Kentucky Senate approves education reform bill

The Kentucky Senate on Wednesday approved legislation that would result in significant changes to public K-12 education in the state, including creating a new review structure for academic standards.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, reiterated that Senate Bill 1 was legislation that “lets teachers teach,” in part by reducing bureaucratic burdens on teachers.

Common Core academic standards, which many states have adopted and were originally the basis for Kentucky’s standards, were not mentioned in floor speeches Wednesday. But Senate Republicans said in the past that they want Kentucky to have its own academic standards.

The bill, approved 25-12 in the Republican-led Senate, now goes to the state House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats.

The bill proposes that beginning in fiscal year 2017-2018, and every six years after that, academic standards and assessments would be reviewed for replacement or revision.

Panels of educators would make suggestions to a standards and assessments recommendation committee composed of 10 members — three appointed by the governor, three state senators appointed by the Senate president, three House members appointed by the House speaker, and the Commissioner of Education. The standards and assessments recommendation committee would make final recommendations to the Kentucky Board of Education.

Critics have said the new review structure for academic standards politicizes the process and that the timing is not right because there are unknowns about what states will be allowed to do under the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

All Democrats in the chamber voted against the measure as did one Republican, Sen. Brandon Smith of Hazard.

Smith said constituents in his district opposed the bill.

Another Republican, Sen. C.B. Embry Jr. of Morgantown, did not vote and did not say why.

After the vote, Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said he did not expect the measure to survive in the House.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, was disappointed that Senate Democrats voted against the bill.

“We wanted to open this up to a very collaborative process and engage our colleagues in the Democratic Party,” he said.

“It disappoints me that they want to basically politicize this by claiming politics.”

Stivers said the Senate “purposely went slow” on the bill to address Democrats' concerns “but they wanted to politicize this.”

He added: “It seems to me they want to be obstructionists.”

Neal had attempted through an amendment to delete all sections of Wilson’s bill and instead establish a task force to study changes for public education with help from an advisory board of public school teachers and higher education representatives. The amendment failed.

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, praised the passage Wednesday. He said with some Kentucky students not meeting national standards in reading and math, fundamental reform is needed.

“Senate Bill 1 delivers that fundamental reform,” he said. “SB 1 places a priority on learning rather than testing.’’

The bill also would return control from the Kentucky Department of Education to local school districts on several fronts, including changes to the statewide teacher evaluation system. The state would continue to establish a statewide framework for an evaluation system, but school districts would develop and implement their own professional growth and effectiveness system.

The legislation would change how the achievement gap of low income, disabled, and students learning the English language are included in the accountability system. Only schools with similar demographics would be compared with each other.

The bill would delete some aspects of Kentucky’s statewide testing system, including a school’s self-evaluation of an instructional program, such as arts and humanities or writing. These are called program reviews. Instead, the principal, school-based council, and superintendent would sign a letter of assurance about arts and humanities, practical living and writing.

Commissioner testifies on budget cuts

Meanwhile, Kentucky's new education commissioner, Stephen Pruitt, told House lawmakers working on the state budget that proposed cuts would hurt school district programs including preschool and efforts to bolster reading and math skills.

Pruitt told state lawmakers on a House budget subcommittee that Gov. Matt Bevin's proposed cuts in the current fiscal year and in the next two years would affect school districts statewide.

He said the full brunt of the cuts can't be totally absorbed at state Department of Education headquarters. The central office accounts for a fraction of the overall education budget.

Pruitt praised Bevin for sparing the state's main funding formula for K-12 education from the cuts.

But in their presentation to the committee, state education officials said the governor's proposed cuts in the current year and in the next two years could affect the jobs of teachers and aides in the areas of reading, math, gifted and talented, preschool, safety officers and family resource center staffs.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Kentucky Senate approves education reform bill."