In response to three-year-old comments made by U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) on the quality of inner-city education, the president of the Birmingham American Federation of Teachers (AFT) attempted to "fact-check" Tuberville by highlighting the school system's "improvement," while glossing over the overall failure in the system.
In a Tuesday social media post, Birmingham AFT president Richard E. Franklin, Jr. addressed comments made by Tuberville in a 2023 news article, in which Tuberville criticized educators in inner-city school systems for lackluster performance.
"The COVID really brought it out how bad our schools are and how bad our teachers are, in the inner city. Most of them in the inner city, I don't know how they got degrees," Tuberville said. "I don't know whether they can read and write. And they want a raise. They want less time to work, less time in school. It's just, we've ruined work ethic in this country. We don't work at it anymore. We push an easy life."
Franklin responded, three years later, with an indignant social media post, accusing Tuberville of "slandering our scholars."
"I cannot remain silent when Alabama's educators, students, and public schools are unfairly attacked," said Franklin. "Senator Tommy Tuberville, now the Republican nominee for Governor of Alabama, has made statements suggesting that inner-city teachers are unqualified, that they cannot read or write, and that our schools are failing. Those comments are not only disrespectful, they are contradicted by the facts."
He added, "The truth is that Birmingham City Schools and Fairfield City Schools, two Alabama school systems often labeled as 'inner-city' districts, have become examples of academic recovery, innovation, and student success since the COVID-19 pandemic."
Franklin says that Tuberville contradicted the facts. However, Tuberville's comments were directed at overall performance, not post-COVID-19 performance, which Franklin homed in on exclusively.
Franklin highlighted that "Birmingham City Schools ranks among the top 2% of school districts in the nation for academic growth."
The post stated, "Reading achievement has increased significantly."
While it's true that the school showed improvement in overall score from 2019 to 2025, BCS and Fairfield City Schools showed declines in math and science proficiency, with the majority of students still lacking in reading.
Due to the impact of COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) issued a waiver to Alabama, exempting the state from the requirement to report accountability results for the 2019-2021 school years.
However, the 2018-2019 scorecard shows that BCS reported a total score of 71, with only 24% proficiency in reading, 21% in math and 16% in science.
The most recent report shows an overall scorecard of 77, with 37% in English Language Arts (ELA), 16% in math, and 15% in science.
The graduation rate also increased by just over 2% in that same time period.
While it is true that BCS's reading proficiency has increased, the fact that math and science have declined makes boasting of those numbers a possibly odd choice.
Franklin's post also states, "Birmingham students rank 7th nationally in post-pandemic mathematics recovery." Franklin's phrasing is certainly odd, since the state's report card shows that BCS math proficiency declined by 5 points from pre- to post-pandemic.
Franklin also boasted of Fairfield City Schools (FCS), stating it has "demonstrated remarkable improvement since COVID-19."
In 2019, FCS reported an overall scorecard of 75, with 19% proficiency in reading, 20% in math and 9% in science.
The most recent report shows an overall score of 79, under 26% in ELA, 12% in math and 8% in science. Once again, math and science scores declined. Reading improved, but remains in the red in both systems.
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