Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed two prominent bills passed in the state legislature by a Republican majority. One is Senate Bill 1, a sweeping education bill that among other things shifts decision-making away from KERA-era school-based decision-making councils. The other is House Bill 9, the charter schools legislation, which the Governor cited as unconstitutional.
As deadlines loom, the legislature will reconvene for two days next week to consider legislation still waiting for consideration and to consider veto overrides.
Senate Bill 1
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a bill that would shift key school governance decisions to superintendents and away from school-based decision-making councils.
Those provisions — a top priority for Senate Republicans — reflect the clear divisions between the Democratic governor and GOP lawmakers over some high-profile education policies. The GOP-dominated legislature will have a chance to override the veto when lawmakers reconvene April 13.
The sweeping education bill also would designate a set of historical documents and speeches to incorporate into classroom work — a response to the national debate over critical race theory.
In his veto message, Beshear said the bill represents a “step backward” for public education.
Governor vetoes two education bills (Kentucky Today photo)
The multilayered legislation would give superintendents more authority to choose curriculum. Also, the selection of school principals would ultimately be put in the hands of superintendents.
Supporters say that assigning curriculum and principal hiring decisions to superintendents would strengthen public accountability for key decisions that determine school and student success. Those superintendents are hired and fired by locally elected school boards.
The bill’s critics worry that consolidating more authority with superintendents would weaken the influence of teachers and parents in school decision-making.
The governor said in his veto message that the bill “lessens, if not eliminates, the participation and input of parents” when decisions are being made on shaping curriculum and hiring principals.
School-based decision-making councils were created by the landmark Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. The councils include parent and teacher members.
GOP lawmakers decided to insert the hotly-debated provisions dealing with civics instruction into the school governance measure. Beshear said Wednesday that those civics provisions attempt to “dictate how teachers talk about U.S. history.”
Supporters say the two dozen historical documents and speeches listed in the legislation would offer a strong foundation for social studies work by Kentucky’s middle and high school students.
Beshear said the classroom content was selected by a “political body,” not by historians or other scholars. The list, he said, also “excludes the full spectrum of diverse voices that make up our history, including Native American voices.”
Republican Sen. Max Wise has said the selected documents show the “good and bad” of U.S. history. Incorporating them into classroom work reinforces “the American principles” students should be learning, he said during a debate.
He offered assurances that the measure wouldn’t stifle the free speech of teachers or students.
Documents listed in the measure include the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Monroe Doctrine and landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The bill also lists speeches by Abraham Lincoln, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan.
Beshear said the inclusion of Reagan’s speech, delivered during the 1964 presidential campaign, suggests that the bill is “aimed more at politics than at history.”
Critical race theory is an academic framework that examines how racism has shaped public policy and institutions such as the legal system, and how those have perpetuated the dominance of white people in society. Several Republican-led states have banned or limited the teaching of critical race theory or similar concepts through laws or administrative actions.
House Bill 9
After saying two weeks ago that he would veto any charter school legislation that crosses his desk, Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday made good on that promise, as he vetoed House Bill 9 during a Capitol press conference while saying the omnibus abortion bill is still under consideration.
“I’m a proud Kentucky public school graduate, and I owe a debt of gratitude to my teachers that I may never be able to fully repay,” he said before signing the veto message. “I don’t know I’d be where I am today, I certainly know I wouldn’t be who I am today.”
Beshear said the legislation taking money away from public schools and giving them to charter schools is unconstitutional, “and I believe it will be found that way by courts, if this veto is overridden. Kentucky’s Constitution makes it clear that the General Assembly shall, by appropriate legislation, provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the state. Common schools are public schools. Public taxpayer dollars, I believe, under the Constitution can only go to public schools.”
He also decried what he said was sending taxpayer money to charter school boards that are not elected, not answerable to the people, and with little oversight. “They’re not even required to comply with the same controls and accountability measures as our public schools.”
Beshear pointed out that Jefferson County and Northern Kentucky are improperly and unconstitutionally singled out, “Requiring them to authorize charter schools within a certain time frame. Picking out one of two areas is exactly how the last bill got declared unconstitutional, and why the Injunction is still in place.
Jim Walters of the Bluegrass Institute issued a statement on the action.
“In vetoing legislation funding charter schools in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear today stated he’s ‘against’ these public schools, claiming they’re ‘wrong for our Commonwealth,’” Walters stated.
“What’s really ‘wrong’ here is that the governor is siding with self-interested teachers’ unions, education establishment bureaucrats and other special-interest elitists while denying the neediest among us the opportunity for a better education and a brighter future.”
He added, “The only ‘right’ thing for lawmakers to do is to allow, encourage and welcome these schools to our Commonwealth by overriding Beshear’s special-interests veto.”
Still on his desk
One of the many bills that are still on the governor’s desk is House Bill 3, the omnibus abortion bill.
“I am still reviewing it,” Beshear said. “There are concerns for situations you see as a prosecutor, when a 12- or 13-year-old girl is raped and impregnated by a family member. They deserve options, and I am more than a little concerned that House Bill 3 would give them none. In fact, it might require that victim to go to the actual perpetrator to ask if they can have options. I think the vast majority of Kentuckians think that’s wrong.”
He also said he is continuing to review the Executive Branch budget bill, House Bill 1, a 249-page document.
The governor has line-item veto power over budget bills, meaning he can veto individual provisions but let the rest of the measure stand. He said he is talking with lawmakers, their staff members, as well as his staff, for possible errors that he can delete.
Kentucky Today and Staff report
