For the first time in nearly 30 years, the spot on the Alabama State School Board representing much of central Alabama is open.
Three Republican women, all with different experiences in education in Alabama, are vying for the District 3 seat long held by Republican Stephanie Bell, who opted not to seek re-election citing her expected move out of the district.
Alabama Daily News recently spoke to Ann Eubank, Charlotte Meadows and Kelly Mooney about why they’re the best choice for voters on the March 5 primary ballot.
Melissa Snowden qualified for the race in November but later opted out. Her name will be on the ballot, but she’s not seeking votes and dissolved her campaign account in December.
District 3 includes all of Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Elmore and Shelby counties, southern Jefferson County and portions of Montgomery and Talladega counties.
If needed, the primary runoff is set for April 16. There’s no Democrat in this race.
Ann Eubank
Eubank, 75 and a resident of Hoover, has never run for public office, but she’s logged hundreds of hours watching state board of education and legislative action since 2009.
A conservative activist and self-described “citizen lobbyist” who got involved in politics after raising two daughters, her first foray into education and politics was advocating against the national education standards known as Common Core with the conservative group Heritage Action for America.
She’s also been chair of the Alabama Legislative Watchdogs, a grassroots, conservative group.
“Numbers are my thing,” said Eubanks, whose professional career included working for an attorney and controller. After she retired, she studied political science at Jefferson State Community College.
Eubank said her primary opponents’ recent experience has been focused on private and charter schools.
“I’m the one who has always been focused on improving the public schools because only 50,000 or 60,000 kids are going to be able to take advantage of all the (education savings accounts) and the (charter schools) …,” she said. “There are 726,000 students in Alabama. We cannot leave them behind. We have got to fix the public school system or else we’re going to have two levels of education and … that is not what we do. We must have a quality education for everyone in Alabama, not just those who are capable of running away from a failing system.”
Eubank said she’s supportive of school choice options, including Gov. Kay Ivey’s proposal to allow $7,000 per student to fund private school tuition.
But she said she’d like to see the incremental rollout and income caps removed.
“Why can’t we just say, ‘OK, everyone can do this?”
Eubank said she studies the education budget every year.
“There is money to do this,” she said about removing income caps on the bill in its first two years of implantation.
Similarly, too much is spent on school administrators that could be spent on qualified classroom teachers, she said.
She’d also like to see a bigger focus on smaller classrooms rather than other school spending, including administrators or mental health professionals.
Asked about the biggest issues in schools, Eubank said the “radical liberal agenda” including anything promoting or affirming transgender students, needs to be removed.
Eubank said she’s campaigning by reaching as many groups and individuals as possible.
“At some point, votes count more than money,” she said. “I’m everywhere.”
Charlotte Meadows
Meadows, 61, is drawing on her experience in previous offices and roles as she campaigns for the state board.
She’s a former Montgomery Public Schools board member, a lobbyist for the former national education reform group StudentsFirst, co-founder and board president of LEAD Academy, one of the state’s first charter schools and a former state representative.
“I have the experience that I think is necessary to be able to do this job starting on day one without anybody needing to tell me what the acronym stands for, who the people are, or how you get something done in Montgomery,” she said.
Meadows lost her one-term House seat in Montgomery after it was significantly redrawn by her GOP colleagues in the Legislature in 2021. She said serving in the House recently would be a tremendous asset on the school board.
“I do know the lawmakers Montgomery, I did work with them a very short period ago and know that they’re looking for communication (from the board). And they’re looking for results.
“… With the right group of people working together, I think we can bring results.”
Anyone looking at education objectively would agree the state is not where it wants to be, she said.
In the House in 2022, Meadows sponsored along with former Sen. Del Marsh a major school choice bill. About Ivey’s proposals, Meadows said it can get the state to the governor’s goal of being the most choice-friendly state in the nation.
“So many families are really sacrificing to put their kids in private schools,” she said. “…I think this is a very positive thing.”
Meadows has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Auburn and an MBA from the University of South Alabama. She lived in Montgomery until she and her husband moved last year to the Hoover area to be closer to their grandchildren.
“The most important thing to getting every child a great education is a highly effective teacher in every classroom,” Meadows said. But the state doesn’t have a good mechanism to evaluate teachers’ performances.
“There are some rockstar teachers out there whose students gain more than a year’s worth of instruction in their time with her or him,” she said. “For those teachers, we need to figure out how to duplicate and replicate them (and) keep them in the classroom.”
She said that may require re-examining how teachers are paid, but doesn’t think it’d require a major funding increase.
According to her latest campaign finance report, Meadows had $51,227 on hand going into the final weeks of the campaign. She’s raised $36,293 and loaned her campaign $50,000.
Kelly Mooney
Mooney, 66, of Birmingham, has an education degree from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and worked for 15 years in the admissions office of Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham, where her children attended.
This is Mooney’s first run for elected office, though her last name is familiar in the Birmingham area. Her husband, Arnold Mooney, has been an Alabama House member since 2014.
“I did not see myself as a candidate, but education is so dear to me,” Mooney said. “I know the power it has to change lives.”
Mooney describes the other candidates as friends, but felt she needed to join the primary contest.
“God’s in charge of the results,” she said.
“My biggest strength is probably team building, relationship building and I’m a great listener,” Mooney said about why Republican voters should choose her on March 5. “I think in this role, you have to hear people, hear parents’ concerns.”
About the ESA bill Ivey and Republicans in the State House are proposing, Mooney said it’s a good start.
“It sounds like they are implementing it well to serve the families that need it the most right now,” she said about the income requirement of 300% of the federal poverty level and prioritizing students with special education needs.
An advocate for school choice, Mooney said one concern she has is the distance families may have to travel to reach a private school. Mooney said Briarwood offered scholarships, but transportation was often an issue for families.
“We had families that would come and we loved them and they loved being there, but they couldn’t make it work because the proximity was not convenient,” she said. “That’s why I think our public schools (are) the best choice for most of the students in our state. Because parents are so busy trying to keep the lights on and food on the table.
“So we’ve got to make sure our public schools are the best they can be.”
About challenges in education, Mooney said parental involvement is critical to student success.
“Schools only have kids eight hours a day, parents need to be stakeholders,” she said.
When there are issues, whether it’s concerns about grades or bullying, parents have to be involved in solutions,” she said.
“Parents have rights, but they also have responsibilities,” she said.
She’d also like to see more fiscal accountability in the public education system.
Mooney had about $60,000 cash on hand, according to her last report. She’s received more than $63,000 in donations.