logo
Alabama House committee approves bill protecting access to dual enrollment programs

Alabama House committee approves bill protecting access to dual enrollment programs

Yahoo12-02-2025
Rep. Jeana Ross, R-Guntersville, checks her phone during a meeting of the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 6 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Ross is sponsoring a bill that would ensure high school students have access to dual enrollment programs. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
A bill aiming to protect Alabama high school students' access to dual enrollment programs won unanimous support in the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday.
HB 102, sponsored by Rep. Jeana Ross, R-Guntersville, prohibits community colleges and universities from denying students access to dual enrollment programs. Ross said the bill aims to expand accessibility to dual enrollment, but said that she did not know of any specific incidents of students being denied access.
'The main purpose of this is to just ensure that students have the option and the availability to take dual enrollment classes,' she said.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
A substitute bill from Rep. Marcus Paramore, R-Troy, incorporated universities in the language of the bill. The substitution was adopted unanimously.
Although the bill aims to expand access to dual enrollment, Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, said she wanted to see more marketing for dual enrollment courses.
'I just find that so many of the students who fit into the criteria don't know the program exists,' she said.
Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, echoed Drummond saying participating in dual enrollment gives students a head start on their career.
'I've been personally involved in watching what dual enrollment can do, and what a leg up it gives our students,' he said. 'Many of them graduate high school, sometimes with a dual certificate, because they've had this opportunity.'
The bill now goes to the full House.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Costco will not sell abortion pills after pressure from conservatives
Costco will not sell abortion pills after pressure from conservatives

Boston Globe

time6 days ago

  • Boston Globe

Costco will not sell abortion pills after pressure from conservatives

Despite lawsuits and letters pleading to lawmakers, their campaign to thwart access to abortion pills has otherwise been slow-moving. Patients can still access medication abortion in all 50 states, even those where the procedure is illegal, because of laws allowing the pills to be remotely prescribed and mailed. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In a statement Thursday, Costco said the decision was 'based on the lack of demand from our members and other patients.' The company did not answer further questions from The Washington Post about the influence of outside groups. Advertisement This month, Costco officials said they would not look to become certified to dispense mifepristone after a coalition of religious and conservative financial groups approached them ahead of formally requesting action on the issue, according to people familiar with the conversations. The company's decision was 'a step in the right direction,' said Michael Ross, an attorney on the corporate engagement team of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal organization. ADF was a leader in the charge to keep mifepristone off Costco's shelves. Advertisement 'It doesn't make sense as a fiduciary matter for these companies to be injecting themselves into this political controversy,' Ross said. For two decades, the Food and Drug Administration, which in 2000 approved mifepristone for use through 10 weeks of pregnancy, required that the drug be picked up in person, a mandate abortion rights advocates saw as a hurdle in accessing the procedure. In 2021, the agency halted the in-person requirement. Then, after the Supreme Court in 2022 struck down the constitutional right to an abortion, triggering abortion bans across the country, lawmakers in blue states passed 'shield' laws designed to protect abortion providers from prosecutions. Those measures, active in eight states, allow providers to legally prescribe abortion pills regardless of where a patient lives. The battle over whether mifepristone would be sold in retail pharmacies began in March 2024, when CVS and Walgreens received FDA certification to sell the pill. Four months later, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander sent letters to a handful of other household-name pharmacies, urging them to follow in the footsteps of CVS and Walgreens. In his letters to Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and McKesson, Landers reminded the companies that New York City's pension system owned shares in them. The shares in Costco alone at the time were valued at $443.9 million. Getting certified to dispense the pill, Lander wrote to Costco CEO Ron Vachris, 'aligns with both long-term shareholder interests and women's health care needs.' Conservative opponents swiftly disagreed. A coalition of groups and individual investors sent letters to the same five companies. At the time, their stock in Costco was worth about $56 million. Thousands of Costco members and investors also signed a petition saying they did not want the company to sell mifepristone, an effort spearheaded by Inspire Investing, a Christian financial firm that is part of the coalition. Advertisement As pressure from investors mounted, Costco indicated it did not plan to become certified to sell mifepristone, citing customer interest. Tim Schwarzenberger, Inspire Investing's director of corporate engagement, said Costco's choice 'protects its brand, serves families, and keeps the company focused on what it does best.' 'By recognizing there was no customer demand and avoiding an ideological path, Costco steered clear of moral, legal, and business risks while staying true to its mission,' he said in a statement. As of Thursday, it was unclear how the other companies would act. Kroger told The Post that it was still reviewing the FDA's requirements to dispense mifepristone. Walmart declined to comment. McKesson, which includes the Health Mart franchise, and Albertsons did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ross, the ADF attorney, said the coalition had also filed a shareholder proposal to CVS, which has been selling mifepristone for more than a year, and plans to do so for other companies. 'We're hoping to build on this win,' he said.

