During an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," Alabama Republican Party (ALGOP) chairman John Wahl defended his working relationship with the Alabama Education Association (AEA).
The AEA is the state affiliate of the National Education Association, the teachers' union. Wahl said that, when it comes to the group, he follows the mantra of former President Ronald Reagan: "trust but verify."
The revelation that ALGOP and AEA have open communication channels came as Wahl issued a statement saying that the AEA assured him that, despite comments from their executive director criticizing the 2014 legislation that protected the rights of homeschooling parents, the organization would not seek to change the law.
Speaking to a purely hypothetical situation, if the AEA were calling to say, "What's your advice?" Wahl said, "One, separate from the NEA, OK? There is no reason that the AEA needs to have strings and connections to the NEA. Then in your newsletters, start talking a little bit more to the values that are shared by the people of Alabama."
Wahl claimed, "the vast majority of Alabama teachers are Republicans," but acknowledged that the higher up you go in the education hierarchy. the more liberal people get while saying, "I'll tell you right now, that's probably the profession that we get the most calls from, our teachers, who are seeing stuff in their curriculum, that they're shocked about."
Poor discussed seeing the influence of the AEA firsthand at the statehouse, a fact Wahl did not dispute, "Look, AEA killed school choice for years. They killed divisive concepts," Wahl said.
"This is Alabama, overwhelming Republicans, overwhelming conservative state, the fact that it took us so many years to pass school choice speaks to the battle that we're in. That battle does continue. This is a battle for the structure of government. This is a battle for control of the hearts and the souls and the minds of our children."
He stressed that, "it's incredibly important that we do stay vigilant. And so my message to you is, please don't take this as me being not vigilant."
Wahl also brought up the fact that one of the challenges isn't just with the AEA but with officials at the state Department of Education, "This is me being vigilant, knowing the concerns, hearing the saber rattling, coming out of the Department of Education and some of these groups and saying, I want to get in front of it, saying no, the Republican Party will not stand for increased regulations on our homeschoolers or on our private schools."
The two discussed the oversized investment the AEA made and lost backing State Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile) for mayor of Mobile. The group invested $100,000 into the race.
"The education system should be more concerned about fixing public education and improving public education than about regulating those who choose to opt out of it," Wahl said.
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