There’s an old saying: “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.” And after years of watching Rep. Ernie Yarbrough talk about public education, talk around public education, and attack public education, it’s getting harder to ignore the obvious question: Why does he seem to dislike it so much?
This is a man who proudly advertises that he was homeschooled, his children are homeschooled, and—based on his rhetoric—apparently believes everyone else should be too. That’s his right. Alabama is a free state. Parents can choose whatever educational path they want. But what is right for one state legislator isn’t always what is right for the people he represents.
Apparently, the only thing he learned in all those years of home instruction was how to lecture everyone else about a system he’s never used.
But here’s the part that deserves a raised eyebrow: Why does someone who has never participated in public education feel the need to tear it down at every turn? It’s like watching a restaurant critic who has never tasted food explain why everyone else should stop eating.
Every legislative session, almost every Facebook post, every radio hit, every hallway conversation seems to circle back to the same theme: public schools are bad, teachers are suspect, and the system is broken beyond repair. It’s almost like a reflex. Ask him about roads? He’ll find a way to blame public schools. Ask him about broadband? Somehow, teachers are involved. Ask him about the weather? Don’t tempt him. At this point, if your truck won’t start, give it a minute — Ernie will find a way to blame a third grade teacher in Lawrence County.
And now, he’s back at it again—this time claiming that teacher payroll deductions are secretly funding “left-wing causes” through the big bad wolf and Ernie’s number one arch enemy—The Alabama Education Association. Payroll deduction is not a political pipeline. It’s a basic, voluntary service thousands of Alabama educators use to manage their professional memberships—no different than deductions for insurance, retirement or charitable giving. So in essence, a lot of things are payroll deducted.
The bill is numbered HB666 very possibly on purpose (which we all know what three sixes in succession means) and is a subliminal attack on public education and teachers. According to the article he’s promoting and during a talk radio interview, he calls it a “classic example of bait and switch.” Funny how the only “bait and switch” most teachers recognize is when politicians promise to support education and then spend the rest of the year treating them much like political piñatas.
Teachers in Alabama—who already buy their own classroom supplies, already work second jobs, already stretch every dollar—are now being painted as part of some shadowy political conspiracy. Because of course they are. In Ernie-world, the people teaching your kids to read are apparently the real threat.
Because nothing screams “credible policymaking” like suggesting Mrs. Johnson, who buys glue sticks with her own money, is secretly masterminding a left-wing takeover between recess and spelling tests.
Ernie Yarbrough spent his entire life outside the public school system, never attended it, never trusted it, never sent his kids to it, and never misses an opportunity to attack it… well, it starts to look less like a policy disagreement and more like a personal crusade.
And that crusade has consequences. Public schools are the backbone especially of rural Alabama. They’re the largest employer in many counties. They’re the community center, the Friday night gathering place, the one institution that still brings people together. When a legislator repeatedly undermines them, he’s not just attacking a system—he’s attacking the towns that rely on it.
So here’s the question Ernie Yarbrough never seems interested in answering:
If public schools are so terrible, why do the people who actually use them—parents, teachers, students—keep fighting for them, while the loudest critics are the ones who never set foot inside? Maybe the real issue isn’t the schools at all. Maybe it’s that public education represents something Ernie can’t control, can’t reshape and can’t reduce to a radio conspiracy show rant.
Alabama deserves better than a representative who treats public education like a personal enemy. Our teachers deserve respect, and our communities deserve leaders who build, not tear down.
Until then, we’re left with the same question: Why does Ernie Yarbrough loathe public education so much? And why is he so determined to make sure everyone else does too?
