One of the many roles I play is as vice-chair of the Alabama Commission to Reduce Poverty. This is a brand new, permanent commission, and my fellow officers are the chair, Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham), and the secretary, Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur). Commission members include legislators, community leaders and ordinary citizens.
We have met twice, and I have left both meetings impressed by my colleagues and overwhelmed by our mission.
So, what’s our plan to move forward? Rep. Todd filed our progress report today, which you can read it for yourself here.
I value your feedback as we find our way forward – so please leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Posted by Kristina Scott
Did you know we are going to have an Equal Pay Commission? Maybe that will help…
Two things that I think are very important are the extremely high school drop-out rate and the lack of planning for the parental role. I have watched as many of my friends’ teenagers have become pregnant unexpectedly, and unmarried. This creates a great financial hardship and makes it difficult to establish oneself in a career. To challenge the liberals, I’d suggest greater education on financial planning and the financial benefits of marriage. To challenge the conservatives, I’d suggest that abstinence education is not working. We need family planning so parents are more mature and can foster their children’s education.