education
Beshear vetoes bill subjecting Kentucky’s top education official to Senate confirmation
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a statement from the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 107, Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green. Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a bill subjecting Kentucky’s top education official to Senate confirmation. Senate Bill 107 would require Senate confirmation of the Kentucky Board of Education’s pick for education commissioner. In […]
Kentucky education commissioner says legislature put youth at risk with anti-LGBTQ bill
The day after Kentucky lawmakers rapidly changed and passed a bill to include measures banning gender-affirming care for minors, the state’s top education official decried the “sweeping and harmful” legislation. Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass said the latest version of Senate Bill 150 “contains provisions that will put our young people at risk, have the […]
Kentucky House approves book challenge bill after multiple attempts to alter it fail
FRANKFORT — The Kentucky House rejected pleas of some Republicans to add a ban on public drag shows and some parental rights provisions to a bill mandating a complaint process for parents to challenge school materials they consider “harmful to minors.” Senate Bill 5, primarily sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, came onto the House […]
Bill subjecting Kentucky education commissioner to Senate confirmation has cleared both chambers
FRANKFORT — A bill that the head of the Kentucky Board of Education said would reverse decades of progress on education passed the House Tuesday. Representatives voted 80-20 in favor of Senate Bill 107, a measure that would make the Kentucky education commissioner subject to confirmation by the Senate. Earlier this session, the Senate approved […]
Bill mandating process for parents to challenge books, programs in Kentucky public schools advances
A controversial bill that would mandate a process in all of Kentucky’s 171 public school districts for parents to challenge materials, programs or events they consider “harmful to minors” received a House committee’s approval Monday in a party-line vote. Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 5, said before the House Education […]
Misconduct allegations would follow teachers under bill moving through Kentucky legislature
FRANKFORT — A Senate committee advanced two House education bills that would affect processes for hiring school district employees. Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, presented House Bill 288 Thursday, which would make it more difficult for teachers found responsible of sexual misconduct to begin working in a different school district. The Senate Education Committee voted 11-0 […]
Kentucky senator whose Twitter account ‘liked’ obscene tweets says he was hacked
Editor’s Note: This report relies in part on screenshots, emails and other documentation gathered in May 2021 by Kentucky Lantern reporter Liam Niemeyer when he was a reporter for WKMS Public Radio in Murray. FRANKFORT — The sponsor of a bill mandating a complaint process for removing “obscene” materials from Kentucky’s public schools had, as […]
Cameron wants increased teacher pay, ‘far-left’ out of classroom
Kentucky Republican candidate for governor Daniel Cameron released his plans for Kentucky’s education system if elected in November. They include raising starting pay for teachers and keeping “far-left” policies at bay. In a Wednesday press release, his campaign said his framework aims to “keep the far-left from indoctrinating our students” and that the attorney general […]
Republican lawmakers are taking Kentucky back to education’s bad old days
FRANKFORT — Generations of Kentuckians suffered because education was treated as a political spoil. Schools run for the benefit of adults chained the state to poverty. In 1990, the legislature shielded public education from political interference as part of a sweeping reform. Schools improved, Kentuckians became better educated and Kentucky was held up as a model. […]
What’s so dangerous about books?
When Grandpa Pete died in November 2011, I was in a car full of family members as we drove from the funeral service to the cemetery when someone said, “I’ve never read more than three pages in any book.” This 40-something college graduate went on to tell us that any book worth reading would be […]
Parents, pronouns and a place for all in an increasingly diverse world
My oldest granddaughter recently married a non-binary person, meaning “they” reject being labeled either male or female. I have used the wrong pronoun a few times because their caring nature feels feminine to me — which I acknowledge is old-fashioned thinking. I will get the pronouns right because it is callous to misgender someone or […]
House approves ending high school diploma requirement for school bus drivers, secretaries, other classified positions
FRANKFORT — A proposed law that would give school districts a wider pool of applicants for non-teaching jobs has made its way through the Kentucky House of Representatives. The House on Feb. 17 passed House Bill 32, which would allow Kentucky school districts the option of hiring classified personnel without a high school diploma or […]