Second of two parts
It was an honor to serve Boone County in Frankfort this session. Called the “most productive and historic session” in history, I, along with my colleagues in the Senate, were proud to stand with Kentuckians as we passed historic legislation alongside our new House Majority. In November of 2016, citizens from across the Commonwealth gave us a mandate through the electoral process to fundamentally change our state. Voters chose a new House Majority to work alongside the Republican Senate Majority and Republican Governor Matt Bevin—a super trifecta that promised positive change for Kentucky.
The General Assembly passed quite a few Senate priority bills, the majority of which have been signed into law by the Governor, including:
Senate Bill 1, known as the “Let Teachers Teach” bill, sets out comprehensive education reform that will effectively repeal Common Core standards while giving power back to local school districts and teachers. This bill passed both chambers with unanimous, bipartisan support, and is awaiting the governor’s signature to become law.
Senate Bill 2 increases transparency within the public pension system and adds more members to the Public Pension Oversight Board. Senate Bill 3 is another pension transparency measure that requires the disclosures of the retirement benefit information of current and former members of the Kentucky General Assembly.
Senate Bill 4 establishes medical review panels that will ultimately cut back on the number of frivolous lawsuits in our state and save taxpayer dollars.
Sen. John Schickel
Senate Bill 5, a pro-life measure known as the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Act,” prohibits abortions after 20 weeks gestation, except in medical emergency cases.
Senate Bill 6, known as the “Paycheck Protection Act,” keeps union employees’ paychecks from being used for political purposes without their expressed consent.
Senate Bill 8 is another pro-life bill that defunds Planned Parenthood by prohibiting the use of state and local funds for abortions. It establishes a funding priority mechanism for the use of federal funds that places state, county, and local community health clinics first in line.
Senate Bill 11, “The Leeper Act,” lifts Kentucky’s nuclear moratorium to expand our state’s energy portfolio and keeps our state competitive in a global energy market.
Senate Bill 17, known as the “Charlie Brown Law,” preserves students’ rights to political and religious speech in schools. The legislation was inspired, in part, by an incident in which a Kentucky county school removed the scripture verse from their “Charlie Brown Christmas” play due to the threat of a lawsuit. Courts have consistently held, however, that schools have the ability to sponsor and host religious and historical programs.
Senate Bill 50 provides local school districts the opportunity to move the start of the school year closer to Labor Day. This measure would extend the summer break for tourism activities, cut back on schools’ utility expenses, and mitigate heat stress on bus riders.
Senate Bill 120 is criminal justice reform legislation that helps integrate ex-convicts back into the workforce. It would not apply to those who have violent offenses or who have committed sex crimes, among other exceptions. Senate Bill 120 will become law upon the governor’s final signature.
Senate Bill 153 aligns state university funding with the state’s postsecondary education goals by basing funding on how well schools are helping students and the state reach those goals. This new model would be phased in over four years to provide stability to postsecondary schools as they move to this new formula.
We also passed a number of Kentucky House priority bills, some of which have already been signed by Governor Bevin, including:
House Bill 1, known as “Right-To-Work,” prevents employees from being forced to unionize as a condition of employment. Kentuckians have the constitutional right to unionize, and they should have the constitutional right to choose not to unionize. Passing Right-to-Work has already attracted a number of businesses to Kentucky this year.
House Bill 2, pro-life legislation that requires physicians to provide an ultrasound prior to an abortion, ensures providers offer as much information as possible to women considering an abortion. This measure does allow a woman to opt out of viewing the ultrasound or hearing the heartbeat.
House Bill 3 repeals the prevailing wage. Prevailing wage drives up the cost of state government operations as taxpayer-funded projects are completed at inflated rates. The prevailing wage was an irresponsible use of taxpayer money. It is time to let the market decide rates.
House Bill 14, known as the “Blue Lives Matter” bill, makes it a hate crime to violently target law enforcement officials and first responders.
House Bill 333 will finally hold heroin traffickers accountable for their crimes. This bill is still awaiting a final signature from the governor before it becomes law, but it passed the Senate and the House with bipartisan support.
House Bill 520 allows for public charter schools. After eight years of passing charter policy through the Kentucky Senate only to watch it die in the House, our Commonwealth became the 44th state to offer charters as a publicly funded option for educating our children.
We built in many protections in our model to prevent charters from selectively enrolling students in ways that do not benefit the school district as a whole. Our model requires that only Kentucky-certified teachers with the same credentials as current educators can be used for student instruction. Public charter schools must follow the same health, safety, civil rights, and disability rights requirements that are applied to all public schools. In addition, a Kentucky public charter can adopt any and all of the regulations of current schools if they wish.
House Bill 471 addresses funding for charters. School districts currently use an allocation model that promotes educational equalization, equity, and adequacy based on the needs of its schools. For charter funding, a similar allocation model distributes a proportionate student allotment to the charter school based on the same factors. No siphoning away of public school funds occurs as money follows the students to whichever public school they choose to attend.
Charter advocates range from former President Barack Obama to current Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin. I firmly believe that Kentucky charters will benefit children and families through bold and innovative teaching and learning models. Charters will flourish where they are demanded with oversight by local school boards and through the continued work of quality Kentucky teachers.
It is clear the 2017 Session is one for the history books. We passed laws that attract businesses to our state instead of pushing them away. We kept our commitment to Kentucky families by opening up new education possibilities, strengthening laws to protect our children, and giving minors in state care more opportunities to successfully transition into adulthood. We fought for more transparency in the state pension system to uphold the integrity of government. With the Kentucky Senate, House, and Governor working together, we delivered for the people of our great Commonwealth.
Although the 2017 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly has come to an end, there is still much to do. Interim joint committees will begin meeting in June and discussing various policy topics that affect our Commonwealth. There has also been much discussion about a special legislative session to discuss tax reform and our failing pension system, and I look forward to continuing those conversations in these upcoming months.
Senator John Schickel (R-Union) represents the 11th District in Boone County. He serves as chairman of the Senate Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee; as well as a member of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee; Judiciary Committee; Natural Resources and Energy Committee; and the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary.
Sen. Schickel, I’m certainly glad I don’t have you representing me in the Senate, although my Senator is only a smidge better. You can put all the spin you want on what the Senate has accomplished but I feel very differently. The question is: How many years back in history is the Legislature and Governor trying to drag this state? There were a few good bills: SB120 wiping some of the stigma away from felons who have served their sentences and need to insert themselves back into society, HB410, driver licenses that comply with federal standards. SB50 addressing a later school year. SB11 regarding approval of nuclear power in the state. There were a lot more bad bills than good, for example: The war on women bills; SB5, SB8, and HB2. The war against Louisville bills; SB107 and SB222. The war against public education bills: SB17, HB128, and HB520. The war against the working stiff: HB1 and HB3. The war against the universities: SB12 and SB107. SB4 which adds another layer of bureaucracy to medical malpractice suits. HB14, not because its a bad bill but because someone decided to label it “Blue Lives Matter” and gives a backhand to the African American community. HB72 which attempts to block the little guy from his ability to challenge the big developers and finally, SB75 which allows even more money into politics. I noticed you never even tried to put a spin on this last one. There were several bills that did not pass and deservedly so. Socially, I think we have managed to rejoin the solid south and pull Kentucky back to about the fifties.