MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -
The Alabama Education Association's chief is speaking out against Amendment Four on the November ballot.
"Amendment Four is a wolf in sheep's clothing" said AEA Executive Secretary, Dr. Henry Mabry. "All it will do is take away the rights of children in Alabama."
Mabry says that lawyers for the AEA reviewed Amendment Four and they came back with a report that detailed how it would adversely impact education by striking some language from the Alabama Constitution.
According to the ballot language of the proposed constitutional amendment, it would remove language referring to poll taxes and segregated schools. Mabry argues the amendment would go much further, removing vital lines that guarantee a child's right to an education in the state.
Republicans have fired back at the Alabama Education Association with a study of their own from the non-partisan Alabama Law Institute. According to that analysis, Amendment Four would have little if any impact on education.
In a letter to the sponsor of the proposed amendment, Sen. Arthur Orr, the director of the Alabama Law Institute wrote, "This would not have any impact on the rights, funding, implementing, or structure of public education in Alabama as it currently stands."
"This amendment does nothing more than remove the poll tax language and the segregationist language" said Sen. Orr earlier in the week.
Mabry said he knows he has a difficult fight ahead of him to defeat Amendment Four, because there is such little time before the election, especially compared to the effort to pass Amendment One which was the only issue on the September 18 ballot.
"With this we only have a few weeks, with the other issue we had five months."
Republicans have pledged to continue their effort to pass Amendment Four, fighting the efforts of the teachers' union.
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