced mix of natural gas, low hydro electric and a growing share of solar power.

And when it comes to all this talk about artificial intelligent investments, the governors say it has to be more than just about talk.

It has to be about long term strategic planning to make sure the South is ready for the decades to come.

Reporting from the Statehouse in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Jeff.

A federal tax incentive program designed to promote electric vehicles came to an end this week, with Alabama automakers focusing more on EVs in recent years.

There are now questions about what the future of the market looks like.

Capital journal's Randy Scott reports.

Cars are everywhere, but take a closer look.

Not all cars are the same.

You have your traditional gas powered cars.

And then you have your electric vehicles or EVs.

Some citizens have done their homework on these different modes of transportation.

We are a big EV owners and don't plan on turning back.

Montgomery native Kenneth Wilson is home visiting relatives.

He and his famil make their choice very obvious.

I like him a lot.

We are big technology, environmentally forward, thinking family.

So, Yeah, I just think this is the wa to go for a human civilization.

Michael Staley agrees.

He's president of the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition.

A clean environment i what they work toward every day.

And he says electric vehicles are helping a period of record sales of electric vehicles.

There's, incentives that have really led a lot of people to the dealership and EVs.

Being there has made them buy one after they realized how much fun it is to drive an RV, and how much you can actually save on the operating costs.

That appeal towards EVs is about to get tested.

A federal program giving those who buy these cars and trucks a tax break ends at the end of September.

Many changes have taken place over the past couple of years when it comes to electric vehicles, mostly in infrastructure, thing like charging stations are now showing up in areas aroun town where they weren't before.

There's another chang coming down from Washington DC.

It deals with incentives used to entice people to buy EVs.

Those who support electric vehicles say whether or not that incentives package goes away.

EVs are here to stay.

But I saw a figure a few months ago where, in California and some other states, in July and August, 130,000 electric vehicles were sold.

That's a nice chunk.

Now, of course, many people were taking advantag of good deals on these vehicles because the tax incentive, which expires September 30th, was an incentive for them to go ahead and make the purchase.

That was $7,500 off the purchase price of the car to encourage the switch to, EV vehicles.

Greg Morrison is the executive producer for the online car magazine.

Bumper to bumper TV.com.

He says there's no guarante the federal tax credit program for EVs will survive but this story is far from over.

That woul probably take an act of Congress and some political will that, I don't know, really exist at this moment, but that could change what is happening.

Some states have been considering considering only replacing the federal tax credit with a state tax credit.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, capital Journal.

Thank you Randy.

We'll be right back with this week's guests.

Stay with us.

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.

Senator, statesman, and U.S.

Vice President William Rufus King of Dallas County, served in the US Senate for more than 30 years.

In 1852, King was elected vice president on the ticket with Franklin Pierce whil recovering from illness in Cuba.

King became the only member of the US executive branch to ever have been sworn into office on foreign soil.

He passed away less than a month after being inaugurated.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is state senator Donnie Chesteen from from Geneva, chairman of the Senate Education Policy Committee.

Mr.

chairman thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me on, Todd.

I was almost to Geneva, Switzerland.

I don't know what's going on with the, Well, look, I really appreciate you coming on the show.

You're in town for some of these legislative meetings.

People forget sometimes that you aren't just here during the four months of session, right?

There are all kinds of committee meetings.

Today was Legislative Council and some other things.

So you all spent a considerable amount of time driving to Montgomery throughout the offseason.

If you want to say that.

I don't know if there i such thing as offseason anymore.

You know, it's a full time, part time job.

But but you know, that's fine.

You know that's what we're elected to do.

And I enjoy the opportunity to, represent the people that I get to represent.

I do think it's important for y'all's legislative oversight role.

That's wha that some of these meetings are, whether it's contract review or things like that.

It is important for the legislature to perform its oversight role, not just during the legislative session.

But it's historic.

Well, I guess we're a coupl months into the new school year.

But you sponsor the cell phone ban, correct?

It's been a couple of years on this.

Yeah.

You talked about it's got to be build a bill.

You stood firm on that.

