Kentucky Senate leaders set priorities

Published 11:15 am Thursday, January 7, 2016

FRANKFORT — Senate Republican leaders Wednesday identified their legislative priorities for the 2016 General Assembly, topped by a bill to lessen the time teachers spend on compliance and returning more decision-making to local districts.

The other priority bills essentially reflect those of past years: legislation to provide more transparency for the pension systems; informed consent before an abortion; medical review panels to settle malpractice claims; right to work legislation; repeal of prevailing wage requirements on state projects; a constitutional amendment to move statewide elections to even-numbered years; and a bill to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and ban sale of fetal tissue.

There is also a bill to remove county clerks’ names from marriage licenses to accommodate those who object to same-sex marriage.

There was no mention of charter schools, but Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, who is sponsoring the education bill, said such legislation will likely come later in the session.

Wilson said Senate Bill 1 is a response to “a quagmire of instructional compliance” created by state and national standards and assessment. He said five years after passage of the last major state education reform — also championed by the Republican Senate — there is “no appreciable” increase in the number of students attending post-secondary education.

Later upon questioning, Wilson said assessments indicate Kentucky students are graduating high schools better prepared for post-secondary education or career but no more are attending college or securing good jobs. He acknowledged that may in part be due to the rise in tuition costs during that same time frame.

The bill “will free up teachers to do more of what they love” — teaching, Wilson said. “Right now they’re bound up with a lot of extraneous filling out of reports. This will relieve them of a lot of those compliance issues.”

Wilson’s bill would provide for a review and the possible replacement of the state’s academic standards and largely leave those to local educators. It would reduce state involvement in reviewing the performance of local schools and allow districts to contract with private, outside organizations to improve their schools.

It might lead to replacement of the Common Core academic standards which were developed by educators but have become an unpopular symbol of the federal governments “overreach” into public education as Wilson described it Wednesday.

Later, he sidestepped questions about whether that would allow local schools and boards of education to teach “intelligent design” theories of the universe rather than natural selection or evolution. He said he believes local educators and districts already have that authority.

After Wilson briefly outlined highlights of the bill, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, took to the floor, proclaiming the measure is not designed to make a political statement and pleading with Democrats to review the bill and offer suggestions.

Afterward, Wilson told reporters the legislation would create panels of local teachers and representatives of higher education to review academic standards and assessment systems for elementary, middle and high schools.

Wilson said the Kentucky Department of Education has seen the bill and “has had some feedback,” but he didn’t elaborate. He said he had not discussed the bill with the Kentucky Education Association but he planned to do so on Thursday.

Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, called the package of priority bills “a statement of principles,” adding that Republican senators believe their principles reflect those of Kentucky voters.

Many of the conservative issues have been passed previously by the Senate only to die in the Democratically controlled House, but the Democratic majority has fallen to only 50-46 pending four special elections on Mar. 8 to fill four vacancies.

That has some Republicans hoping for a better reception in the House this time.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.