Alabama picked a new state schools superintendent last week. It was like making sausage.
Full of blood and bones and pink slime.
When it was all said and done Michael Sentance squirted out as Alabama's new top school educator - even though he never worked as a teacher and has been rejected as superintendent in six other states.
The process was icky, filled with last minute anonymous ethics complaints, multiple votes and subterfuge.
But hey, politics is sausage, and a lot of the parts in that machine were rancid from the start You hold your nose and hope for the best and pray the E. coli doesn't kill you.
So Alabama is left with Sentance, who for a time did serve as Massachusetts Secretary of Education, and in George W. Bush's Department of Education.
Gov. Robert Bentley, who cast the deciding vote, said Sentance was the man, primarily because he comes from Massachusetts, where they know how to educate a kid.
"Massachusetts is the number one state in the country in education," Bentley said. "Test scores show that. We're not number one, obviously. But we would like to be."
Bentley said Alabama children can do just as well.
New Alabama Schools Superintendent Michael Sentance.
"We've got to give every child in the state of Alabama the same opportunity as the children in Massachusetts have, or any other state in the country," he said.
Which is great. And which is bunk.
Because the difference between Massachusetts education policy and Alabama education policy is the difference between the Boston Tea Party and the Alabama Tea Party.
Massachusetts - though not without its problems - scores great on tests and boasts of a tiny dropout rates. When Education Week graded states this year, Massachusetts got a top ranking and a B+ grade. Alabama was at the back of the class, thanking God for Mississippi and New Mexico and Nevada. It brought home a D+.
Massachusetts spends $9,225 on instruction for every student, while Alabama spends $5,164, according to Governing.com. Which means Alabama spends 56 cents for every Bay State dollar.
Massachusetts ranks in the top 10 in spending on teacher salaries and benefits and Alabama - always eager to raid the education coffers - is barely out of the bottom 10.
But the real issue isn't money. The real issue is how Alabama has sought to improve education, and how Massachusetts has not.
The New York Times examined Massachusetts' educational success after improvements years ago and found it came from better funding, particularly in poor city schools, combined with tough standards and rigorous testing. More to the point, Massachusetts did not roll the dice on the kind of "reforms" that have been so popular in Alabama.
"Parents were not offered vouchers for private schools," the Times wrote. "The state did not close poorly performing schools, eliminate tenure for teachers or add merit pay. The reforms did allow for some charter schools, but not many."
You are not in Massachusetts anymore, Mr. Sentance. You were never in Massachusetts, Mr. Bentley.
Alabama has closed and sucked the money and life out of poorly performing schools. It provides private school scholarships to students in those schools who are lucky enough to have advocates, but leaves those without a voice behind.
Alabama, under this Legislature and governor, gutted the teachers union, attempted to break tenure and began a charter school movement.
Massachusetts reformed by increasing budgets, testing new teachers, providing more time for teaching and expecting the best from students in public education.
Alabama, over the objections of past superintendents, tried to fix education by pinching pennies and paying families to leave public schools.
And Bentley says "we've got to give every child in the state of Alabama the same opportunity as the children in Massachusetts have."
Right.
Hold your nose as you hear it. That sausage is made, and it's what made us sick.