Ky. ed commissioner to seek face time with legislators before confirmation deadline

The newly hired Kentucky Education Commissioner is looking to get in front of as many Senators as possible in the lead-up to the first Senate confirmation of the position.

At least that’s what Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, the legislator who filed the resolution to confirm Robbie Fletcher as the state’s top education official, told Fletcher to do.

“I have encouraged (Robbie) Fletcher to contact and have face-to-face contact with as many Senators as possible between now and April 12,” Wheeler told the Herald-Leader in a Monday night email.

Under a new law, Kentucky’s state Senate must confirm the state board of education’s hiring of Fletcher, currently the Lawrence County Superintendent, as commissioner.

Fletcher would replace Jason Glass, who resigned last year after Republican leaders called for his ouster because of the Kentucky Department of Education’s inclusive LGBTQ policies.

Wheeler said based on his conversations with the head of the Senate Education Committee and others, a hearing before the education committee will occur either April 12 or April 15 prior to the vote on Fletcher’s confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, has also told reporters that a hearing could occur during the 10 day veto period.

“I’m sure there’ll be an opportunity for us next week to decide whether or not Mr. Fletcher has a committee hearing during the veto recess or if it’s going to happen on day 59 or 60 (of session),” Thayer said last week.

Senate Majority Director of Communications Angela Billings told the Herald-Leader Tuesday morning that no date and time had been set.

Thayer has also said that Fletcher’s confirmation is not a given.

“As for whether Dr. Fletcher will be confirmed, I am hopeful that this will occur,” Wheeler, the sponsor of Senate Resolution 285, said in his email. “I have had the occasion to work with him over the past five years and can attest to his love and dedication to the children that he serves as Lawrence County Superintendent.”

“I am very proud that an Eastern Kentuckian was selected by the Board for this position. I am advocating for Dr. Fletcher with my colleagues as a friend, constituent, and as a qualified nominee for his confirmation,” said Wheeler.

Fletcher earned a doctorate in educational leadership and administration from Morehead State University in 2013.

Like Wheeler and Fletcher, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, is also from Eastern Kentucky. Stivers told the Herald-Leader previously that he’s known Fletcher “for several years” but did not state his position on Fletcher’s confirmation.

Fletcher did not immediately comment Tuesday but he said in a post on X that he looks “forward to the opportunity of earning ALL of our legislators’ trust in order to accomplish great things, together, for our students.”

For Fletcher to be confirmed, the resolution supporting him would need to make it through a Senate committee, then called for a Senate floor vote — processes generally controlled by such Senate GOP leaders as Stivers, Thayer and Majority Whip Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green — and approved by a majority of the Senate.

The commissioner of education is the chief state school officer who oversees daily operations of the Kentucky Department of Education and acts as superintendent of the Kentucky School for the Blind, the Kentucky School for the Deaf and the 50 area technology centers.