FROM STAFF REPORTS

MONTGOMERY – Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, on Dec. 20 announced that he has appointed State Rep. Corley Ellis, R-Columbiana, to serve on the powerful and influential House Ways and Means Education Committee, which appropriates roughly $6 billion in annual funding to Alabama’s K – 12 public schools, community colleges and public colleges and universities.

“Rep. Ellis possesses a deep commitment to public education and a keen businessman’s eye to the financial bottom line, the combination of which make him well-qualified to serve on the budget committee,” McCutcheon wrote in a statement. “I am confident he will render valuable service to the parents, students, educators and administrators across the spectrum of Alabama’s public education system.”

Ellis said he looks forward to the challenges and responsibilities that his new committee assignment will present.

“As a businessman, I understand that our students must be well-prepared to compete for jobs and opportunities in the 21st Century workforce, so I will work hard to ensure that all of our public education resources are spent wisely,” Ellis wrote in a statement. “Alabama has made significant progress in the area of education over the past several years, and I will do everything in my power as a member of the education budget committee to continue those advances in the years to come.”

Ellis will assume the committee assignment of State Rep. Jim Patterson, R-Meridianville, who died earlier this year, and he will continue to serve on the House Committee on Fiscal Responsibility, as well.

Prior to his election to the Alabama House in a 2016 special election, Ellis served on the Shelby County Commission for a decade, and chaired that government panel for two years. He is the owner of Ellis Properties, Inc., which is a real estate brokerage firm located in Columbiana. Ellis and his wife, Julie, are parents to one son, Jamison.