LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Senate President Robert Stivers filed legislation Tuesday that would protect the Kentucky Board of Education from gubernatorial reorganization and require its membership to be evenly split by gender and reflect the state’s political and racial makeup.
Senate Bill 10 would take effect immediately if passed.
Stivers, R-Manchester, was among Republicans who took issue with Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision to completely reorganize the state education board and fill it with Democratic appointees. Beshear became the first governor to reshuffle the panel since the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 on his first day in office.
Seven of the 11 former members of the board have sued, arguing that Beshear erred by removing them from their seats without cause and deprived them of due process rights. U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove has not ruled on their push for an emergency injunction that would restore them to the education board while the case winds its way through the legal process.
A similar request to block Beshear’s executive order from taking effect, in a lawsuit involving 10 of the 11 former board members, was rejected in Franklin Circuit Court, Kentucky Court of Appeals and Kentucky Supreme Court.
Beshear has relied on a previous Supreme Court ruling in defense of his authority to reorganize the board of education.
If SB 10 becomes law, the Kentucky Board of Education would be treated like university boards in terms of political makeup.
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.
Beshear’s education board is already split between six females and five males and has two minorities in Alvis Johnson and Sharon Porter Robinson. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Kentucky was 12.4% nonwhite as of July 1, 2019.
The legislation would specifically not confirm Beshear’s education board appointees, though they could be considered for future appointments as long as they meet the new composition requirements.
Other members of Senate GOP leadership who have signed on as co-sponsors of SB 10 include President Pro Tem David Givens, R-Greensburg, Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown.
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