Sparks campaigns during festival

Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks speaks with Tawanna Richardson, of Russellville, during a campaign visit to the Watermelon Festival Saturday. | Jonathan Willis/FCT

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks made his way through the crowd at Saturday’s Watermelon Festival meeting well-wishers and sharing his goals for Alabama.

One of his primary platforms has been the creation of a state lottery for education.

“We are in a dire need of finances and one of the best ways to improve that is to allow the people of Alabama to vote on creating a lottery,” Sparks said.

“Alabama residents spend millions of dollars in Florida, Tennessee and Georgia buying lottery tickets each year. We need to help the children of Alabama. Georgia recently announced that 1 million children had received college scholarships through their lottery.”

Sparks said the rising costs of college make it more difficult for the average family to send children to school without borrowing money.

“The price of a college education is growing three times as fast as a family income,” he said. “We have to be able to educate our children. Instead we allowing them to pile up debt before they even get out of college.”

Sparks said that for every 25,000 students who do not graduate and ultimately end up on federal services, tax payers end up being responsible for $6.25 billion to support them.

A second hot button issue that Sparks addressed was the dire need to repair the state’s road system.

 “I am going to build roads from north Alabama to south Alabama,” he said.

“That would create 38,000 jobs for Alabama citizens.”