Kentucky’s GOP-lead senate struck down Governor Andy Beshear’s budget proposal, which would have added 2.5 billion dollars to the education budget.
The decision has dominated the headlines, but as the Kentucky General Assembly rages on, there are other education-related bills to keep an eye on.
Republican Senator Lindsey Tichenor sponsored ten education-related bills this session. Most focused on ensuring parent involvement and control over curriculum and school leadership.
In an interview by WKYT, Senator Tichner said: “If we put in some stronger accountability measures and make sure that transparency is there so that parents feel good about sending their children to school.”
Senator Tichenor’s Senate bills 161 through 171 aim to slim down the number of administrators at all levels of Kentucky’s education system, which she called “top-heavy.”
Some of the proposed bills focus on local school boards. SB 168 changes the number of parents required on a local school board from two to three, while SB 169 creates new chapters of KRS 160 to establish a process to recall a local board of education member.
Others focus on the content of school curriculums. SB 167 requires cursive writing to be taught in Kentucky elementary schools beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.
SB 171 changes the vote requirement to remove a superintendent from a four-fifths vote to a majority plus one vote. GOP senators have emphasized giving communities more control over their school systems.
With that, Representative. Suzanne Miles filed a “school choice bill” that would allow state money to help fund enrollment at private schools if passed.
Representative Miles explained in an interview with U.S. News: “This has been a conversation for really multiple decades now, so I think it’s time for us to let the voters decide.”
Other school choice-style bills have been struck down in Kentucky. In 2022, the Kentucky Supreme Court rejected a tax credit scholarship voucher program that would have used tax money to help private school students pay tuition. In 2023, the Franklin County Circut Court struck down HB 9, which was an almost identical bill to Miles’s bill.
SB 7, a bill that allows graduates of non-certified schools to receive KEES (Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship) money based on their classic learning test score, has already passed the Senate and must now pass in the House of Representatives.
These bills may shape the future of education in the Bluegrass State, which should serve as a reminder to Kentuckians on both sides to get out and vote.
The Hilltopper is currently tracking the status of these bills; we may have an update in the future.