Kentucky House Education Committee chair leaving legislature

The Herald-Leader and other news sources are reporting Representative Carl Rollins (D – Midway) has announced he is leaving the Kentucky Legislature to head the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority and the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation.

While Rollins shepherded a number of education bills during his tenure, he was instrumental in blocking key legislation submitted in multiple years that would have created charter school programs in Kentucky. Rollins’ actions leave Kentucky as one of only eight states that still have not adopted charter schools, thus denying the benefits of these special public schools to the state’s many disadvantaged students.