There were kind of lots of different amendments floating around everything.

So now that it's been in place for a couple months now, what is the feedback band?

Would you say that this is going well?

Couldn't be happier with it.

That's that's a fact.

I, I received an email from a teacher in another part of the state and, her message to me early on was thanking u for sponsoring the legislation.

She talked about the change in her classroom with her students and the attentiveness to the to the lessons.

But she also mentioned one particular student.

She said she had never really spoken up in class.

And she said, now she's engaged in the classroom.

And she said, I attribute that to the fact that they they don't have their cell phones in front of them and they no actually know what's going on in the classroom now.

Yeah.

And I've heard teachers also say that, like, the teachers themselves would spend a considerable amount of classroom time stopping what they're doing to sit, tell somebody to put away their cell phone.

Exactly.

And I mean, that's that's just to really put an interruption on actual instruction.

Yeah, it is complete disruption to the instructions that's going on.

And, you know, I think once these once these kids realize that, you know, they can live without their cell phone for seven hours a day, I thin we're going to see some things.

And I already have seen some news clips from some teachers who've talked about the academic achievement has been improved already because as I said, they're paying attention to the class, they're engaged in conversations with the teachers, and the actual learning is actually taking place now instead of, as you said, the teacher having spent part of her time, being disrupted by having to get kids to put cell phones up.

Well, look, I think we could all take a break from our cell phones from time to time.

I'm certainly addicted to mine, too much.

But especially for young people that they're soaking up all that information.

Probably not.

You know, probably way too much in general, but certainly not doin classroom time at the same time.

There was some, you know, opposition expressed or concerns expressed as this, law, went through the process about, okay, are parents going to be able to contact their kids?

What about, Senator Elliott on the floor?

Who's saying, you know, if somebody forgets their soccer cleats or they're canceled, something's canceled.

Any concerns from parents you're hearing about?

Okay, this goes too far.

We want to be able t communicate with our children.

I haven't heard it.

No, I have not heard it.

You know, I'm sure it's out there.

And it took probably mor of an adjustment for the parents that did the kids.

You know, and I always look at that like, well you forgot your soccer cleats.

Well, let' let's take responsibility here.

You know, let's let's be mindful of what we have to do in order to be prepared for the day, rather than being able to text mom or dad, say, hey, I forgot so an the office has always worked.

You know, if yo if you need to call your parent, if the child is sick, the school nurses, their the coaches have, chats with you know, conversation with parent about practice being canceled.

So there are a lot of way that that the, the instructor, instructors, teachers, coaches, whatever can communicate with parents for reminders, you know, rather than the kids having to be in direct conversation with the parent.

Yeah, that's that's true.

There's always an office, there's a counselor.

There's all, you know, that' that's the way it used to work.

We lived through it.

You know, we made it.

We did a lot of times for different, but it still works.

I don't think my parents would have brought my, you know, to come to think of it.

Well, that's interesting.

And we're it's going to be when we get back into session because I'd like to hear maybe at the committee level or even on the floor from around the state, what some feedback has been, because that was a monumental law.

You're seeing other states do it too, right?

Right.

So I'm always really going to be curious for feedback, from around the state.

Another law that went into well, yeah, into effect this year at least practically the Choose act.

Monumental.

School choice law parents can use a certain portio of tax credits, basically $7,000 to send their children to a school of their choice.

That can be a private school That could be a public school.

I'll have the how that works out.

What's the feedback on this?

Because I know that there are some in the public school arena who don't like the idea of vouchers and things like that, and at the same time, a lot of parents are probably taking advantage of this choice in a wa that they couldn't have before.

So for your area, what's it been like with the implementation of the Choose Act in southeast Alabama?

I don't think it's had a real big impact on our schools.

To be honest with you, I think there's some that have taken advantage of the of the tax dollars for their childre to, enroll in private schools.

But for the most part, it i hasn't really had a big impact, you know?

Interesting.

Well, one aspect of i that has been talked about a lot throughout the state is, the athletic Association making a ruling essentially that if parents if a student does take advantage of that, uses that, choose that tax credit to go to a different school, even if it's public school private school doesn't matter.

