Senate confirms Beshear’s state education board, but not the chairman

Kentucky’s Republican-controlled state Senate confirmed all of the voting state board of education members appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear, with the exception of board chairman and former Democratic senator David Karem.

Karem, of Louisville, as a lawmaker helped craft the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act and had previously served on the state board of education. He lost his board seat by a 17-17 vote Wednesday night. There were either nine or 10 votes against the other board members’ confirmation. Karem could not immediately be reached for reaction.

Senate President Robert Stivers earlier on Wednesday reversed his previous position and said he was supporting the state Senate’s confirmation of Beshear’s appointments to the Kentucky Board of Education for the sake of consistency.

The board is in the midst of dealing with the unprecedented coronavirus school shutdown and is trying to hire a new commissioner of education.

“This is not the time and place to take these individuals out,” Stivers, R-Manchester, said Wednesday in a speech, several hours before the final vote.

Beshear on Thursday at his daily news conference on the pandemic thanked Stivers for his support of the confirmations which he said would create stability in finding a new commissioner. He said he was disappointed that Karem is no longer on the board. Beshear said Karem had “sacrificed and given so much to this Commonwealth.”

The state Senate had to confirm appointees to the state education board, which oversees K-12 public education, before the General Assembly adjourned Wednesday if they were to stay in place.

Beshear had said it was his hope that the Senate would preserve the continuity of the current board’s work by confirming the appointments.

Stivers and other Republican leaders had fought Beshear’s reorganization, filing Senate Bill 10 that would prevent the board reorganization. It did not move in the General Assembly.

Any person not confirmed by the Senate members can’t be reappointed by Kentucky’s governor for two years.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said in a floor speech he was voting no on the confirmations with the exception of former University of Kentucky President Lee Todd because there were no Republicans among Beshear’s appointments to the new state education board.

Allison Slone, a teacher who was a non-voting advisory member of the Kentucky Board of Education, on Tuesday in a Twitter post said the Kentucky Senate should confirm the state board members so the positive work already started finding a new state commissioner of education can continue.

“Not doing so could potentially have devastating impacts on the growth of our public ed system in the middle of a world crisis,” Slone said, noting the esteemed educators and former lawmakers on the board.

When he took office in December, Beshear, a Democrat, appointed all new members of the state board of education with people who were advocates of public school teachers and education.

Former members of the board, appointed by former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, and viewed as charter school friendly, have filed lawsuits to regain their seats but have so far been unsuccessful in court.

The former members issued a statement Thursday calling the Senate’s confirmation of the new board members “a fiasco.”

“This fiasco is also the result of Gov. Beshear’s dismissal of our recent compromise proposal in which he would appoint a majority of the Kentucky Board of Education members in exchange for allowing the minority of members with unexpired terms to serve out their tenures before appointing their replacements,” they said.

“The governor dismissed our offer out of hand, so now we’re asking the court to ensure the law is followed and to help us remove the political poison so that it doesn’t continue to infect the board-appointment process moving forward,” the former members said.

Beshear had said his appointees should be able to serve out at least a year.

Kevin C. Brown, interim Kentucky Education Commissioner, said he “was pleased that the Kentucky Senate confirmed 10 of the 11 members of the Kentucky Board of Education, which provides much needed continuity and consistency in education during these uncertain times.”

“We look forward to continuing our work with them as we focus on educating, feeding and supporting Kentucky’s students during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as the important work of searching for the next commissioner of education,” he said.

“While we are disappointed that the ex officio teacher and ex officio Education and Workforce Cabinet secretary positions were not confirmed, this will not change KDE’s interaction with the cabinet secretary and lieutenant governor or with our teachers,” Brown said.

“Finally, while I greatly respect and support the confirmation process and authority of the Kentucky Senate, I am stunned that a former member of that body who was also a long standing leader in the senate and an author of KERA was not confirmed,” Brown said.

“We owe a great deal of gratitude to Chairman Karem’s leadership and dedication to improving public education in the Commonwealth over the past four decades.”

The vacancy on the board will be filled by Beshear; the appointee will fill the remainder of Karem’s term, which expires in April 2022. Following the board’s bylaws, vice chairwoman Lu Young will serve as chairwoman until the board conducts annual elections for chairperson in August 2020.

The Senate did not vote on the portion of Beshear’s executive order that added two ex officio seats to the board for the secretary of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet and for an active elementary or secondary school teacher. Those seats were held by Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, the cabinet secretary; and Slone, a special education teacher in Rowan County.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 12:28 PM.