MONTGOMERY — The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to remove the language in state statute that requires the University of Alabama (UA) School of Social Work to remain a standalone college under the authority of the Board of Trustees. The program, with its restrictions and structure being codified into law, is the only one of its kind in the nation.
The bill was introduced by State Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville), who fielded nearly two hours of questions and comments before its final passage. "We need social workers. We need more social workers. What this bill would do is repeal the requirement that they stay structured this way."
Although House Bill 152 (HB 152) is a technical bill that neither eliminates the program nor mandates major changes, it drew fierce opposition from Democrats, some of whom described hearing "rumors" about the change. There was also a general lack of understanding of why the statute exists in the first place.
The school currently has 647 students, 329 of whom are undergraduates. Yet the program has 108 faculty and staff members.
Garrett said the issue arose during a discussion with the school about proposed measures lawmakers are considering to evaluate universities based on outcomes.
"The issue here is in talking about outcome-based funding. There's a new administration, and they're going to look at what they can do to help the university meet some of those goals, which is having more graduates from in-state, having more graduates to stay in-state, and having graduates to feed the workforce, and again, importantly, stay in Alabama," Garrett told 1819 News following the vote.
"In those discussions, it was just mentioned that, you know, we have this one school that's mandated," he added. "And because of that, our flexibility is limited."
The school was established by the Alabama Legislature in 1965 to address what was then described as a critical shortage of trained professionals in the field. At the time, there were only 100 social workers, according to the school's website.
The social sciences program is currently required by state law via Section 16-47-170:
"There is hereby created and established a graduate school of social work in the State of Alabama, to be under the sole management, ownership and control of the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama. This school shall provide not less than a two-year course of instruction in social work and related subjects on the graduate level. It shall be known as the School of Social Work of Alabama; however, the board of trustees of the university may change this name."
Garrett repeatedly assured Democrats that the bill would not eliminate the program; other universities offer social work programs within different departments. Auburn University houses its program in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work within the College of Liberal Arts. At the University of Alabama, Birmingham, the social work program is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences as the Department of Social Work.
SEE: State Rep. Garrett files bill to repeal University of Alabama School of Social Work requirement
"I want to start this all off with, you know, I trust you. I know where your heart is. I know that what you say is gold. So I want to stay very clear on that before we get here," State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D-Birmingham) said before a series of questions.
That confidence in Garrett remained a theme as members from across the aisle spoke on the bill.
"Well, I think my record on the issues they were concerned about, there's some trust there, and I've been very, you know, mindful. I mean, very intentional about some things, and I think there's mutual respect. We do work together. This was nothing nefarious," Garrett told 1819 News.
"I'm also at the core. I'm a numbers guy, a CFO. So I look at numbers. I look at structure," Garrett explained before moving on to an analogy he shared on the floor. Nick Saban visited the State House the day before, so Garrett said, "We brought him up a lot today."
He continued, "We brought him into the university, but we didn't tell him, 'Here's what you have to do and how you have to do it.' We said, 'You're the coach. Go do what you need to do.' Well, here, we had, you know, 60 years ago, for some reason, we set this up. 60 years later, the whole world has changed.'"
"I look at how many numbers. What the output of that school is, it's not meeting our needs, what we need. So, if I were someone coming in, I would want to say, look, let me have flexibility, do what's best, because education model, I've talked about this before, has got to be, has got to change. It's got to be flexible. And, I think this gives them more flexibility and autonomy," Garrett continued. "At the heart of what I'm saying, if you know me as a numbers guy, as a structure guy: It's logical."
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