With the two top spots already decided and nine league teams already bowl eligible, the Week 12 Southeastern Conference football schedule seems a bit out of kilter, almost unnecessary.
Most folks — except those in Alabama of course, for whom the world would surely come to an end if there wasn’t an Iron Bowl, which is set for next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, on CBS — would just like to fast forward to the SEC Championship Game in December. There are six games on this week’s schedule, with both division leaders spinning their wheels playing cupcake opponents.
Alabama (10-0), ranked No. 2 nationally, will entertain Chattanooga (6-4) in Tuscaloosa and No. 1 Florida (10-0) will host Florida International (3-7) in Gainesville. These are games that both teams would rather skip. Looking at these two games from the prospective of teams poised to play for a conference title with a shot at the national title to follow for the winner and one has to ask, “Do those games really have to take place?”
Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks, the Fort Payne Democrat running for governor of Alabama, came out swinging against charter schools again today on the historic steps of the State Capitol Building in Montgomery.
“Today, at the foot of the seat of power in the State of Alabama, I stand alone in opposition to one of the most disastrous public policy initiatives in recent years,”: Sparks said. “In recent days, Artur Davis and Bob Riley have told the people of Alabama that the only way for Alabama to receive money for education reform from the federal government is through the implementation of charter schools. That is simply not true.”
There are federal programs in place now in Alabama that qualify for the stimulus funds, he said..
“We have innovative schools, magnet schools, and specialized programs of excellence in Alabama that would qualify us to receive some of the $4.3 billion of stimulus funding allocated for education,” Sparks said. “Since everybody wants to talk about charter schools, I’m going to tell you the truth about charter schools. Charter schools are only marginally effective. They are not innovative and visionary and have not produced results that justify this much discussion and debate. There is no guarantee that we will get a single penny of the stimulus money by implementing charter schools.”
Studies show that 85 percent of charter schools perform at the same level or below the level of standard schools, Sparks said. “Now, tell me what all the fuss is about? Where is the record of success to back up this demand for charter schools?”
Casino gambling has a better record of success than charter schools, Sparks said. He indicated that the statistics show there is nothing special about the performance of charter schools.
“Charter schools are at best, a mediocre experimental program,” he said. “So, if it’s not about performance then what is it all about? Why is there such a rush to get on board the charter school express?”
In another challenge to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s failure to protect the purity of the state’s waterways, the Southern Environmental Law Center today petitioned for a hearing on the permit issued last month for a 3,255-acre coal mine in Blount County.
The proposed mine would have more than 60 pollution discharge points into the main stem or feeder streams of the Locust Fork, a tributary of the Black Warrior River that is already on ADEM’s list of the worst polluted streams in the state, mainly due to sediment.
The petition was filed on behalf of the Black Warrior Riverkeeper and The Friends of the Locust Fork River.
The law center already represents the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in an ongoing legal challenge of ADEM’s actions in permitting the Shepherd Bend coal mine in Walker County. In both cases, the agency has ignored federal and state laws and its own regulations, according to a press release..
“Ultimately, the problem goes beyond these projects, and lands squarely on the shoulders of ADEM which is consistently failing to protect water quality throughout the state,” SELC Senior Attorney Gil Rogers said. “The Rosa and Shepherd Bend coal mines are exhibit A.”
The Rosa coal mine permit is deficient in numerous ways. The mine would discharge pollution into a segment of Locust Fork which is listed by ADEM as “impaired” under the Clean Water Act. Alabama law prohibits causing or contributing to the pollution of an impaired water body. The agency acknowledged the impaired status of the Locust Fork in their permit rationale, but issued the permit anyway.
“ADEM needs to quit rubber-stamping these pollution permits and get serious about its role as the environmental regulator of coal mine operations,” Black Warrior Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke said. “Our waterways are much too precious to be so utterly neglected and exploited.”
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
