The Alabama state House passed a bill on Thursday to remove language from existing law requiring the establishment of a School of Social Work of Alabama. It passed 76-14.
Authored by state Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, HB 152 would repeal Article 7 of Chapter 47 of Title 16 of the Alabama Code of Law. Implemented in 1965, article 7 mandates the creation of the School of Social Work and establishes other requirements for the school regarding scholarships, admissions and other aspects of its administration.
The bill will go into effect on Oct. 1 if signed into law.
House Democrats argued that the article’s repeal will put the School of Social Work at risk of being fully dissolved and possibly losing its accreditation, saying that the article was implemented for a reason.
“I think not only is that reason still there, but it’s even more compelling today, with the shortage we have in social workers,” said Rep. Marilyn Lands, D- Madison. She said she believes the bill “isn’t solving any of the problems” regarding social work in the state, specifying that the field is underfunded, has low wages and high turnover and burnout.
Garrett emphasized that nothing in the bill will require the University to dissolve the School of Social Work. He was unable to clarify the origins of the law’s implementation.
“All this bill does is say, ‘University of Alabama, you can decide how best to structure your social work programs. You don’t have to do it the way we tell you to do it,’” he said, adding it may help the University increase its number of social work students by granting it more “flexibility” in how it chooses to operate the program
“You say flexibility, but it can also be erasability, right? It can also be changeability,” said Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham. “Social work deals with a lot of things that perhaps have been up for debate because they’re maybe considered divisive concepts. So there’s a lot of skepticism about this bill.”
He added that the “unintended consequences” of the bill could be “dire” to the state long term.
According to the School of Social Work, there were less than 100 social workers in Alabama prior to 1965, with 48 of its 67 counties having no professional social workers. The school had 647 students enrolled last semester.
Rep. Adline Clark, D-Mobile, said she finds it hard to believe the article is keeping the University from making adjustments to the School of Social Work to increase its enrollment numbers.
“I just don’t see that this law is pigeon holding them in that way,” she said, adding that the legislature should prioritize efforts to the payscale of social workers in the state to attract more people to the profession.
“UA is the state’s leader for social work education and research, and for 60 years has graduated highly skilled, highly versatile social work practitioners who strengthen communities across Alabama,” said Alex House, associate director of communications for the University. “We will continue to build upon that foundation, and this statutory change will provide the University autonomy over curriculum, organization and continued innovation in meeting the needs of the state and our students.”
Other universities in the state, including Auburn University, the University of North Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, have social work programs embedded in larger colleges.
“There were a lot of things going on in the state of Alabama in 1965,” said Rep. Sam Jones, D-Mobile. “I know that no other school in the state was mandated to have a school of social work. There had to be some rationale that’s not been discussed here.”
Lands said she believes Garrett’s intentions are good, but is afraid that the bill “could really disrupt, if not fully dismantle, this program.”
“I’m a logical person. This is the only school we mandate,” Garrett said. “That’s not logical to me.”
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