And they've got to sit out a year.

For basically making it kind of like an anti recruiting argument has blown up into a huge argument with many of your colleagues saying that is not what we intended at all.

Right.

And the choose I know that there's a lawsuit.

The governor and the speaker involved.

Tell me back to choose that.

Is that what you all intended, or did you hav the understanding that there was there would be no time to sit out?

Oh, it goes back to the High School Athletic Association's interpretation of a bona fide move.

Okay.

You know, you can take the choose act dollars with you if you make a bona fide move.

That's that's what was in the law.

But for a student to be ruled ineligible for taking the choose act dollars, that's totally not the way the legislation was intended.

We're having kids that are ruled ineligible right now because they have you their parents have used the Choose act dollars to follow the chil into a school of their choice.

So here' this is my perspective on this.

The high School Athletic Association has known school choice is coming.

It's out there.

It's been talked about, and it's here.

They had an opportunity as an association to sit down with those who, the governor and her staff to talk about how we can make this work for what's best for the kid.

And I think we lose sight of that.

Way too many times, Todd.

You know what's in the best interest of this child here is going to another school better for this child and their education, their quality of education.

And if they compete in athletics, you know, you're going to say they have to sit out a year.

You mentioned something earlier about recruiting to sa that recruiting is not going on in the state of Alabama right now.

I would totally disagree with it's already there.

It's there.

Yeah.

So the fact that now you'r going to say they're recruiting, where have they been for the last several years?

Only schools that have built these, incredible high school programs.

Look around.

You know, I hear it, and I use that used to be my line of work.

I was about to say, you you have a unique perspectiv because you have been a coach.

And, I mean, I don't know that's just a unique perspective because you've had to dea with the association, I'm sure, for a lot of your career.

So for them to have known this was coming.

I've used the example of the NCAA the NCAA didn't address in our ill and abortive transfer.

It's been out there and now basically the NCAA, they're irrelevant.

You know, they don't have the teeth that they once had because they didn't step up and address some of these issues that have been coming down the pipe for several years.

I look at the high school Athletic Association the same way.

They've had an opportunity to sit down prior to this season starting and make a ruling on this, and they chose not to work with the with the Choose act.

And so now here we are so well.

And the Choose act did pass like two years ago.

Yes.

So I guess what you're saying is if there was going to be this rule, y'al had another session to address and it could have been addressed one way or the other.

I get that completely.

I know there's lawsuits out there.

Let's just say there's no ruling on this.

Do y'all expect to address this legislatively when y'all come back?

I don't know anything specifically, but there's a lot of talk right now about legislation coming.

And as I said a minute ago, the High School Athletic Association had a chance to have a seat at the table and work with us for the best interest of the students.

And that didn't happen.

So I think we're going to have to take a, a look at it this session.

Well let' look at what else might come up this legislative session.

It's going to be one o those shortened sessions right.

Starts early.

Probably ends a little early.

Becaus because it is an election year.

But it was interesting.

Your committee education policy was pretty busy last session.

Lots of bills coming through, certainl a lot busier than it had been.

Just I mean lots of different issues.

Yes.

You said at the end, I think it was y'all's last committee meeting of the session, because y'all had to deal with a lot of these bills that, hey, you know, we'll come back.

We want to deal with academic issues.

We want to deal with policies that help math, reading, you know, science, things like that.

Not necessarily social issues.

Do you expect I mean, you can't wave a magic wand and do away with all that, but that was an interesting statement from you ending the session last year.

Well, and and I felt very strongly about that because, you know, we're there for education policy.

What's, what's in the best interest for the students and the teachers that teach these students.

And I felt like we we got away from that.

We dealt with a lot more social issues than, than I would like for my committee to have to, to deal with.

And so, you know I stand by that same, position this year, coming in.

Let's deal with education issues.

If there's some of the others that, you know we might need to take a look at.

We'll be happy to do so.

But we're not we're goin to deal with education policy.

I think that's our primary role.

Well we will be looking forward to it'll be here before we know it.

I mean wha 3 or 3 and a half months away.

Something like that.

