Bill advances despite teacher strike
It was a chaotic time today across the state and in Frankfort. Teachers fussing about House Bill 525 “sicked out” in droves on short notice, causing multiple school districts, including the state’s two largest, to abruptly cancel classes and other supports like school lunches.
But, it seems there was a miraculous recovery because a small horde of teachers descended on the Kentucky House’s State Government Committee to fuss and misbehave during hearings on a bill that revises the way members of the oversight board for the Kentucky Teacher’s Retirement System are nominated.
It was something to watch, which you can do for yourself thanks to KET’s archived video of the meeting available as Part 1 and Part 2.The discussion of HB-525 begins at 56 minutes into Part 1 of the KET webcast and continues throughout Part 2.Briefly recapping, it didn’t take very long after presentation of the bill began for teachers to start vocally interrupting the meeting. In fact, scarcely a minute after the presentation started, as bill sponsor Rep. Ken Upchurch offered an apology for all the disruption to students and parents caused by the teacher walkouts, teachers in the audience, in violation of standard legislative hearing policy, verbally fussed and fumed to the point where the committee chair issued a very nicely made request for silence and respect.
But, like kids who should have been heading for the principal’s office, the teachers failed to heed this respectful request for quiet during the meeting.
To find out what happened next, just click the “Read more” link.
Things deteriorated until the committee chair Rep. Jerry T. Miller, now obviously upset, finally charged the Kentucky State Police to remove two offenders if they dared to cause any further audio disruptions. That calmed things in the meeting room slightly, but it didn’t impact teachers in the hallways, who loudly shouted out at several points in the meeting.
It was highly inappropriate behavior for audience members at a legislative meeting, the sort of thing none of these teachers likely would permit in their own classrooms. The ruckus in the hallways probably disrupted other important activities all over the building.
In any event, the bill, now in a House Committee Substitute version not yet posted online, did pass out of the committee.
So, what seems to be the real issue?
At present, unlike any other state committee, one lone, private organization, the Kentucky Education Association (KEA, the teachers union), has sole control of the nomination process for the majority of the members of the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System governing board. All participants in the teachers retirement system get to vote for those nominees, but only KEA selected nominees are available to be elected. It’s a huge amount of power in the hands of a single, non-public organization that isn’t subject to any open records or open meetings laws.
What’s more, it was revealed during the meeting that the KEA’s current membership only totals about 43,000 but the participants in the Kentucky Teacher Retirement System number about three times that number. Does it make sense for KEA to have so much control over a program that impacts many others who have no association with KEA? Those other retirement system participants at present seem to have no guaranteed voice in the selection of the nominees for the majority control of a system that obviously has huge economic impacts on those not in KEA.
The bill will change that. It adds two members to the current 11-member board and widens the number of groups that make nominations.
Under the new process, three slots, a new CPA position and two existing positions for people with investment experience, are filled by the governor.
Two more slots are filled by ex officio members: The Kentucky Treasurer and the Kentucky Commissioner of Education.
All of the remaining positions are filled by people elected by all the participants in the retirement system following nominations by various groups. Each nominating group submits three names for each position to be filled.
KEA now would nominate individuals to fill two slots, one an educator slot and one for a retired educators’ slot.
The Kentucky School Boards Association nominates for one educator position.
The Jefferson County Teachers Association, by itself, nominates for another educator position.
The Kentucky Association of Professional Educators nominates for an educator slot.
The Kentucky Association of School Administrators nominates for an educator slot.
The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents nominates for an educator slot.
The Kentucky Retired Teachers Association nominates for a retired educators’ slot.
To be sure, HB-525 has a long way to go, but at the very least it already seems to be generating some of the most interesting legislative drama of this session.
To be honest, though, the process would be better with a lot more respectful discussion – dissention certainly accepted – and a lot fewer open outbursts and aggressive attempts at intimidation on the part of a few. Because even if every teacher who showed up today in Frankfort got counted, the total would amount to only a fraction of the total number of teachers in our state let alone the number of citizens in Kentucky and the rather large number of people actually in the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System. And, it is up to our legislators to recognize that and calmly carry on with the important business of running our state without caving into tantrums from a few.