The Kentucky Senate voted Tuesday to require partisan elections for the Kentucky Board of Education – a move that would eliminate the governor’s ability to appoint members of the board.
It’s an about-face from gubernatorial appointments to the board under current law, first passed in 1990 after the state Supreme Court ruled the state’s K-12 education system unconstitutional in 1989. Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson (R-Bowling Green), the sponsor of the proposed state school board changes in Senate Bill 8, says it’s the right move.
“The bill gives voters the chance to make important choices on who is making the broad policy decisions about the education of their youth,” Wilson said before SB 8 came passed the Senate State and Local Government committee Feb. 28. He drew a harder line in calling for passage of SB 8 in the Senate Tuesday.
“The exercise of raw politics can’t occur if voters make their own choices,” Wilson said.
The Senate passed the bill on a 24-14 vote. All Northern Kentucky senators – Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights), Shelley Funke Frommeyer (R-Alexandria), John Schickel (R-Union) and Gex Williams (R-Verona) — voted for the bill, which now goes to the House for its consideration.
Requiring voting members of the state school board to be elected would align with other school board elections in Kentucky, Wilson said in committee last week – although local school board elections are nonpartisan in Kentucky and most other states.
SB 8 would add three voting members to the state board of education for a total of 14 elected voting members instead of 11 voting members now appointed by the governor. Voting members would be elected in staggered terms from each of the state’s seven Supreme Court districts. Non-voting members would remain the same as they are now: the secretary of the state Labor and Education cabinet, the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, a current school teacher and a current student from one of the state’s 171 public school districts.
Elections would be held in 2026 “to coincide with elections of the General Assembly,” Wilson said in committee last week.
Gov. Andy Beshear has called SB 8 “a terrible idea.”
Instead of partisan board members, Beshear in January told reporters “…we need them to be nonpartisan, serving each and every one of our kids.”
During one of his first official acts as governor in 2019, Beshear removed sitting members of the state board of education to make way for new appointments. The move followed a promise he had made to his supporters during his 2019 campaign. Wilson cited the move in his committee testimony last week but said SB 8 is not really about Beshear.
Since the state board of education was established, Wilson said, “Every governor we’ve had since that time has sought to be the governor of education and education policy.”
Asserting a GOP stance on legislative power that has resonated throughout Beshear’s administration, Wilson last week said the state board of education was created by the Kentucky General Assembly, putting the board squarely within the legislature’s purview – politics aside.
“Opponents of this bill say filing a bill like this is due to politics, but I would beg to differ. We created the board, which we have the power to do. And we have the power to change the board,” Wilson said. “I think it’s time that we made them accountable to the people that actually put their kids in our schools. And that’s what this bill would do.”
Rural Kentucky, too, would have more of a say in state education policy under SB 8, Wilson said – calling current board control heavily reliant on what he last week called “executive appointments from Fayette and Jefferson counties. It will geographically make the board diverse. The policies developed will hopefully reflect the broader needs and interests of all Kentuckians.”
To prevent state board members from being easily uprooted, SB 8 would only allow members to be removed by the board “sitting as a court, under oath” in cases of misconduct, inability to fulfill their duties, or “willful neglect.” Members would get a full public hearing before any action is taken and could appeal the decision in state circuit court.
One senator voting against the bill was Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, a Louisville Democrat. Chambers Armstrong, who also voted against the bill in committee last week, said before Tuesday’s vote “party politics have no place in our Kentucky classrooms.”
Chambers Armstrong reminded senators that the same law SB 8 would change was used by the General Assembly to reorganize the state board of education two years ago. Those changes, she said, were made “to ensure (the board) represented the breadth of perspectives in Kentucky.”
“I see no evidence that this change will improve education outcomes or that moving to partisan elections is good for our kids,” she told the Senate.
Rebecca Hanchett is LINK nky’s Frankfort correspondent. You can reach her at rhanchett@linknky.com