Salary
Alabama Lawmakers’ Pay up 4% in 2019
Alabamians’ median household income increased in 2017, which means Alabama lawmakers received a corresponding 4.03 percent pay increase this year. Their annual salary is now $48,123. This is the third raise for lawmakers since 2014, when their pay was tied to household incomes through a voter-approved constitutional amendment.
Reopening VictoryLand
Alabama casino developer Milton McGregor won a legal victory earlier this month which appears to put to rest a five-year court battle over his Macon County casino VictoryLand. A judge said the state had no grounds to seize thousands of electronic bingo machines from VictoryLand. So McGregor is working to reopen the facility. We talk about it in this week’s Magic City Marketplace.
Reward or Waste? Contracts Bring Controversy In Vestavia Hills Schools
If you could keep your six-figure salary but work only "as needed," mainly from home, advising the person doing your old job, would you take that deal? After 14 years as Vestavia Hills schools superintendent, that's exactly what Dr. Jamie Blair is doing now. And that's raised some questions in this highly regarded school district. Some support the school board's decision, but others say it's just wrong. WBHM's education reporter Dan Carsen has much more.
INTERVIEW: New Jefferson County Schools Chief Craig Pouncey
Jefferson County Schools just hired away the Alabama State Department of Education's veteran Chief of Staff as its superintendent, for the highest salary of any superintendent in the state. WBHM's Dan Carsen caught up with Craig Pouncey, the new leader of Alabama's second-largest school district, on his first full day on the job. The former teacher and assistant principal says one reason for his move was to get away from politics and back to his roots.
INTERVIEW: AdvancED CEO Mark Elgart
AdvancED is a private accrediting firm working with more than thirty thousand schools worldwide. A team from its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools division arrives in Birmingham today. They're checking whether Birmingham City Schools are fixing problems that led the agency to put the system on accreditation probation last summer. It got WBHM's education reporter Dan Carsen thinking about what these firms actually do, and whether they have as much power as it seems. He caught up with AdvancED president Mark Elgart and asked him how his agencies decide which districts get accredited ... and which don't.
