L to R: Mary Frances Itsede, Ann Marie McDaniel and Maksim Presnell.
The TomorrowTODAY staff asked each of the 2025 gubernatorial candidates the same three questions. Read their responses below:
More than half of Alabama’s first-time teachers leave the job before the end of three years. Only a third of all current teachers have the 10 years of service required to be vested in the state’s retirement system. What more can Alabama do to retain teachers and attract teachers to our state?
Mary Frances Itsede: To retain and attract teachers to Alabama relies upon increased investment to our teachers. Alabama can explore partnerships with universities or financial institutions to create loan repayment programs specifically tailored for educators. Offering tiered forgiveness based on years of service or focusing on teachers in critical shortage areas would be effective.
Ann Marie McDaniel: Teaching is a challenging profession, especially when students often have little regard for their teachers. In order for Alabama to retain teachers, compensation for teachers should be increased and class sizes should be reduced.
Maksim Presnell: Teachers are overworked, so giving them an additional planning period would help them be less overwhelmed. In many younger grades there are adult aides, so I would propose perhaps adding adult aides throughout elementary school would ease the workload. Discipline is by far the foremost issue; both putting discipline back into the teachers’ hands as well as administrations being more supportive of their teachers would be the best way to handle this issue.
What is your plan to improve the Alabama Youth Legislature program?
Maksim Presnell: I want to focus on growth for the program. I would immediately begin meeting with high school administrators throughout the state; with a specific concentration on the “dead zones” where there are no delegations. I would also focus on the middle school events. 1) Opening Junior Youth Legislature to the sixth grade; the reasoning is to help pull more people into the program. 2) I also would like to start a new program allowing each advisor to select two seventh or eighth grade students who participated in Junior Youth Legislature to accompany their school’s delegation to Youth Legislature to watch and learn so as to improve in debate.
Mary Frances Itsede: To improve the ALYIG Legislature program, I support increased focus on small delegations. Coming from a delegation of four people, being at the conference and seeing a delegation of 10 times the people in mine was overwhelming. Making sure smaller delegations can reach out for assistance and proper instruction about chamber decorum would be my focus for improvement!
Ann Marie McDaniel: If I could do anything to improve Alabama Youth In Government, it would be to make it more affordable for students interested in attending.
Cats or dogs? Why?
Ann Marie McDaniel: One can only take so much barking and smelliness. Cats for the win!
Maksim Presnell: I prefer dogs but will tolerate cats. Personally, I have three dogs, two cavapoos and a labradoodle; I also had a bulldog at one point. Once you earn a dog’s respect, its love and loyalty are unconditional. When I got my wisdom teeth taken out, my dog sat there, watched and growled at anyone, besides my mom, who tried to come near me until I had fully recovered.
Mary Frances Itsede: Dogs 100%! They’re absolutely adorable, able to be trained, listen to you, comfort and process emotions of humans better than cats, and are objectively cuter than cats in any stage of their life.