Craig Ford

By State Rep. Craig Ford With all the attention being given to the special election for the U.S. Senate, you may not have seen what has been happening in Montgomery with the prison crisis. Last year, Gov. Robert Bentley proposed a plan to build four new “super prisons” at a cost of about $800 million dollars.

By State Rep. Craig Ford Every Thanksgiving, I like to write an editorial about the things that I am thankful for. I’ve written about how thankful I am for my family and for public servants like Alabama’s educators. But this year, I want to say how thankful I am for our country’s veterans. We just celebrated

By State Rep. Craig Ford We all know that education and jobs go hand-in-hand. If you want to get a good job, you have to have a good education. And having good schools is an important part of recruiting jobs and industry to a community. Education gets a lot of attention in Alabama. You hear a

The State Board of Education recently met to discuss terminating State Superintendent Dr. Michael Sentance’s contract. Politics has surrounded Dr. Sentance’s time in Alabama, starting even before he was hired. And if the board decides to fire him, his supporters will claim that politics was the driving factor. Dr. Sentance was the preferred choice of

By Rep. Craig Ford Tourism and hospitality is a $13 billion dollar a year industry in the state of Alabama. That number comes from the Alabama Department of Tourism, and was included in a press release Gov. Kay Ivey put out last month. But tourism and hospitality don’t just come from our beautiful beaches and

Our state government is no stranger to crises. We’ve had multiple budget crises, Medicaid crises and, most recently, a crisis related to our prison system. But there is another growing crisis that hasn’t gotten the media attention these other issues have. It’s a crisis that could have a devastating impact on Alabama’s families, our economy

By Rep. Craig Ford Remember when school didn’t start until after Labor Day? In a matter of days, students all across Alabama will start a new school year, and it’s only the second week of August. Instead of spending the last few weeks of August working summer jobs or going on family vacations, teachers and

By Rep. Craig Ford Every day I run into people who tell me how much they want Etowah County to have its own sports complex. And in almost every single one of these conversations, I always get asked, “But Craig, do you really think we will ever actually get it done?” I do believe we

One doesn’t need a Ph.D in soothsaying to know that the honeymoon between state superintendent Mike Sentance and some members of the state school board has ended. Though Sentance has been chastised time after time by board members for not sharing information, he basically ignores them. Which is the reason that board meetings and work sessions now last four to

The Alabama Legislature is quickly running out of excuses for failing to let the people vote on a state lottery. Last summer, Gov. Robert Bentley called a special session specifically for the purpose of passing a lottery. After passing out of the state Senate, the lottery went to the House, where it passed on its

It would be easy to think nothing good has happened lately in the world of Alabama politics, and that Montgomery is so mired in corruption and bickering that nothing ever gets done. After all, the legislative session that just ended began with one governor and ended with a different one; tensions over legislative redistricting and

For the last six years, it has been my privilege to serve as Minority Leader in the Alabama House of Representatives. On Wednesday, Feb. 15, I will step down and a new leader will be elected. While I will continue to serve in the state legislature and represent the great people of Etowah County, I

I have always believed that gambling is an issue that should be decided by the voters. And I will never understand why, in the middle of the biggest economic recession our country has seen since the Great Depression, our state leaders chose to put hundreds of people out of work and shut down legally operating

Our state government has money problems. It’s the reason we keep calling the state legislature back into special legislative sessions year after year to fix problems that should have been fixed during the regular legislative sessions. It’s the reason we have racked up almost a billion dollars in debt. It’s the reason we keep hearing

After nearly two decades of waiting, it seemed like the people of Alabama were finally going to get the chance to vote on a lottery. On July 27, Gov. Robert Bentley announced, “We need your help solving our funding crisis. I’m giving you the opportunity to vote on a statewide lottery.” And the governor deserves

The Alabama Legislature returned to Montgomery this week for what may end up being only the first of more special legislative sessions. The governor said that the purpose for this legislative session was to vote on a lottery to fund Medicaid and other general fund proposals. While the lottery is being debated in the state

In less than two weeks, the state legislature will return to Montgomery to take up a lottery bill that no one has seen. Gov. Robert Bentley, who has prided himself on using “the element of surprise” when it comes to calling special legislative sessions, has still not released any details or even had any conversations

Over the last year or so, the lottery has been getting more and more attention and support from state legislators. The lottery is extremely popular, getting over 60 percent favorable support in all the public opinion polls that I’ve seen. The debate these days isn’t so much over whether we should have a lottery, but

Members of the Alabama Legislature were treated to a bit of déjà vu this week when we found out through the newspaper – and not directly from Gov. Robert Bentley – that the governor is planning to call the legislature back into a special legislative session within the next month or two. Last summer, Gov.

When former Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard was convicted on 12 felony counts of corruption, he was immediately removed from office. Now, the state House of Representatives must elect a new speaker. The state constitution requires legislators to hold a public vote to elect the next speaker, but the reality is that, unless there

One of the most famous scriptures in the Bible says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.” That scripture kept running through my mind this past week as Gov. Robert Bentley repeatedly claimed that he knows the people of Alabama “better than anyone” and that they are not interested in impeaching him. That

We’ve all heard the famous saying, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s really more than just a saying; it’s a lesson from history that Alabama leaders have continued to repeat over and over again. The conviction of House Speaker Mike Hubbard, the suspension and pending hearing of Chief Justice Roy More and the

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That also happens to be a pretty good description of our state leadership for the last six years. For six years, Alabama’s leaders have talked about “jobs, jobs, jobs” and bragged about how they’ve made

As you celebrated Memorial Day this week, how did you take time to honor our veterans and, specifically, those who did not come back home alive? Our country officially recognizes two days out of the year, set aside in remembrance of those who have served our country. Veterans Day, celebrated in November, is in honor

 These days, it’s easy to think nothing good ever comes out of our government, especially here in Alabama. But for all the bad you hear, there are a lot of great things going on in our state and in our public schools. A perfect example is Alabama’s pre-k program, which has just been named the

State leaders in Montgomery have become Robin Hoods - just not the kind that everyone remembers hearing about as a child. Instead of taking from the rich to help the poor, we’ve started taking from the poor to give to criminals. Alabama’s leadership has become nothing more than Robin Hood in reverse.

State leaders needs to refocus. Trying to

  “Another session has come and gone without a vote on a state lottery. The legislature passed a teacher pay raise, only to have that raise taken away when the state’s PEEHIP Board hiked up their insurance rates. And we couldn’t find the money to fund Medicaid, but the governor did everything he could to put the taxpayers in an

This week, the state House of Representatives will be taking up the massive prison bond legislation that Gov. Robert Bentley and state leaders have made the centerpiece of their legislative agenda.

There’s no doubt that our prison system has serious problems and, in cases like Tutwiler women’s prison, some are so old and in such bad shape that they

I’m not a lawyer, but I believe it’s important for those of us calling for the governor’s impeachment to make our case to the public and the state legislature.

The first point being that the governor doesn’t have to break the law to be impeached. Impeachment is about whether he is fit to continue in office, regardless of whether

  Being in leadership comes with a lot of responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is the image of the place you represent. Gov. Robert Bentley and our state leaders are the image of Alabama. Now, thanks to them, we have a serious image problem.

In government, we have Democrats and Republicans. There are partisan issues, and that’s a good thing.