Smithwick Response

Responses to Skip Smithwick’s commercials, flier= s, and statements to the media:

Stephanie Bell has been a lifelong Republican. Her husband, John, was appointed i= n 1981 by President Ronald Reagan to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Middle Distric= t of Alabama. Stephanie has been a member of the Federation of Republican Women for nearly 30 years. John and Stephanie Bell have been members of the Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee for nearly = 15 years. In July 1994, Stephani= e was asked by the State Republican Executive Steering Committee to replace (beca= use of health problems) a very fine gentleman who qualified to run for the state Board of Education. She was e= lected and re-elected, as Republican, in 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2004. (Smithwick has heard Stephanie sha= re this information at Republican candidate forums.)
1. The state Board of Education DOES NOT vote on free or reduced or ANY school lunches. Federal funds are distributed to local schools by the state Department of Education based on a formula approved by federal officials.&nbs= p; The board is not part of that process. Stephanie Bell DID, however, vote = recently to require schools to serve healthier school lunches.
  1. Since 1995, Stephanie Bell has helped interested teachers implement Bible courses in local schools in her district. More recently, she voted to approv= e a list of textbooks that included a textbook for an optional Bible course.
    Other textbooks for Bible instruct= ion will be included on a textbook approval list to be submitted in the next few months. Stephanie did, howeve= r, oppose a textbook pushed by the Alabama Education Association and Democrats= in the Legislature. The textbook included numerous major inaccuracies, including the statement that Jesus wa= s born in Nazareth (not Bethlehem). It also would have been the first and only time that the Legislature (not the state school board) approved a specific textbook for use in public schools.
    1. Stephanie Bell was a part of discussions in 1996 that led to the sta= te board of education’s implementation of teacher background checks long before they were finally approved by the state Legislature. Stephanie has voted for background checks for all employees in K-12 and the two-year colleges. Smithwick refers to a vote on an AEA-pushed resolution supporting a Bill in the Legislature in 1998 (written= by AEA and Democrats), which included private and home school teachers along w= ith public school teachers, a move that would have generated lawsuits. Their objective was to kill legisl= ation offered by former state Sen. Bill Armistead. Again, Stephanie had already voted= to approve teacher background checks and they were already in place before the vote cited by Smithwick.
      
      Stephanie Bell voted to approve the actual letter that was sent to notify parents about teachers who were not deemed “highly qualified” according to federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards. Like MOST states, Alabama, with the help of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, requested and received a one-year waiver from the federal government before sending the NCLB-required letters. Alabama was forced to delay sending the letters because AEA had stopped teacher testing, one of t= he primary “highly qualified” standards. The letters to parents, which Step= hanie voted for/approved, have been sent to parents for nearly five years. By the way, Stephanie also voted f= or teacher testing, including subject matter, which has provided a tool, to determine whether a teacher is considered “highly qualified.”
      
      Stephanie Bell worked with former Gov. Fob James’ administrati= on and legislators in 1998 when the Legislature approved a bond issue to repla= ce portable classrooms and/or upgrade/replace existing facilities. Stephanie supported the plan that = was based on input from local school systems, state department architects, and Auburn University engineering students.&nb= sp; The February 1999 political resolution offered by former Gov. Don Siegelman “rewrote” the 1998 bond issue and created some major problems. (Read the board min= utes from February 1999.) Stephanie actually voted FOR a plan to replace portable classrooms and upgrade existi= ng facilities.
      
      (April 24, 2008). He then said in his literatur= e and in television/ radio ads that “Stephanie Bell has been asleep at= the switch as millions in sweetheart deals and no-show jobs have been doled out in the two-year college system.”
      
      CORRECTION: The Birmingham News has endorsed Stephanie Bell. In fact, Stephanie’s efforts to reform Alabama’s two-year college system have been widely reported in the media since her election in 1995. Stephanie was the only board membe= r who opposed Roy Johnson as chancellor and was one of two board members who voted against Johnson’s lucrative contract. Stephanie, along with Gov. Riley a= nd fellow board members Randy McKinney and Betty Peters, pushed for a ban on double-dipping legislators in the two-year college system. It is clear that Stephanie’s strong opposition (estimated to be nearly $500,000 contributed by AEA and Democrats to Smithwick) is the result of her strong stand against abuse and corruption in the two-year college system.=