Morton Meyerson, Texas Businessman and Perot Lieutenant, Dies at 87
Morton Meyerson, Texas Businessman and Perot Lieutenant, Dies at 87

New York Times

time09-08-2025

  • New York Times

Morton Meyerson, Texas Businessman and Perot Lieutenant, Dies at 87

Morton Meyerson, an understated Texas businessman who helped the mercurial H. Ross Perot build Electronic Data Systems into a world-leading data processing company, and who later advised Mr. Perot during his quixotic 1992 presidential campaign, died on Monday at his home in Dallas. He was 87. His family said in an announcement that the cause was prostate cancer. Where Mr. Perot was all extravagant gestures — running for president, trying to fly food and medicine to Vietnam P.O.W.s, staging a commando raid in Iran — Mr. Meyerson was the quiet, stubborn, moneymaking computer programmer in the backroom who helped make his boss a billionaire. In 1967, barely a year after joining Electronic Data Systems, or E.D.S., he helped Mr. Perot secure and execute a critical contract to process Medicaid claims for Texas Blue Cross Blue Shield, transforming the company into a financial powerhouse. With that contract and an earlier one to process Medicare claims — the Social Security Administration would later say Mr. Perot had overcharged for it — the company's pretax profit, which had been $26,487 in 1965, rose to $2.4 million in 1968. The original five-person team Mr. Meyerson had led on the project became a 1,500-person team three years later, and the core of Mr. Perot's business. By 1979, Mr. Perot had tapped Mr. Meyerson to be the company's president. In that capacity, The New York Times wrote in 1982, 'Mr. Meyerson has broadened the customer base, and profits are up.' Mr. Perot had started E.D.S. in 1962 with a $1,000 check. In 1984, when General Motors bought the company, it had $1 billion in revenue. When Mr. Meyerson finally left E.D.S., by then under G.M.'s ownership, in 1986, 'it was the largest computer services company in the world,' he later wrote. And Mr. Perot, after years of a sometimes prickly but fruitful relationship with the computer wizard who proved to be a fount of moneymaking ideas, would call Mr. Meyerson 'the finest executive in the computer industry.' In his 1996 autobiography, 'My Life & the Principles for Success,' Mr. Perot said that Mr. Meyerson had 'bombarded us almost daily with creative ideas and changes that he thought would make the company more successful.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

JD Vance hid in tunnels, but protesters made their voices heard
JD Vance hid in tunnels, but protesters made their voices heard

Indianapolis Star

time08-08-2025

  • Indianapolis Star

JD Vance hid in tunnels, but protesters made their voices heard

I found JD Vance — the meme version, anyway. The real Vance snuck through tunnels Aug. 7 while visiting Indiana to push for congressional redistricting in Indiana. But his image was very visible upstairs at the Statehouse. Democrats rallied at the Statehouse, as well as outside the Indiana governor's residence, during a day of protest against President Trump's effort to redraw Indiana's congressional districts further to their advantage. Republicans already hold seven out of nine congressional seats. That number just isn't high enough for the Trump administration. The Statehouse was spirited. Folks were angry, but I noticed a sense of optimism, too. Equipped with their sardonic signs, Hoosier Democrats channeled their energy into a protest against forced redistricting. It wasn't all about redistricting, though. Denise Hay, a retired teacher from Speedway, joined the Statehouse sit-in because of Indiana's attitude toward public education. Hay said she retired five years early due to changes in the Statehouse, which she thinks have had a 'horrific' impact on Indianapolis Public Schools. She talked about how censorship and changes in curriculum are leaving students uneducated and unaware. 'It's all about control,' Hay said, frustrated with the influence legislators have on education. As I talked to protesters, what stuck with me was their wide-ranging concerns. The sit-in was representative of all the grievances that Hoosiers have against elected officials they view as corrupt, whether that's on the state or federal level. The merged protests make sense. These issues are interconnected. Vance's visit is worrying because Indiana Republicans hold all the power and they have not been willing to stand up to the Trump administration. Yet, despite Democrats' defeats and disappointments, there was hopefulness — and good humor — in the air. After talking with Hay, I met Shelley Ross, who was firmly dedicated to the sitting part of the sit-in protest. She took a seat on the floor and told me she was there to 'make a fuss.' Briggs: Remember Jim Banks' tariff cheerleading when the economy tanks Ross is the founder of the Indianapolis Protest Finder Facebook group. After feeling frustrated with the difficulty of finding details and locations for Indianapolis protests, she created the Facebook group to amplify and centralize protest information. Ross told me she's been to all of the major anti-Trump protests in Indianapolis, including No Kings Day. Her goal is to get people to continue to show up to actions and protests. '(I have) no intent other than making it easy for more people to come,' Ross said. Ross opposes gerrymandering — a term that originally referred to oddly shaped congressional districts but now often applies to drawing congressional boundaries that favor one political party. It's a complicated concept, and Ross acknowledged there are parts of the redistricting conversation she doesn't entirely understand. But, despite not knowing all the nuances, Ross showed up to advocate for voting rights and representation. We ended our conversation with Ross calling herself an old White lady and laughing. She wants to use her 'Karen-privilege' — her words — to make an impact. 'We don't have anything to lose,' Ross said. Jackson Franklin, a young progressive running for Congress in Indiana's 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, said he went to the Statehouse to make it 'abundantly clear' to Vance that Hoosiers won't stand for weakening their votes. Briggs: Steak 'n Shake's MAGA makeover is a desperate bid to save a dying business They made it pretty clear. At 10:52 a.m., organizers of the sit-in informed the crowd that Vance was in the building. The boos and shouts from the crowd might have been loud enough for people outside the Statehouse to hear. Franklin thinks the push for early redistricting is happening because Republicans know their policies are unpopular. This is just another power grab, he said. 'We rescue one another as Hoosiers,' U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, D-Indianapolis, said at a press conference following the sit-in. That resonated with me. I like the idea of working together to rescue each other, because democracy is worth that fight. There was a real love for Indiana — and democracy — present today. That bright and bold energy carries on even after Vance has left Indianapolis' underground tunnels.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store