Alabama Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow made the following announcement Wednesday:

“I am announcing today my candidacy for State Senate District 6.

“I have received a great deal of encouragement from people all over the district who want me to run for the Senate. So many people have come to me and told me that they are disappointed with the way our area has been represented in the State Senate. I believe I can take my experience from the House of Representatives and my love for this area and do a better job in Senate District 6 that what is being done now.

“As a former educator, a parent and grandparent, I know the value of a good public education, but every time I look up, Dr. Stutts is doing everything he can to take taxpayer money away from public education and give it to private schools. I don’t understand how anyone can claim to want a better future for the children and families of this area and then vote like he does. It is mind boggling.

“The quote by Mark Twain, ‘Out of the public schools comes the greatness of the nation’ reminded me of growing up in Northwest Alabama and reading all of Mark Twain’s books. I knew even then how wise he was. Public schools were the backbone in making the United States a great nation. As a Member of the Alabama Legislature, I personally fought legislators in 2013 who were launching attacks against Public Education. The Alabama Accountability Act was passed in 2013 and since then over $4 million has been taken from public school systems in Senate District 6. Sen. Larry Stutts has now teamed up with these private schools to help prop up the Alabama Accountability Act. He voted yes for expanding the continuation of this destruction of our public schools during the 2017 regular session. In an earlier session, he voted in favor of charter schools. These votes have made it clear to me that the Senator representing where I live, Larry Stutts, is not a supporter of public education. This is unacceptable to me and I will not sit idly by and watch him dismantle our public education system.

“I promise that I will represent the views and wishes of the people of his district, as I always have done in the Alabama House of Representatives. I also vow to be accessible and accountable to the people that make up Senate District 6. I have always been the kind of legislator that the voters could reach and talk to. Call me and I will call you back. That will not change when I go to the Senate.

“In a Times Daily article dated Monday, June 19, Senator Stutts announced that he is running for re-election. I am today announcing that I am running for the State Senate in Senate District 6. I look forward to the upcoming campaign, where I will offer the voters a clear choice on the issue of public education as well as other issues important to our quality of life. I am ready for voters to compare my record to that of Senator Larry Stutts. When people look at my record, they will see that I have always put people before politics. That is a lesson that Senator Stutts never learned, and we have all suffered because of it.”