MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama House is expected today to vote on some of the priority workforce development bills unveiled by Gov. Kay Ivey and leadership last month. The seven-bill package, advocates say, will transform Alabama’s workforce by breaking down barriers to employment.
There are House and Senate versions of the seven pieces of legislation and several of them advanced in committees earlier this week.
In the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism, lawmakers gave a favorable report to the Alabama Workforce Pathways Act, a bill that offers high school students alternative pathways to earning a diploma.
“A bit of context as to why this is important to us; in 2021, we had 29,000 students graduate from high school in Alabama, (and) 45% of those students had no post-secondary higher education,” said Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, the bill’s sponsor.
“Think about it… so basically we’re giving these kids a high school diploma, a pat on the back and say good luck with your minimum-wage job.”
Under Chesteen’s bill, students would have new opportunities to pursue a high school diploma with a greater focus on career tech opportunities, while at the same time, reducing the number of math and science courses they’re required to take.
Eric Mackey, state superintendent of education, attended the committee meeting as a strong support of the bill, and later told Alabama Daily News that he believed it to be “one of the most exciting things that we’ve seen in K-12 education in my career.”
“What this will say is students may reduce advanced math and science courses – if they want to – and replace those with basically a major, a career tech major,” Mackey said.
“That could be robotics, advanced manufacturing, it could be auto body mechanics, it could be culinary arts. So there are lots of opportunities out there for students and this is going to give more students more opportunities to take advantage of.”
Over in the Senate Fiscal Responsibility Committee, lawmakers advanced two bills; the Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, and the Alabama Growth Alliance Act.
The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act would rename the Alabama Department of Labor to the Alabama Department of Workforce, and expand some of the department’s responsibilities to facilitate the administration of the six other workforce bills included in the package.
The Alabama Growth Alliance Act would create a new public corporation composed of appointed members of both the private and public sector with the explicit task of helping develop the state’s economic development strategy.
In the House education budget committee, members approved a substitute version of House Bill 358 to give Alabama employers a tax break for providing or helping to pay for employees’ child care.
The original proposal sponsored by Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, would have allowed employers to get up to a $1 million credit. That was paired down to $600,000 in the substitute, as was the overall fiscal impact of the bill. That credit is expected to cost the state $20 million per year when fully implemented, compared to $35 million.
That bill now moves to the House. Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, is carrying the companion bill in the Senate.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, two of the bills in the package have proven more controversial.
The Senate last week carried over Senate Bill 242. Called the Innovation District Act, the bill would allow counties and municipalities to create public corporations that can, according to the fiscal note on the bill, acquire and improve property; charge and collect fees, licenses, and rates; grant or loan funds, including certain tax proceeds; create financial obligations; pledge certain tax proceeds for use within the district and invest district funds.
One lawmaker called it one of the worst bills he’s seen.
It and Senate Bill 243, the legislation that would put the proposal before voters through a required constitutional amendment, were carried over last week.
Early this week, Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, the sponsor of SB243, said the bills are still being reworked and may not be on the Senate floor this week. There’s discussion of making them applicable only to Jefferson County, Roberts told Alabama Daily News.
“There are still many moving parts to this legislation and I am not comfortable with moving this yet,” he said.
Alabama Daily News’ Mary Sell contributed to this report.