So I hope you'll come back and share more with us.

Otherwise we'll see you in January.

Thank you.

I think Framingham we'll be right back.

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.

You're watching Alabama Public Television celebrating 70 years of service to Alabama.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is doctor Scott Harris, public health officer for the state of Alabama.

Doc, thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

Good to see you.

Always good to have you on.

You're a trusted voice for health care in the state for medicine.

We've got a lot of questions about that going on.

And, I know that last time you were on, we talked about you being the chairman of your colleagues group.

Right.

Every state has a public health officer, and you've been the chairman of that group or president or whatever it is.

You're coming off of that chairmanship.

What's that been like?

It's been it' been quite an interesting year.

So the organization's called the Association of Stat and Territory Health Officials.

So it's the the states and DC and U.S.

territories and freely associated states.

There's about 59 total.

And it's the people who have my job and all these other jurisdictions.

It's a really been interesting year, as you know, in public health anyway.

But this is a nonpartisan group.

We all, you know, work for, you know, governors and legislatures and others that are, you know, Partizan to whatever degree.

But our group has actually been, really interesting, has been really instructive for me.

We've just tried to stay o the page of keeping people safe and healthy.

There's a lot of noise out there, and there's a lot of a lo of Partizan politics going on.

But it's really been a great year, has been a wonderful experience for me.

Yeah, it's cool to see Alabama leaders like Doctor Mack.

He's the same way with his, superintendents or school leaders.

It's cool to see Alabama taking a leading role in all that.

And you're right.

Politics and medicine don't mix very well.

No, not at all.

That's that's what's going on.

So.

All right, we'll start there.

We are currently in this government shutdown.

Mostly people think about that is impacting DC and, and DC kind of agencies.

But you lead a public health agency that takes a relies on a lot of federal money runs programs relying on some of that and coordinate through the federal government.

So how is the shutdown affecting the Alabama Department of Public Health?

Yeah, it has a big impact on us.

We are mostly federally funded.

And and that's true for all state health departments around the country.

Most state health, I mean, all state health departments are mostly federally funded.

We get about two thirds of our money from federal grants, mostly through CDC.

And then another, you know, 25% or so, goes, comes from billing Medicaid and Medicare, which are, you know, at least partiall predominantly federally funded.

So, really close to 90% of our revenue comes from federal sources.

So when there's a government shutdown, it affects a lot of our programs.

You know, many of the programs are considered essential.

And so they do keep running.

But but some of them are not.

And the one that is really the most challenging for us to manage right now is the work program.

Women's, infant children's, infants, children.

The week program is a program that allows low income pregnant women and mom and their babies to, buy food.

We we provide vouchers that, add up to about $120 million a year that goes straight to Alabama grocery stores, Alabama retailers.

And that funding ended on October 1st.

And so we've got a couple of weeks of of carrying forward money we can spend in a couple of weeks worth, so we can keep allowing moms and babies to get that, that food.

But it's, after that, there's no solution that we know of.

So if the if the shutdown goes longer than that, it's going to be difficult.

Yeah.

That's what I hear about a lot of things like we can we can stomach som you know we can plan for some.

But if it gets to be a month or longer than that, some real pain being experienced and you know we'll talk more about that as it goes forward.

But I'm thinking about funding because you're already had to dea with this rescission, situation or basically just huge cuts, the DOJ's situation.

Maybe that's more appropriate.

Where I mean, a coupl almost a couple hundred million dollars, impacted it.

What is the latest on that?

Has any of that been restored, or is there any hope to have it restored?

No, that money is is gone as far as we know.

So that happened at the very end of March, 1st of April.

The there were clawbacks on three particularly large, federal grants that we already had in place that we had contracts for.

This was money that we expected to have for another year and a half, and we were already pushing this out to many people in the communit who were doing their frontline public health work.

A lot of nonprofits and hospitals and health care providers.

So that money was clawed back, around, 270, $880 million.

We had a number of staff whose positions went away.

We were able to find places for a lot of them to land.

But of course, all the work stopped.

And this was work that we did with hospitals, preventing infections, training peopl who work in nursing homes over infection control things.

