Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
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June 19
The Gadsden Times on sexual predators:
We know it’s not actually possible for one’s blood to boil and be chilled simultaneously. That’s still the best choice of words to describe our reaction to comments last week at a press conference in Montgomery by Lt. Brooke Walker, a special agent with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Walker is commander of the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. She deals with child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children - and her task force’s workload is increasing.
Last year, they received more than 1,200 reports of child sexual exploitation. From those reports, 663 subpoenas were issued and 49 individuals arrested.
Walker presented numbers for the first four months of 2017: 462 subpoenas and 43 arrests. That’s on pace for a 109 percent increase in the former and a 163 percent increase in the latter.
It’s happening even though Walker and her team have a successful track record. She said the task force since 2014 has rescued 177 victimized children (eight so far this year), and last month they received a Special Commendation Award from the U.S. Attorney General’s office for their work in Operation Southern Impact.
That joint operation with a similar task force in Georgia and a host of other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies culminated last November in 29 arrests in the two states. Eleven people were arrested and 168 digital devices were seized in Alabama.
What makes this a difficult battle is that the main front is no longer grungy, makeshift “studios” where perverts record unspeakable things with video or film cameras. It’s those ubiquitous little gadgets 77 percent of all Americans (according to the Pew Research Center) carry in their hands or pockets: smartphones.
Walker called them “a silent entry (point) for a predator to come into your home and victimize your child.”
Parents are buying phones for children at younger ages, out of a desire to (a.) ensure they have a direct line of communication should that be necessary and (b.) we’ll come right out and say it, keep them occupied with video games, movies and the like.
Then there are teenagers whose phones are all but glued to their fingers, and who are conditioned these days to use them to share their deepest thoughts (and a zillion photographs) on social media.
They are like chum to some of the worst sharks on the planet - who also have smartphones. Only they use them to troll for photographs they can get their jollies with. They use them to reach out directly to children or young people, to get them to again do something jolly-inducing, or worst-case scenario lure them into a potentially deadly face-to-face encounter.
Walker said in one incident, a 6-year-old Alabama child sent nude photographs of herself to someone out of state who had asked her to.
Remember what we said about alternately boiling and chilled blood? If that doesn’t scare the hell out of parents, something is wrong.
We support the efforts of Walker and her team, and urge the Legislature to ensure they receive every nickel of funding they need moving forward. They use both technology and old-fashioned undercover work to track down predators. Perhaps the fact they’re good at what they do is why there are more cases and arrests, although the numbers remain troubling.
We’ll also send out this message to parents: Don’t give your kids smartphones as pacifiers or to just keep them out of your hair, and constantly monitor what they’re doing and who they’re interacting with on those gadgets. Even if it causes World War III through V, that also should apply to teenagers as long as they live in your house under your control.
The sharks are circling, and they’re real.
Online: https://www.gadsdentimes.com/
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June 14
Opelika-Auburn News on state pre-K program:
It’s a good step in the right direction and makes for a positive headline, but just like our little children, Alabama’s pre-K programs need to grow.
The promising headlines came recently when Gov. Kay Ivey announced the statewide selections for new First Class Pre-K classrooms for the 2017-18 year. Lee County scored almost a half-dozen on the list.
The new classrooms, which serve 4-year-olds and prepare them for kindergarten and first grade, were made possible because of increased appropriations in the Fiscal 2018 Education Trust Fund Budget, along with funding from year three of Alabama’s four-year federal Preschool Development Grant.
Alabama, finally, is coming around to understanding the importance of reaching and influencing our children in their early formative years where innocence begins to give way to impressionable lessons, both in life and in education.
The new classrooms will increase the size of the pre-kindergarten program to 938 classrooms statewide enrolling approximately 16,884 students.
The good news: That’s 28 percent of all 4-year-olds statewide.
The bad news: That’s 28 percent of all 4-year-olds statewide.
Alabama can and must do better than having too few options for providing some form of preparation and support for the other 72 percent of children in this bracket.
True, there are many who receive excellent home-school attention and do just fine. Perhaps, even, they exceed on the learning scale.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case for most of them.
Furthermore, those already lining up for class now aren’t all going to be accepted. Estimates show that more than 3,400 students who already have pre-registered for next year will not have the opportunity to attend.
Also, many in areas where numbers are limited will be chosen in random drawings, which isn’t the most scientific way to select an enrollment and may or may not be the most fair, considering so many socio-economic factors could be at play in the lives of the children and their families.
Bottom line: If there are children who want and whose parents want them to be in a classroom, Alabama should have a classroom ready for them.
Good teachers, classrooms and schools don’t come cheap. It takes a strong dedication on all levels - parents, community, state, federal - to reach the lofty goals we should be setting for ourselves.
Yes, the new classrooms are an exciting step in the right direction.
But we have hills still to climb before the program graduates with honors.
Online: https://www.oanow.com/
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June 20
Tuscaloosa News on raising revenue in Alabama:
For decades, Alabama voters have watched as Georgia dramatically improved its public schools with funding from a well-structured state lottery. Students who graduate with good grades from those improved schools have long been able to attend college on a HOPE scholarship.
Meanwhile, the cost of instate tuition at the University of Alabama has nearly doubled in the past 10 years. One of the main reasons for rising tuition is because the state doesn’t have the revenues to increase state funding for higher education.
“If you look at the straight facts, our expenses have increased because of other funding that the state has taken away from us and the fact that the state has not had the money to give us,” Trustee James Wilson III said last week, explaining why the board of trustees was moving to raise tuition in the University of Alabama System 3 to 4 percent for the second straight year.
Many in Alabama remain opposed to the lottery. Some say it is unfair to the poor. Gambling and the promise of a quick and easy windfall have always tempted those who are most desperate. Many others oppose the lottery for religious reasons.
It stands to reason many of those same voters are similarly conservative when the issue comes to drugs. Many believe marijuana is a “gateway” drug, and leads to other bad decisions. That’s why they strongly oppose the measures other states have made to legalize and tax its use. But alcohol is also a drug, and a very powerful one at that. It has destroyed many lives. Alabama is one of 15 states that maintain, by law, a monopoly on the sale of liquor.
Last week, the state decided to increase the state’s markup on liquor sales from 30 to 35 percent. The increase is expected to generate $8.2 million for the state’s General Fund. The new revenue will go to fund courts and district attorneys.
The state has a vested interest in increasing alcohol sales. The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board website even has “game-day” cocktail suggestions.
And there’s a grasp for more. Last September, the ABC board passed a rule that initially would have required local craft breweries to collect the name, address, date of birth and phone number of anyone who purchased beer to go. It eventually decided names and addresses were enough. At the end of the last legislative session, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill that killed the effort.
The overreach was fueled by a cash-strapped state making every effort to keep a hold on whatever revenue sources it has. We get that. But the hypocrisy in how we are governing ourselves is remarkable. It is past time for our lawmakers to take a hard look at who is and who isn’t paying their fair share, and for some real leadership to emerge with creative ideas on how to move this state forward financially. Stop-gap measures aren’t cutting it and two-faced pandering isn’t moving us forward.
Online: https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/
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