"The Baldwin County Public School System is opposed to any effort to divert funding away from our school system and the children with the most need," Baldwin County School Superintendent Eddie Tyler recently said. "The beach communities are wealthy, and they made their choice to separate, knowing how the money would be divided," he noted later in a statement to the press.
I'm concerned about this messaging from Tyler and the lessons it may be teaching our children. Concepts of fairness and sharing are important but taking from those you perceive to be more "wealthy" because you determine you "need" the money more have no place in local education funding discussions in Baldwin County and only serve to further divide us.
Unfortunately, this also feeds into an increasingly common narrative I hear from my constituents; namely, they don't want those preaching redistribution of wealth allocating school resources. They want someone focused on the children in their communities. The class warfare ideology espoused by Tyler will likely only encourage more city school systems to break away from the county school system.
In Baldwin County, we levy, by local law, a 1% sales tax, 40% of which is directed specifically to the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE). Currently, and because BCBE was the only school system around when the law was passed in 1983, none of that revenue is shared in an equitable manner with other school systems in the county, even though they sure do pay the tax.
This revenue is intended for all children in all Baldwin's communities, not just one system. Tyler's stated solution is to keep all the money raised in all of Baldwin's communities to one system and encourage those that form their own systems "to raise additional taxes from within their communities."
But double taxing is terrible public policy.
Why this legislation, and why now? Simple, because we said we would.
Six years ago this month, at Tyler's request, I helped broker, and we announced a separation agreement between Gulf Shores City Schools and the Baldwin County Board of Education. This agreement covered all that was within the authority of the two systems to negotiate. The only remaining item of contention was beyond their control and that is updating the local law which distributes a portion of a 1983 sales tax levied by the Alabama Legislature.
During those separation negotiations, I can assure you that Gulf Shores was very interested in updating this sales tax statute so that Gulf Shores and any other city school system could share the revenue collected in their communities as well. As the only senator that represents all the school districts within Baldwin County, we agreed and determined that once certain debt payments made by BCBE on school properties in Gulf Shores were satisfied, I would introduce legislation to update the distribution to include all schools county-wide.
Those debt payments were satisfied in December 2024. True to my word and in accordance with our agreement, I introduced the appropriate legislation at the beginning of this year to update the sales tax statute.
"To come back years later, asking to change the terms and take away money from Baldwin County students is simply unfair," Tyler said in a recent statement to the press. "It's not appropriate for the beach cities to come back years later and ask Baldwin County students to go without knowing what they agreed to…."
As a party to those negotiations, I can unfortunately say that these statements are unequivocally false, and I am manifestly disappointed in Tyler for making them. I am a strong supporter of all the children that I represent and the schools that they attend, including Baldwin County Public Schools and their leadership.
I believe integrity is important, and your word matters. I've compared school splits to a divorce. All too often, the children are the real victims. Let's set the adult egos and feelings aside, set an example for our kids, and share our plentiful resources with all of Baldwin's children.
The above photo hangs on the wall of my office in the Fairhope Courthouse. I'm proud when we set our differences aside and come together. Let's honor our agreements, be men of integrity, and serve all of Baldwin County's children.
Chris Elliott represents District 32 in the Alabama Senate, which includes Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Perdido Beach. He serves as the chairman of the County & Municipal Governments Committee.
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