2/10/12 Group Watch: State-of-The-State Address
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley in his state-of-the-state speech Tuesday night outlined his agenda for the 2012 regular session as follows:
- Invest more in workforce development and career tech programs to help Alabama recruit jobs.
- Free businesses from unnecessary and bureaucratic roadblocks.
- Borrow money through a bond issue to repair roads and replace bridges.
- Consolidate state agencies, streamline the issuing of state licenses and save on technology to cope with a 25 percent cut in the General Fund budget.
- Give schools more flexibility to develop their own strategies free of state and federal bureaucracies.
- Create charter schools to give parents a choice of where their children attend school.
- Give teachers a dollar-for-dollar tax credit when they spend their money on their classrooms.
- Create a teacher cabinet of teachers, administrators, school board members and parents to get unfiltered feedback on the needs of public schools.
- Start a health alliance to reduce Alabama’s rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and infant mortality.
