Did Gov. Robert Bentley, who signed into law the Alabama Accountability Act as quickly as he could after initial court proceedings wrapped up on the controversial law, think he was going to be a white knight riding in to save public education?

Or was he only trying to save his political hide by proposing lawmakers delay the crux of the bill, which essentially commits public dollars to private school education by giving tax credits to parents of students in so-called “failing” districts. The tax credits would be used for private school tuition.

If Bentley had problems with this bill — and he rightly should have, since it was rammed through the Legislature so quickly and completely twisted the original intent of the bill — he should never have signed it.

He should never have said it was right for Alabama.

And he certainly should have proposed a fix before the last day of the session. Why wait so late? In fact, why sign the bill at all?

We wish the Legislature had not voted to override Bentley’s veto, but more than that we wish Bentley had stood up to his party a lot earlier than he did.

State Sen. Del Marsh said Monday that he believes history will record the Alabama Accountability Act as the right decision.

It will be historic, but not for the reasons he thinks.