One step forward, two steps back.

Perhaps by now Alabamians should have become accustomed to such a fate in the governance of our country. But for some reason, it's still disheartening to hear out loud during each legislative session, and the governor's State of the State address that begins each session.

Gov. Kay Ivey's speech Tuesday night was no different.

However, there were also moments of progress. These include establishing a veterans home at Dovetail Landing and providing health screenings for pregnant women at nine county health departments in rural Alabama. Or creating a School of Health Care Sciences, expanding broadband access and other infrastructure, and working on meaningful ways to support working families. And finally, finally, a gambling bill was passed that would properly regulate and tax the vast amount of gaming already being played in Alabama and open up a scholarship program to Alabama kids.

those are good things. All of them. Those are things nearly every Alabamian cares about and wants.

If approved and passed, these programs and laws will make our state a better place to work and live. It helps children learn, it helps veterans survive, and it sends a whole generation of poor children into universities and colleges from which they were previously excluded.

Those programs are raised from the bottom to the top. These have the potential to dramatically improve the lives of the poorest among us.

Sure, we're talking about a plan to expand Medicaid, or for that matter, a plan to solve Alabama's worsening rural health care crisis, or how we're going to end up putting a horrible, third-world prison in this state. It would have been nice to hear something specific about whether to stop it. I'm just saying that operating a correction system is “difficult.”

And, yeah, I think it would have been nice to have more specifics on how we can support that workforce, like providing child care credits and other tax breaks for working families.

Honestly, I wish Ivy had stopped about 10 minutes earlier. I cut out the end of her speech, remembered that she was a former public school teacher, and handed her depressing ending back to the person who wrote it.

That's because “school choice,” as outlined by Ms. Ivey and described in the bill she sponsored, would undo most of the benefits brought by other programs. At least where Alabama's most disadvantaged students are concerned.

To be clear, this is a slush fund of $7,000 per student (currently up to $100 million a year, no one knows if it will increase later) to a private, usually faith-based organization. legislation, many of which are religiously based. A concrete business plan to perpetuate Jim Crow racism and maintain the racial makeup that manifested it, with little oversight, no public accountability, and no tax-paying responsibility. There are also very few checks to make sure it's being used.

But even worse, yeah, I know it's hard to get worse than what I described above, but that's how bad this plan is. It would siphon funding from already underfunded schools and cripple public schools in the poorest counties. All the while, the very students they claim to help are barred from the program.

All you need is a basic understanding of mathematics to know this is true.

The “CHOOSE” program provides $7,000 per year to students attending private schools. The average private school tuition in Alabama is more than $8,200 per year, according to the Education Data Initiative and Private School Review.

Lunch is usually not included in these tuition fees, so your child's lunch will be free or reduced. Also, transportation expenses are not included. They also rarely include the various fees for different programs, some of which can run into the thousands of dollars per year, and may not include all textbooks.

Yes, this will be a godsend to the poor and struggling children of Lowndes and Jackson counties. Most parents have very few, if any, private schools to choose from, and none of them are covered by this tax break for the wealthy.

Yes, Kay Ivey and her Republican supermajority offered up some hopeful gold nuggets Tuesday night.

And on the way out, public school teachers and some of the most at-risk children in this state were completely crushed.