State Representative Richard Lindsey was honored this morning, Friday, Dec. 3, by the Alabama Association of School Boards with a Legislative Award for his longstanding advocacy on behalf of public schoolchildren and public education.

The award was presented during the 8:30 a.m. general session at AASB’s annual convention at The Wynfrey Hotel. As part of the program, Cherokee County's Tommy McDaniel was re-elected as AASB president.

The Legislative Award acknowledges Lindsey’s leadership and fairness in his position as chairman of the House Education Finance and Appropriations Committee as well as his open-door policy where school boards are concerned.

“Rep. Lindsey’s commitment to do right by Alabama’s schoolchildren is clear,” said AASB President Tommy McDaniel of Cherokee County. “He’s fair, he’s tough when he needs to be, and he’s always willing to listen to a variety of perspectives when issues are being debated.”

Under Lindsey’s leadership last spring, lawmakers took the monumental step of eliminating state funding for an assortment of non-state and non-education programs that were siphoning off money desperately needed by the state’s public schools and colleges. McDaniel praised Lindsey’s work to make that happen despite intense pressure from the programs’ backers.

“This wasn’t an easy thing for him or his committee to recommend. But he refused to give in. The schools’ need for the money remained the most important consideration for him,” McDaniel said. “Our schools and our students were lucky to have him leading the budget discussions.

Lindsey, a legislator since 1983, also sponsored a proposal last spring to require that all school systems have at least 10 mills of absolute property tax. The proposal would have benefited 30 poorly funded systems. Though it failed to pass, AASB Executive Director Dr. Sandra Sims-deGraffenried said school boards were indebted to Lindsey for spearheading the effort.

“Richard has such an open, friendly style that he just seems to naturally bring people together. He has a real talent that makes him easy to work with, but at the same time, he knows the issues and has good ideas for solving problems,” Sims-deGraffenried said.

AASB represents all of the state’s local public school boards. Founded in 1949, the association works to preserve local lay control of education. It is headquartered in Montgomery and provides members with an array of services, including boardmanship training, insurance programs and policy research