Last week, State Rep. Susan DuBose (R-Hoover), a staunch supporter of Alabama's teachers, highlighted the damage the Alabama Education Association (AEA) has done to teacher recruitment and retention and called the group's executive director, Amy Marlowe, "a hypocrite." On the group's social media and in their second Capital Pulse newsletter of the 2026 session, Marlowe took DuBose's comments out of context, using them to target DuBose.
The comments DuBose made concerned the challenges the state faces in retaining graduates of its education programs.
"I think one of the challenges is that we have been vilifying the teaching profession by saying they're overworked and underpaid," she explained. "It's a profession that should be honored. It's a fabulous profession."
"Honestly, if you start looking at the pay and the benefits that a teacher receives, it's really good. But teachers don't know that because the AEA has spent so much time telling them that they're underpaid," DuBose said.
"If you look at a college graduate, and say you compare a teacher to a nurse or an accountant or a social worker or any of these other fields, they are right there in the middle, and they're only working nine months out of the year. They get a defined benefit plan that they don't even have to pay taxes on. And they get insurance practically for free. And there's so many benefits," DuBose further explained.
The AEA took DuBose's comments out of context in its latest Capital Pulse newsletter.
They also used the quote on their social media page under the headline, "Can you believe this?!"
Teachers in Alabama have received steady pay increases in recent years:
- 2018-19 - 2.5% pay raise
- 2020-21 - 4% pay raise
- 2021-22 - 2% pay raise
- 2022-23 - 4% pay raise
- 2023-24 - 2% pay raise
- 2024-25 – 2% pay raise
Experienced teachers got a historic increase in 2023. While new teachers got a 4% increase, teachers with nine or more years of experience received raises ranging from 5% to nearly 21% for those with 35 years of classroom experience.
With State Rep. Terri Collins (R-Decatur) retiring this year, DuBose will be one of two Republican women left on the education committee.
Editor's note: The article misidentified Amy Marlowe as the Alabama Education Association president. She is the executive director and the article has been updated.
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