LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed an expansive education bill that shifted principal hiring and curriculum authority to Kentucky school superintendents, directed how U.S. history should be taught and limited the Jefferson County Board of Education's authority on meeting dates and spending.
Beshear took issue with every aspect of Senate Bill 1, which passed the House on a 67-29 vote and the Senate on a 21-15-1 vote.
Moving authority to hire principals and set curriculum to superintendents from school-based decision making councils would limit input from parents and teachers who serve on the panels, Beshear said in his veto message.
"Senate Bill 1 weakens the voices of parents and teachers -- those with the most direct contact with students -- in decision-making in their schools," his veto message says. "Many in the General Assembly have voiced their support of the vital role of parents in their children's education. This bill lessens that role and marginalizes parents."
Beshear took issue with language in SB 1 directing how teachers should frame classroom instruction on U.S. history, particularly sensitive subjects that deal with race and gender. He also noted the inclusion of former President Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech during the 1964 presidential election in a list of required readings as evidence that SB 1 "is aimed more at politics than at history."
The governor said discussions on topics like race are already happening among students "with or without adults in our schools."
"Prescribing a rigid approach to what must be 'taught' in those discussions will lessen if not erase them," Beshear wrote in his veto message.
SB 1 would also limit the Jefferson County Board of Education to holding business meetings once every four weeks and allow Jefferson County Public Schools superintendents to spend up to $250,000 on purchases and contracts without board approval, up from the current $20,000 limit.
The legislation "unfairly singles out" JCPS in part by "arbitrarily restricting how often its school board can meet," Beshear's veto message says.
"A governing board should meet however many times it needs to in order to carry out its mission," Beshear said.
Lawmakers can consider overriding the governor's vetoes when the legislature reconvenes April 13 for the final two days of the 2022 session.
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