PELHAM, Ala. —
Spencer Stone, the public-school teacher and Democratic nominee for Alabama Senate District 16, today released the first bill he intends to file if elected: legislation to amend the state's 2010 “double dipping” law so that a working classroom teacher is no longer forced to give up the classroom to serve in the Legislature.
The law, codified as Alabama Code Section 29-1-26, was passed in 2010 and sponsored by Senator Jabo Waggoner — the incumbent Stone faces this November. Promoted at the time as a fix for legislators holding no-show jobs at two-year colleges, it was written broadly enough to sweep in every public-school teacher in the state. Under the statute, a teacher elected to the Legislature must surrender their teaching job to take office.
The Let Teachers Serve Act makes a single, surgical change. It permits a member of the Legislature to remain employed as a full-time classroom teacher — while explicitly prohibiting that legislator from drawing a teaching paycheck for any day the Legislature is in session. It leaves fully in place the existing ban on legislators holding jobs at two-year and four-year colleges and at other state agencies — the patronage positions the 2010 law was actually aimed at.
Stone's bill has already been drafted in full. He said it will be filed on the first day of his term, or carried sooner by a sitting legislator willing to sponsor it.
Stone, who has taught in Alabama classrooms for 16 years, said the law forces a choice no one should have to make:
"Under the law on the books right now, if the people of District 16 send me to Montgomery, I have to walk away from my students to go. I don't think a teacher should have to make that choice — and I don't think District 16 should have to send someone who's never been in the room where the policy actually lands."
Stone said the bill is written specifically to prevent the abuse the original law targeted:
"This is not double-dipping, and the bill is written to make sure it never could be. Double-dipping is getting paid twice for the same time. My bill forbids exactly that. What it allows is simple: a teacher gets to be what a farmer, a small-business owner, and a lawyer already get to be in the Alabama Legislature — a working person who also serves. Right now, the teacher is the only one who has to quit."
He framed the bill as a response to a broader problem:
"Alabama has a teacher shortage and a statehouse with almost no working teachers in it. Those two facts are connected. This is the bill that starts to fix both."
The full working text of the Let Teachers Serve Act is posted at https://stone4senate.com/press/let-teachers-serve-act-bill-text/.
Spencer Stone is a teacher, coach, and father of three running for Alabama State Senate District 16. He has spent his career in Shelby County classrooms and on athletic fields. He is running on a platform centered on education funding, energy costs, and accessible government. Learn more at stone4senate.com.