Alabama Republicans and the religious instruction bill: It’s complicated

After an Alabama House committee failed to move a bill requiring local school boards to adopt a policy on released time religious instruction (RTRI), Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth took his disappointment to social media.

“The Republican State Senate, Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, and I supported a bill allowing public school students to take off-campus Bible study classes as an elective, but lobbyists for the  Superintendents and School Board associations, which oppose the measure, blocked its passage in House committee today,” Ainsworth, a strong supporter of the legislation, wrote in a Facebook post.

And then Ainsworth went further. 

The lieutenant governor posted a photo of the State Government Committee clerk’s notebook, where the vote was tallied, in the comment section of his Facebook post. The nos included Republican members, and Rep. Chris Sells, R-Greenville, chair of the committee, asked Ainsworth to take the photo down.

“I just stood up for my members … I’m gonna try to protect my people. I mean, they voted, how they voted. It was on video, and it’s in the record. I mean, it’s not like you can’t find it,” Sells said in a phone interview Friday. “But that was like adding fuel on the fire to me.”

The comment thread with the photo, later deleted, pointed to the divisions among Republicans over the legislation and passions that it raises. Republicans on the committee said in interviews last week they had several concerns over the legislation and the way it got in front of them after an identical bill was rejected by another House committee. 

“I had heard from three of my four superintendents that they were not in favor of the bill, as is,” said Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, one of three Republicans to vote against the bill in committee Wednesday.

Messages seeking comment were left Friday with Ainsworth and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, who put the bill in committee. 

Rejected twice

The Legislature passed a law in 2019 that allows school boards to adopt a policy on released time religious instruction (RTRI). SB 278, sponsored by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, would have mandated that districts adopt those policies.

The bill passed the Senate Education Policy Committee on April 16 with one “no” vote, and passed the Senate 25-6 on April 22. 

But shortly after the Senate bill was filed, House members rejected HB 342, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, an identical bill, on a 9-4 vote. Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, chair of the House Education Policy Committee, said in an interview she would not take the Senate version in her committee.

“I don’t know why we’d take up a bill that didn’t have the support,” Collins said on April 30. 

Collins cited opposition from education groups as part of the reason for the defeat. Education groups have cited a host of concerns, ranging from a lack of definitions of religion in the bill to liability questions to a lack of knowledge about both certifications and curricula in RTRI programs. 

The Alabama Association of School Boards has been a consistent opponent. Executive Director Sally Smith said in March she thought the program would create an uneven playing field for students.

“We just don’t think that would be a level playing field,” Smith said in March. “We don’t have any authority under the legislation to determine the rigor or whether it merits the same level of credit.”

Bedsole said superintendents in his district saw no need for the bill. 

“They were operating perfectly fine under the 2019 legislation that permitted them to enact policies to do the same thing,” he said. “The only lobbyists I spoke with were those who were proponents for the bill.”

Bedsole said he is supportive of religion in schools, but LifeWise Academy, a nonprofit that offers  RTRI and has lobbied for the legislation, could not answer his questions. 

“One of my specific questions is when we talk about religion, what religion was, the definition of religion and who would be considered a religion for the purposes of this bill,” Bedsole said. “Nobody had an answer that I felt like gave me any comfort in knowing that if a local school board created a policy and somehow it excluded a certain religious group that they wouldn’t be subject to a lawsuit.”

According to LifeWise’s sample curriculum, the organization teaches the Christian belief that “God created all things good” to a list of virtues that the nonprofit describes as “LifeWise qualities.” Sunnie Cotton, the Alabama director, said Wednesday the organization is operating in about 600 schools nationwide and is prepared to launch over 900 programs this year.

Rep. Marcus Paramore, R-Troy, who serves on both of the committees that rejected the bill, said Wednesday the superintendents in his district are not supportive of the legislation.

“I know this was in Ed Policy, which you and I both serve on, and we know what the outcome of that committee meeting was,” Paramore said to DuBose, who handled the legislation Wednesday. “So here we are in another committee, trying to get a bill that was voted down back out, and on the floor in a different format.”

Messages seeking comment were left Friday with Parramore and Rep. Mike Kirkland, R-Scottboro, the other Republican to vote against it. 

A suddenly called meeting

Ainsworth went on a radio show Friday morning and claimed members let lobbyists dictate their vote. 

“Liberal school superintendents used taxpayer-funded lobbyists to kill a bill allowing Bible study and character education as an elective course in public schools,” Ainsworth wrote in a Facebook post Friday morning. “It’s time to take a closer look at the political efforts of activist superintendents and how they are being funded.”

Since the beginning of March, DuBose has claimed that 4,500 Alabama parents signed a petition in support of the legislation. Ryan Hollingsworth, the executive director of the State Superintendents Association and consistent opposer, openly doubted those numbers during the public hearing on the bill Wednesday.

DuBose said in a phone interview Thursday that she did not appreciate the comment, but was unable to provide the list of names on the petition. She said the petition was administered by LifeWise Academy and was only sent out to people that already knew about the program. DuBose said Shelby County had 320 interested parents, Alabaster City had 56 and Pelham City had 13. 

“I stand behind those numbers,” she said. “They do exist … I don’t like when my integrity is questioned by saying it is unknown whether that list is accurate or not, or whether it really exists.”

The bill was re-referred to Sells’ committee on Tuesday by the House Speaker’s office. Bedsole said the meeting was called with 18 hours’ notice and he did not see the bills on the agenda until later in the evening, which Sells confirmed.

Typically, all committee meetings must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance, but according to legislative rules, after the 20th Legislative Day meetings can be called with only six hours’ notice to members. Wednesday was the 29th Legislative Day. Sells said he called the meeting when the legislation was re-referred to his committee.

Bedsole said he was not aware that the House version of the bill failed in committee. The lack of notice, he said, contributed to his vote against it. 

“So my vote that you’ve seen is reflective of a bill that was brought to me with less than 24 hours notice, with a lot of unanswered questions,” Bedsole said. “I thought it deserved a lot more time and attention than trying to pass it out of committee in the last remaining days of our session.”

Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, made the motion to approve the legislation. He was in the education committee meeting when DuBose’s bill failed and he said he was surprised by the opposition. 

“I just thought it was a very friendly bill for Republicans, because as a whole, we’re wholeheartedly in support of liberty and religious liberty,” Butler said in a phone interview Friday. “Several people were out that day, so on another day, it might have passed, but it went through the process.”

Ten of 14 House State Government Committee members were present on Wednesday. 

Next year?

Sells and Butler said they think the legislation will pass next year. Sells voted in favor of the bill, but said he is against the process in which the bill came to his committee. 

“We didn’t have long, you know, it was kind of dumped in our laps,” he said. “We’re not going to vote against Jesus, I promise you that… It’s the process. It’s not what it was doing. It’s the process of doing it.”

Sells also backed up the members of his committee that voted against the bill. 

“They don’t work for the lieutenant governor,” he said. “They work for the people in their districts.”

Bedsole said he felt the bill was rushed and he said he is worried about the unintended consequences of it.

“Sometimes in government, we are blamed for not considering unintended consequences. And this was one of those situations where I felt like it was a bit rushed on the House Committee, and I fear there would be some unintended consequences that we weren’t prepared for,” Bedsole said.

Bedsole said he would work with the sponsors to pass the bill next year once his questions are answered.

“I think it was in our best interest to get back to the table next year,” he said. “I’d be happy to be part of the conversation and address and hopefully get some answers to the questions I have.”