The Alabama Legislature has passed a bill to remove the executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association from the board that oversees the state pension system for education employees.
The House voted 61-42 Thursday and the Senate voted 17-14 to pass the bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Gerald Allen of Tuscaloosa.
It removes AEA Executive Secretary Henry Mabry from the Teachers Retirement System board and replaces him with two members elected by higher education employees. Universities have had no elected members before. The board would have 15 members.
The bill specifies that board members will be elected only by the group represented by each seat. For instance, only K-12 teachers will vote for their representatives on the board. That could lessen the influence of AEA.
