FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) – A bill that would prohibit governors from reorganizing the Kentucky Board of Education and require proportional political representation on the panel advanced to the Senate floor Thursday.
Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, cleared the Senate Education Committee on an 8-3 vote. Senate Minority Caucus Chair Johnny Ray Turner, Sen. Gerald Neal and Sen. Reggie Thomas, all Democrats, voted against the measure.
SB 10 requires the Kentucky Board of Education to reflect the state's political and racial makeup and to have even representation among men and women.
The legislation comes after Gov. Andy Beshear fulfilled a campaign promise by completely reorganizing the state education board on his first day in office and installing a panel comprised entirely of Democrats.
Thomas, D-Lexington, called the bill part of the Republican-led legislature's "subtle but sudden weakening of the executive branch."
"The governor here has done nothing wrong," he said. "... I think Senate Bill 10 is out of line."
But Stivers, R-Manchester, said the SB 10 wasn't an attack at Beshear.
"People will sometimes say it was something directed at Gov. Andy Beshear," Stivers said. "No it is not. It is about institutional integrity of the systems."
Beshear, however, agreed with Thomas's interpretation of SB 10 and others that would diminish the governor's authority in various areas, such as stripping him of the ability to name a transportation secretary.
"A select group of legislators have now filed bill after bill aimed at stripping myself, the new governor, of certain powers," Beshear said after a Capitol news conference. "... When you add all of these different bills up, you can see that this is unfortunately a partisan attack."
Stivers said lawmakers rejected former Gov. Matt Bevin's request early in his administration to expand the board to give him control of the body before members' terms expired.Â
"We said no," Stivers said. "It never had been done in a way that anybody had walked through the door as a newly elected governor and had basically reconstituted the board on an executive order."
Beshear's appointees could be considered for future appointments to the board if SB 10 becomes law even though the legislation would not confirm them to the board. The bill would also remove the only active educator, Allison Slone of Rowan County, from serving as an ex-officio member of the board.
Of the nearly 3.5 million registered voters, 48.6% were Democrats and 42.6% were Republicans as of the end of December.
That would mean six of the 11 gubernatorial appointees to the state education board would need to be Democrats and five would need to be Republicans under SB 10, which sets Dec. 31 as the cut-off date in each year preceding board appointments.
That would be the only major change to the current board composition, but opponents of SB 10 say members of Beshear's board should be allowed to continue to serve.
Kentucky Education Association President Eddie Campbell said lawmakers should confirm Beshear's appointees based on their experience and support for public education in the state.
"The people that are sitting on this board are experts in teaching and learning," Campbell told reporters. "They know and understand what educators go through each and every day."
Most of the 11 former board members have sued Beshear, claiming their removals were illegal because they were kicked off the panel without cause and without due process.
Beshear, who lost a state Supreme Court case as attorney general against Bevin when he challenged his reorganization of various education boards, has relied on that ruling in support of his authority to reorganize the Kentucky Board of Education.
Stivers, during testimony Thursday, noted that Beshear argued against Bevin's reorganizations of various school-related state boards while serving as attorney general. He and Senate President Pro Tem David Givens, R-Greensburg, read excerpts from briefs filed by Beshear in that case.
"Wow," Givens said after a reading. "All of that supports what you're doing with Senate Bill 10."
Beshear, in response, said the Supreme Court determined that he was "wrong" in the case, which also included changes Bevin made to the Kentucky Board of Education by adding non-voting members. Beshear said the education boards at issue in the case were established under the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990.
Lawmakers never offered a bill stripped Bevin of any powers when he reorganized some 90 state boards during his four years in office, he said.
"The only thing that's changed between the last administration and this administration is the last one used the (reorganization) power 90 times and I've used it once, and then the party of the governor has changed," Beshear said.
Attempts by the former board members for injunctions blocking Beshear’s executive order from taking effect have failed in state and federal courts.
SB 10 would take effect immediately upon becoming law.
Copyright 2020 by WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