Our state public health laboratory, employees who were funded in many cases who do testing for measles and things like that.

So, about 22, states and D.C.

actually sued HHS for that.

They received an injunction that allowed that funding to get restored.

So about half the states got that money back, bu our state was not part of that.

So we've not received any funding since that time.

Is it so is it a case that could go to the Supreme Court and maybe ultimately be resolved?

I, that would be my understanding.

I'm certainly not the expert on how those things progressed legally, but I think that's exactly right.

I think a judge, gave this injunction, so that they would have time to hear all the full merits, argued on how that case would go.

And then I'm sure there are appeals, processes that can happen after that.

But you know, the grants themselves, will expire in the next several months anyway, and they would have run out anyway.

So it's unlikely we're going to see that.

Well, part of the one big beautiful Bill act they're calling.

They're calling it the Working Families Tax Code Act or something like that.

Now, included this $50 billion Rural Health fund alabamas portion of that looks like it's about $500 million.

That's a big deal.

I know that the governor has this task force.

I talked to Representative Daniels about it.

He's part of it.

You're a part of it.

I would expect a leading voice in that.

How do you go about divvying up $500 million in a pretty quick fashion?

To hospitals, nursing homes with.

And the focus is on rural.

Right.

Because this is supposed to make up for the deficiencies in the funding there.

Yeah.

That's right.

So the H.R.

one, the appropriation bill that you mentioned, we removed a lot of money from Medicaid around the country, not as much from Alabama as from the expansion states.

But in order to try to make up for some of that, a total of $50 billion, wer appropriated for this program.

So the program's a five year program.

So potentially, up to $1 billion per state.

If our application, is approved, then Alabama is eligible for 10 million a year for five years.

And then depending on the strength of the application, perhaps up to an additional $100 million per year.

So as much as $200 million per year, 4 or 5 year period.

It is intended to, to shor up, health care in rural areas.

There's a lot of language in there about paying rural providers, which would be hospital and physicians and other medical providers, EMS, emergency medical services.

There's a lot of information in there about workforce development, recruitment and retention of, medical professionals.

There's a lot in ther about technology and innovation.

Not clear exactly what they intend, but but clearly they're looking for people to be innovative and come up with technological solutions that may help some of that think maybe telehealth, for example, or things in that vein.

So there's a lot we don't know.

The, the rural health transformation program in our state is being, is, of course, under the authority of the governor.

It's being run by, the state Health Planning and Development Agency ship.

The, Emily Marshall has done a wonderful job with that.

We're really appreciate being involved with that.

She's really showing great leadership on that.

But it is a short application period.

You know, they and we only heard about it in July.

And the application just came out about two weeks ago.

We've got to have the application in the first in November, and the money is going to be decided at the end of December.

So really moving fast.

Yeah, that's it kind o reminds me of the old CARES act.

Then it was the other Covid things that passed in the legislature had to, move quick.

Exactly.

Switching gears real quick, a lot of questions still going on publicly in the last couple of years about, vaccines, immunizations, frankly, a lot of mixed messages coming out of Washington.

Obviously, the appointment of RFK Jr as Health and Human Health and Human Services secretary, he's a vaccine skeptic.

He's expressed over the years.

So a lot is going on in that space.

Has anything changed as i pertains to Alabama in terms of, immunizations?

You mentioned measles a minute ago.

In terms of the guidance that y'all are offering, residents here.

No, nothing has changed.

We continue to, offer the same guidance that we have offered, for a really long time.

There's, a lot of, communications that we hear, from, Washington about, what plans will be around vaccines or about what may or may not be funded?

But there's really not been new science, to show that that we shouldn't be vaccinating someone or that it's harmful to vaccinate someone.

There was a new advisory committee to the CDC that normally helps make these decisions.

They get reappointed, by the by the new HHS secretary.

They've met a couple of times, most recently, in mid, September.

And it was a real confusing message that they, that they gave us.

And so we're still waiting to see what else comes out of there.

But but at this time nothing has changed in Alabama, and we actually aren't required to follow exactl what ACIp says on these things.

