This week, the legislature made education a priority. Several Bluegrass Institute education policies moved forward, including a charter school pilot program that means Kentucky will have its first ever public charter schools - one in Louisville and the other in Northern Kentucky.

Several education polices move

Five years ago, Kentucky legislators passed a law allowing charter schools to open in the commonwealth but failed to provide a funding mechanism for these innovative public schools. House Bill 9, which narrowly made its way through the House this week by a vote of 51-46, finally addresses this issue by requiring SEEK funds - tax dollars the state provides to local school districts - to follow the child to the public charter school. The bill now moves on to the Senate.

According to BIPPS education analyst Richard Innes: 

Kentucky is one of less than a handful of states that still don’t have these schools of choice. Given the growing success of charters in places like Atlanta and Cleveland for students of color – a particular area of weakness for Kentucky education – it’s time to offer this school choice option to parents of modest means who want and need an alternative choice for where their children get educated.

Another BIPPS policy headed to the governor’s desk is Senate BIll 9, a bipartisan education bill, which improves how educators teach reading and also provides testing to better identify struggling students for intervention. With low reading proficiency across the state, Kentucky will now have the ability to instruct teachers on scientifically-based research as to what works best for students learning to read.

The Bluegrass Institute has worked with Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, for several years on a policy that would reform the way K-12 public schools are governed. With the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), Kentucky became the only state in the nation with School Based Decision Making Councils (SBDMs), a group of teachers, administrators and parents at each school who make important curriculum, personnel and spending decisions. The makeup of these boards included two parents for every three teachers giving parents little say over school governance. This makeup essentially means Kentucky schools are controlled by the teachers and therefore the teachers’ unions. Schickel’s Senate Bill 1 moves SBDMs into more of an advisory role and puts the power of such decisions back in the hands of the superintendent and local school boards. This bill is waiting on the governor’s signature and if it becomes law, it will give power back to the taxpayers when addressing educational issues in their child’s school or communities, and result in greater accountability for those elected to oversee our schools.

Shortening unemployment benefits

Lawmakers overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill terminating the automatic 26-week duration of unemployment benefits. The new policy uses current unemployment numbers at the time of application for benefits as the indicator for the duration of payments up to 24 weeks. For example, an applicant who applies for unemployment benefits while the unemployment rate is 4.5% or less would be approved for 12 weeks of benefits. However, if that same person applies when the unemployment rate is between 9.5% and 10%, the applicant is eligible for up to 24 weeks of unemployment benefits. Rural lawmakers spoke out against the measure throughout the legislative process, arguing it will disproportionally hurt citizens in rural areas where the economic recovery after the COVID shutdowns is lagging. Supporters counter that the economy won’t improve if the state makes it more attractive for Kentuckians to remain on unemployment rather get back to work.

‘State of emergency’ no more

More than two years after Beshear declared a COVID state of emergency for the entire commonwealth, the declaration finally ended when the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of a resolution lifting the emergency. Since the governor’s executive order issued on March 2, 2020, the state has remained in a constant state of emergency - an extreme measure meant to help the government deal with short-term crises. Instead, the commonwealth’s citizens have had their constitutional rights and freedoms suspended for over two years with Beshear having given no indication as to when he would end the emergency state. According to the resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, John Hopkins University reviewed 24 studies and found that the lockdown only prevented COVID deaths by 0.2% while the social harm to our country has been immeasurable.

Voting machine restrictions approved

House Bill 216, which ensures election voting machines cannot be hooked up to any network or communicate with any other device, has passed both chambers. It also increase the amount of time machines have to be locked from voting after an election from 10 days to 30 and requires the machines to be held under video surveillance for that period of time.

Places of worship officially ‘essential’

A religious freedom bill also passed both chambers this week. The legislation includes places of worship as an “essential service,” excluding religious organizations from lockdown during a state of emergency when other “essential services” are open. The bill was filed in response to Beshear ordering state troopers to write down license plate numbers and removing people from churches following the governor’s executive order closing places of worship during the height of the COVID pandemic.

Prescription for rural hospitals approved

A loan forgiveness bill seeking to alleviate fiscal burdens faced by rural hospitals has passed through the full House and is on the Senate Consent Calendar. Rural hospitals took a hit when then-Governor Steve Beshear unilaterally expanded Medicaid eligibility, increasing the number of people enrolled. The fact that Medicaid doesn’t reimburse at the rates as generous as private insurance for the same procedures places a financial strain on hospitals, which took another hit when Gov. Andy Beshear shut down elective procedures due to COVID concerns, eliminating a large source of their revenues.

BIPPS was critical of a $35 million mostly forgivable loan granted to the University of Louisville for the purchase of the failing Jewish Hospital, especially at a time when rural hospitals were struggling. This loan program will give much-needed relief to keep our rural hospitals afloat.

The legislative update is comprised by Sarah May Durand, director of government affairs for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions. She can be reached at sarahmaydurand@freedomkentucky.com.