Although Jim Page, CEO of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce (WACOC), claims that the local business advocacy  group has no ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there is a similar approach to the election of school board members. The U.S. Chamber has been involved in a major drive to get the business community more involved in attracting and supporting school-board candidates.

A brochure distributed by the WACOC states its priority: “The Chamber will recruit seasoned business leaders to seek elected office on local boards of education, beginning in 2013, to significantly improve the policy-making, financial management and operations of local public school districts.”

The WACOC has not endorsed any local candidates but individuals associated with the Chamber have contributed to the Educate Tuscaloosa PAC, including its Governmental Affairs Committee Vice Chairman Jordan Plaster. School Board candidates Norman Crow and Renwick Jones even serve on the WACOC’s 2013 Board of Directors.

Big contributions that are coming in from PACs or individuals with direct or indirect ties to the Chamber of Commerce have affected elections throughout the nation. In Omaha, for example, voters elected five of the six candidates who were supported by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Brian Rosenthal of the Seattle Times wrote: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is using problems in Seattle’s public-school system as evidence that businesses across the country need to get more involved in school-board elections, but officials here say the national group got its facts wrong.

“The three-page ‘case study’ of Seattle Public Schools, released last week, is among the harshest of 13 such reports conducted by the chamber and the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, both conservative business groups.

“School Board Vice President Kay Smith-Blum called the report ‘incredibly inaccurate.’ ‘I think they made a lot of unfounded assumptions and statements,’ Smith-Blum said, adding ‘there’s a tremendous amount of synergy’ on the board. ‘I think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce should come out and visit Seattle Public Schools and get the real story,’ she said.”

WIFR News in Illinois reported: “The Rockford Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee (ROCPAC) announced its endorsement of four Rockford Public School board candidates who are running in contested races. ROCPAC was formed by the Rockford Chamber of Commerce in 2011 and has worked to identify races of importance to the business community. ‘I believe the Rockford Chamber of Commerce has a demonstrated a track record in addressing public education issues in the past few years,’ said Einar Forsman, Rockford Chamber CEO. ‘That track record gives us credibility for ROCPAC to weigh in on candidate endorsement for the schools that match-up with their priorities.’”

Local School Board candidates challenging the incumbents have called for “change.”  But they haven’t been too clear about what that means.

If you drive through the neighborhoods in Tuscaloosa’s District 4 where University of Alabama students live you’ll see signs that support candidates who are running for the Tuscaloosa School Board. There are probably some students who have an abiding interest in educating Tuscaloosa’s children. But many of the signs are in dwellings inhabited by Fraternity or Sorority members. They are likely the same people who support the Machine candidates in the Student Government Association races. District 4 has recently been redrawn in a way that gives University students more clout. The 38 percent of students at the University who are Greeks vote as a bloc.

The Educate Tuscaloosa Political Action Committee ( ET PAC ) has provided most of the campaign money to three candidates who are running for the School Board.  The ET PAC is responsible for the recent mass mailings of postcards in Tuscaloosa that have contained false and misleading attacks on the current board.

The Educate Tuscaloosa PAC (ET PAC) was established on April 29, 2013, to support candidates for the city school board. It has had over $60,000 in cash contributions in June, reported more than $43,000 in July and $3,250 in August.

The Educate Tuscaloosa PAC has contributed to three candidates running for the school board. Cason Kirby (District 4) whose campaign chest was $15,600 on July 26, derived $14,200 of his contributions from the ET PAC. John Lollar (District 6) reported $9,000 in June and another $5,200 in July from the ET PAC. Renwick Jones (District 7) had $15,020 in July. He received contributions of $9,000 and $5,200 from the ET PAC. All three also received $1,000 from the NUCOR PAC and none or very little other contributions from any other sources.

The ET PAC postcards and website have the same P.O. Box 2663 that is found on the campaign materials of Lee Garrison, who is running for the chairman of the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education. Garrison was a product of the University’s Machine when he was elected to the City Council.

Mike Echols, the chair of Educate Tuscaloosa PAC, is a member of the Montgomery  lobbying firm Franklin Resources Group Board. He has chaired nine statewide PACs based in Tuscaloosa. Five of the nine have used the P.O. Box 2663. Two of his current PACs, T-Town II PAC and Pride II PAC have contributed generously to Lee Garrison’s campaign.

Should the ET PAC candidates and Garrison win in the August municipal election it would not be unreasonable to assume that they will be able to control the School Board. Their victory will be in part due to the University Machine vote and to the support by PACs that are tied to Mike Echols who, by the way, is the campaign treasurer for the conservative Republican Governor Bentley.

This blog is dedicated to turning up the heat. The Franklin stove was invented by Benjamin  Franklin to increase the heating capacity of a wood stove.

One of the sayings attributable to Franklin was, “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”

Hopefully this blog will be of interest to folks that want to get at the truth.