And we often take our lead from them and follow them.

But ultimately, the authority for school vaccine requirements, for example resides with my governing board with the state Committee on Public Health.

And so what SRP does is very important and we follow it very closely, but it's not actually something that that would require us to change things in Alabama.

I say, well, I have to also ask you, speaking of RFK, this whole Tylenol situation, I mean, that was a pretty shocking, press conference, whatever you want to call it, where they come out and say, you know, basically if you're pregnant, you take Tylenol.

Your risk for an autistic child is that, I mean, what what you're a physician you lead a state health agency.

Is that the same?

You have the same view?

I would say I was I was very surprised to hear that that was not something I was expecting to hear.

You know, I I really can't imagine what it's like if you're a parent who' dealing with autism and a child.

That's got to be a really difficult situation.

I've been blessed not to have that situation personally, so I'm sure you ask a lot of questions and wonder if there's anythin you could have done or something that should have been done differently.

I have not heard befor that Tylenol was linked to that.

I've not seen new studies or new science that would change that.

You know, even the day after that press conference, I know there's the vice president himself and others at HHS were walking that back just a little bit, it seemed like.

So for now, our guidance hasn't changed.

The answer to all of these questions about you yourself and your health is please talk to your doctor.

You know, talk to the health care professional who knows you personally and can help you make the best decision about your health.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well said.

Well, one thing, before we go, it's flu shot season.

Here we are in October.

So what's the latest?

How can people access their flu shot?

Yeah.

So?

So it is time for people to think about flu shots.

Anyone six months of age or older, is eligible for a flu shot.

Again, talk to your doctor if you have questions.

But we particularly want to make sur that that persons over age 65, or vaccinated wome who are pregnant are vaccinated and younger children are vaccinated because those are the ones who, do the worst.

If they, were unfortunate enough to get the flu, it is always time to do it whenever you think about it in the fall.

But certainly by the 1st of October, we want you to be doing it.

I got mine this week.

Hopefully things are going to go well.

But we would encourage everybody to go out to, your doctor's office to drugstore near you.

Lots of places you can get those.

Absolutely.

Well, that really appreciate your time.

Hey, we're out of time.

We could have talked for a lot longer, but look forward to having you back But thank you for your advice.

Great.

Thanks.

Thanks for having me.

We'll be right back.

The Kahala Lily, name for the Harbor River, is an aquatic plant native to the major river systems of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina and Alabama.

Its best known natural habitat is the shoals of the Cahaba River.

Lily is known for the striking beauty of its three inch wide white flowers.

Each flower, six petals, surround a thin corona which connects the lower portions and the stamens.

Lily.

Scientific name Nicholas corn area, translated as beautiful crown like membrane, accurately depicts these characteristics.

The lily requires a very specialized habitat of swift flowing wate over rocks and an open canopy.

The plants, bulbs and seeds spend the winter buried in the rocky riverbed.

Leaves began to emerge above the water line in mid-April.

Flowering commences in mid-May, reaching its peak in late May and early June.

The showy flower attract a variety of pollinators as well as large numbers of canoers and kayakers during the spring blooming period.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Ryan Hankins, executive director of Parker, the public affairs research council of Alabama.

Ryan thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Todd.

It's been a while since we've visited.

Can you remind our audience about Parker and its role here in the state?

Sure.

Well, Parker is the state's oldest and trusted policy research and data analysis organization.

Our focus is, Yes, nonpartisan.

But I think, more importantly non-ideological policy research and data about data analysis, evaluation to really inform our state and local leaders and help them make the best decisions they can for the people of Alabama.

Data is so important not just, the basic top lines, but the analysis that goes into it.

That's why y'all are so valuable.

I was looking into some of your latest reports.

This is from August.

Kind of really digging into the ACC app scores.

That is the education scores that the test at all of our, you know, education.

All our schoolchildren take some real improvement in reading.

Yes, some improvement in math.

Yes.

Reading really stands out, though, that English language arts category over the years.

And it's looking at proficiency.

Talk about what y'all foun and what the data can inform us.

