Sometimes I think we make things a lot more complicated than they really are. When you strip away all the rhetoric and just put conservative ideas side-by-side with liberalism — conservatism wins every time.

Earlier this week, I wrote an in-depth article about the holes in AEA’s argument against the GOP’s economic development package. Well, in an effort to take my own advice and keep things simple, please consider the following:

1. The AEA claimed tenure reform would cause teachers to lose tenure and spark a rash of unjust layoffs.

What happened?

You still have your job and you still have tenure.

2. The AEA claimed that restructuring retirement under a more fiscally sound system would cause you to lose your retirement package and result in mass teacher resignations.

What happened?

You still have your retirement and mass resignations never happened.

3. The AEA claimed that funding the Alabama Math, Science & Technology initiative and the Alabama Reading Initiative would harm our education system and even cause schools to collapse from lack of funding.

What happened?

Schools are still functioning and test scores are up.

4. AND NOW, the AEA is saying that charter schools, aimed at providing a new opportunity for children and parents in poorly performing districts, will hurt our good schools by diverting funding away from them.

So, what’s going to happen? Look at AEA’s record and decide for yourself.