By Laura Whittington
April 17, 2003
HOLTVILLE — A small group of students
at Holtville High School is trying to make a big change in Alabama.
Coach Robby Broom's 10th-grade advanced history students
are rallying support from other schools for a march to the state Capitol
in support of efforts to reform Alabama's 1901 Constitution.
The main goal of the march is to get money for public
education.
Students at the school already have seen teacher cuts
and growing class sizes during the past two years. With public school
funding unclear for next year, Sara Sanford, a student in Broom's
class, fears public schools will only get worse.
"It's going to be really terrible if band and electives
are cut," Sanford said. "Class sizes are already much bigger,
and they're supposed to get larger next year."
Broom's class started the project last month after a
discussion about the state's 102-year-old Constitution. Since then,
the class has developed a Web site and has began contacting schools
across the state.
They also are working on getting a permit to march in
Montgomery some time between May 12 and May 18.
Although Broom's class hasn't received any replies from
students at other schools about joining the march, Elizabeth Armistead,
principal of Jefferson Davis High School, said she would be interested
in learning more.
"If the students wanted to do so, I would certainly
let them," she said. "I'd be open to it as long as the students
were."
Rep. Dick Brewbaker, who represents the Holtville area,
supports the idea of a march.
"If it's the students doing it, I'm all for it,"
he said. "I'd be happy to talk to them about what's going on
in the House."
Broom said it was the students' idea. After discussing
the Constitution in class, students asked their teacher what they
could do to change it.
"They didn't just want to talk about it," Broom
said. "They really wanted to know what they could do."
Broom said the students soon will begin trying to set
up a roundtable discussion with local politicians.
Until then, students like Jamie Reeves already have some
ideas about fixing Alabama's education funding problem.
"In my opinion, schools should be funded through
property taxes," he said. "Education should be a priority.
It should be more important than a lot of things. If we're not improving
education, we're not moving forward."
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