Certainly it' probably important to step back in time to maybe almost 15 years ago now, when Alabama was our third and fourth graders were, showing reading proficienc at about the national average.

And in fact, one year we actually just barely eclipsed the national average.

We were doing good wor teaching, reading, the reading initiating initiative, AARP and those things.

And then for a numbe of reasons, we basically unwound what we were doing and what we saw was those reading scores dropped precipitously to 49th, 50th in the country.

The Literacy Act, which most of your viewers, I'm sure are aware of, was adopted in 2019.

That said, that is a requirement or expectation that all third graders meet proficiency by the end of their grade or be possibly subject to retention to repeating third grade.

So, that act has been in place now for six years.

It's taken a good long time to really get working and moving forward.

And what we see is it seem to be working to to your point.

Our literacy scores have gone up year over year across every subpopulation, essentially.

And it's worth noting that, you know, when you see scores continually going up, we're often ask, well, have we lowered the metric?

And in fact, we're raising the metric.

So it's important to recognize that every year the standards go up and our students are still meetin and exceeding that expectation.

That is really important.

And doctor McKee talks about that because yeah we did start a little bit lower.

But it's been raised every single year in terms of literacy.

And so some really good numbers and I was looking at some of your data and I invite you know it's Parker Alabama Paccar alabama.org.

Correct.

Just to actually see Alabama pass see Alabama share the.

Right, right.

But I encourage everybody to go and see this data for themselves.

But like greater over grade I mean the, the third graders that were in third grade in 2030, 20, 23 are now fifth grader and their scores are improving.

So they're improving as they go.

So I think that's really interesting.

Math is also improving, but at a slower clip.

But that's probably because that numeracy law is a little newer.

The Numeracy Act law is newer.

It is designed similarly to the Literacy Act, with numeracy coaches to support teachers and a lot of the same implementation design of that act, but it has not been on the ground as long.

So we're seeing some of the same early growing pains in, numeracy that we saw in literacy.

But I will point out that you're right.

That year over year, improvement is showing and the growth in literacy will have a positive effect on math.

You know, by fifth grade, you know, so much of your math is really requires not just numeracy skills, but literacy skills.

So students that.

Yeah, students that read poorl are usually poor math students.

So we anticipate, as literacy improves, that will also contribute to the improvements in, in numeracy.

And those will continue on into the student's entire career.

Yeah.

They talk about, learning to read an then reading to learn exactly.

Which is exactly interesting.

Well, there's also been a focus at the state level on, especially troubled schools, the turnaround initiative that the governor has talked about.

What have you all seen, from some of those districts, Wilcox County specifically?

Right.

So part of that goes back to the Literacy Act.

Part of the Literacy Act was a significant and intentional investment in schools that had higher concentrations of low income students or higher shares of students falling below benchmark.

Now, what we have seen is those very schools are the ones that have had the most improvement.

So we, my colleague Thomas Spencer made a point of visit to Wilcox County a few a few weeks ago.

That system, I believe, has 91% of their students that qualify for free lunch.

And by the end of the summer, 100% of their students or to third graders were meeting reading proficiency.

As well as where we saw high improvements in Selma and in Lounds County, 36 schools around the state that had high levels of lo income students saw some of the most impressive growth in third grade literacy rates.

Wow.

Which shows a couple of things.

One, it shows that that over and not over investment, but extra investmen in those schools is paying off.

And it would be risky to wind that back because there will be a new crop of third graders next year.

Right.

And the next, and certainly in Wilcox County, while we seek and I'm speaking about third grade, you know that work begins much earlier.

And in Wilcox County, headstart, they're working toward early headstart for two year olds, the first county in the state to have essentially universal first class pre-K and have made that a focus.

And now you're seeing that investment made, in some cases, eight, nine, ten years ago, really paying off in much higher rates of proficienc than schools that are, frankly, better resourced.

I know it's all it's tough to put all of this into you know, a, an elevator pitch.

But what what would some of this data on education scores.

What would your take away be it.

You know, for the legislature, what would your message be from all this data to the legislature or other policymakers in the state?

What's the takeaway?

