UA’s Center for Public Television Portrays State’s Poorest School System Through Television Documentary

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – With 52 percent of Perry County’s children living in poverty, the four schools educating those children also are suffering hardships.

“Trying Times: Perry County Schools,” is The University of Alabama Center for Public Television’s documentary that tells the story – through the people of Perry County – of Alabama’s legislative pitfalls, the repercussions from 2003’s failed Amendment One tax reform plan, and Gov. Bob Riley’s 2004-05 fiscal year budget.

“Trying Times: Perry County Schools,” airs Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 18 at 9 p.m. on Alabama Public Television. During the course of the story, Dwight Cammeron, CPT director and producer, follows the fears and anxieties of several Perry County educators and administrators, plus one overworked maintenance supervisor.

With 70 percent of property ownership in the county maintained by nonresidents, a shrinking tax base from which to derive funds and 14.2 percent of county residents unemployed, John Heard, Perry County’s superintendent, remains optimistic that his schools will “not have to worry about funding and focus on achievement.”

This story unfolds through profiles of teachers who may soon loose their jobs because money is short and provides intimate portraits of their personal and civic concerns alongside the county’s attempts at patching its funding problems.

During the course of the documentary, attempts to raise property taxes, which would have made the county’s taxes the highest in the state, and tacking $10 onto court fees, both fail.

A lack of both industry and a solid infrastructure and expectations by the state for the county to meet the expectations of its more affluent counterparts are outlined by a grim-faced Albert Turner Jr., Perry County commissioner.

“What we have is a recipe for division with 99 percent of white children in private schools and 99 percent of black children in our public schools,” Turner said.