Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman came to Holmes High School in Covington on Wednesday to speak to government classes about the political process and issues on the students’ minds.
Coleman was one of several civic leaders invited to speak to the students. Stacy Recker, the government teacher who hosted Wednesday’s event, said Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer (R-Alexandria) and Rep. Stephanie Dietz (R-Edgewood) had already visited the school to speak with students.
Aides from U.S. Sen. McConnell’s (R-Kentucky), Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Kentucky), and Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Kentucky District 4) offices, as well as visits from the members of the district’s board of education, Covington Mayor Joe Meyer and Vice Mayor Ron Washington were on the docket for the coming weeks.
“I think that all of them have done a great job,” Recker said of the officials who had come so far, “because they came in, and they talked about the branch of government and why it’s important and the job that they do, and they left the politics out of it.”
Coleman spent her talk discussing her background–she worked as a teacher and then an assistant principal before running for office–the executive branch’s plans for education and budgets relating to education. She discussed Gov. Andy Beshear’s education plan, which aimed to raise teacher salaries and establish universal pre-K programs, among other measures. She also discussed her efforts to use federal funding to build out mental health services for Kentucky students.
“You are not numbers on a spreadsheet to me because I’ve had kids in class, and I understand what that means,” Coleman said to the students.
Recker asked questions about budgetary procedures, the branches of government, and the peculiarities of Kentucky’s political mechanics, such as the part-time legislature. She also asked about Coleman’s experience as a woman working in high levels of government.
Coleman used the example of the state emergency management office’s actions following the 2021 tornado in Western Kentucky to illustrate how different levels of government worked together.
“In the governor’s office we do not have the budget for emergency management that provides enough money to actually deal with that crisis,” Coleman said. “Emergency Management is an office in the executive branch. So, what we have to do is talk to the legislature about allocating the funding… Then, we mobilize our emergency management people at the state level. But then they have to go into these communities and work with the county judge/executives, the mayors, the local emergency management people. So, there’s the local government piece of it… It all flows together.”
After Recker had finished her line of questioning, the students had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss things on their minds.
One student asked about the condition of the Holmes High School building itself and the construction to repair it, the noise of which she argued was corrosive to learning. She was also critical of the district’s cell phone policy, which prohibits cell phone use, and the dress code.
“All politics are local,” Coleman said.
She encouraged the students to get involved in their communities and stay up to date with what was going on. She also encouraged them to consider running for office when they could.
“You don’t have to become lieutenant governor to make a difference,” Coleman said. “You can run for City Commission. You can run for school board and, buddy, you can make a lot of big decisions that affect this community and make a real difference.”
She said that if ever they were bothered by something going on in the community, they should ask themselves, “How can I get involved in this to make a difference? Because your voice matters.”
Another student asked about the district’s response to recent gun violence. Specifically, she wondered why schools had stayed open in the face of the mass shooting threats that occurred throughout the region shortly after the death of Amani Smith, a Covington student who was killed in late January. Following the circulation of the threats, the district released a statement on their social media pages, stating that the threats didn’t seem credible.
“Well, first of all, I’m sorry that that happened,” Coleman said, adding that she thought younger generations were broadly more emotionally intelligent than older generations.
“But also let me just say that I think this is the reason that we need to continue fighting for mental health professionals in every school district and every school building,” Coleman said.