Takeaway is it is expensive, but it is working.

And in the long term, that's the cheaper option.

Invest in what work rather than reinvent the wheel every 2 or 3 years.

We see that smaller classrooms have an effect.

We see that experienced teachers and stability in the teaching faculty have an effect.

We see that principals as, as teachers, principals as first teachers and teacher mentors have an effect.

And we see the the extra investment in those schools has an effect.

We see that the investment in the latter training has an effect.

What you'll see here is every thing I'm mentioning has a cost.

But the costs are working.

They're paying off.

Now, we've also found some investments that are less expensive, but those are episodic and one offs.

So our message to the legislature would be, follow the data.

As Parker does, we seem to have hit upon the right mix of investments and innovations and staffing.

We're seeing success.

Let's, let's continue that.

Let's continue in that vein.

And if there is a lesson from 15, 20 years ago i don't take our foot off the gas.

Right.

Exactly, exactly what exactly?

We'll look.

Switching gears, I'm really excited because y'all, on October 9th a little less than a week away, you have Arthur Brooks coming to speak as part of the Parker Speaker series.

I'm a big fan of Arthur Brooks, so I'm excited about that.

But tell me how this came about.

You know, we've hosted an event every year for about the last six with a, a speaker with a national reputation of some importance to share with, with our audience, the people of Alabama.

Those have often been, mor political actors or journalists.

Yeah.

Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Kearns Goodwin, historian.

Fascinating about the histories of the lives of presidents.

So Arthur Brooks is in that vein, but a little different.

He's had a fascinating life story and an a tale of reinventing himself multiple times, and I think has good words to say to us, at all seasons but also in our particular time in our nation's history.

Absolutely.

So he, you know, he stepped down from th American Enterprise Institute, but it was an interesting story.

He voluntarily did that, saying, hey, you know, organizations need to have new blood every now and again.

That's hardly ever happened.

But his book I read, Love Your Enemies.

Yes.

This is back in, I guess, like 20, 20 or so I read it, I loved it.

But this, it preceded a lot of the vitriol that's happening right now.

And so what a great message about, reconciliation and trying to understand people.

So I'm guessing that might be part of his message given our current our current political environment.

That's part of it.

You know, he's written on a wide array of topics and I mentioned his biography.

He began life as a classical musician and then an economist, and then running a I and now teaching in Harvard and writing with Oprah.

Just a really interesting, evolution of a of a career.

And, the theme that runs through all of his works, including, Love Your Enemies, is that idea of, it's constrained down to happiness.

And he jokes he's a happiness guru, but he understands happiness to be flourishing.

And what does human flourishing look like?

What is society flourishing looks like?

And a huge part of that is, civility of of of, disagreeing, but maintaining civility, which, you know, sounds quaint right now.

Yeah.

But that has been that is, you know, he is a faithful Catholic, but he is influenced by writers of all traditions.

And you see throughout those traditions, throughout human history, that theme coming again and again and again of, flourishing through civility, through disagreement, through vigorous debate, through reconciliation.

And I think he is reminding us of what we know to be true.

And what I think we'll see return.

Maybe not soon, but in due time, an excellent message.

How can folks are there still tickets available?

Still tickets are available.

This this next Thursday evening, October 9th, at Red Mountain Theater in Birmingham.

The event begins at seven and reception beforehand.

He'll begin speaking at seven, and you can visit our website or Red Mountain Theater, which I think is Red Mountain theater.org.

To get tickets, encourage people to be there.

I certainly want to, Arthur Brooks, the Parker Speaker series October 9th.

Ryan, thanks again for coming.

We hope to have you on again soon.

Thank you.

Todd.

We'll be right back.

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

Appy tv.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 Alabama Department of Archive and History was founded in 1901, becoming the nation's first publicly funded independent state archives agency.

The archives identifies, preserves, and makes accessible records and artifacts of enduring historical value to the state.

Thomas owned, founded the agency and served as its first director.

He was succeeded by his wife, Marie Banchero, who headed the archives for 35 years and was the second woman to lead a state agency.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week at the same time, right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacy.

We'll see you next time.