Fayette school board chair says bill disqualifying him is a ‘slap in the face’
Fayette County Public Schools Board Chair Tyler Murphy said a bill approved by the Kentucky General Assembly that prohibits him from seeking reelection because he is a teacher is “a slap in the face” to voters.
Murphy also told the Herald-Leader that Senate Bill 4 raises serious constitutional questions.
SB 4, passed late Wednesday night by the legislature, says board of education members in large school districts — Fayette and Jefferson counties — can’t also be employees of a board of education if their job requires them to work more than 100 days per year. Murphy is a public school teacher in Boyle County, meaning the bill would prohibit him from running for office this year.
Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat and proponent of public education, said Thursday that the bill was “bad policy.”
Speaking about education bills passed by the 2026 General Assembly, Beshear said Thursday while he had not reviewed them yet, “there’s at least one part of one of those bills that would now preclude any teacher, I believe, from serving on a local board of education at all. And if that’s the case, a board of education that doesn’t allow an educator to sit on it, I think that’s bad policy.”
Beshear has not said whether he will veto the bill. The General Assembly could override a veto.
State Sen. Steve West, R-Paris, sponsor of SB 4, told the Herald-Leader Wednesday that the bill would not kick Murphy out of office immediately.
“It will not affect him immediately,” West said. “He will be able to serve out his term (which ends in 2026), but will not be able to run after that.”
Murphy has been criticized by lawmakers, mostly Republican, for his response to the Fayette County Public Schools’ budget problems in 2025, which included a dwindling contingency fund and an effort to raise an occupational tax that Kentucky’s attorney general found illegal.
After the bill blocking full-time public school employees in Kentucky from serving on the Jefferson and Fayette school boards was passed Wednesday night, Murphy issued a statement criticizing the legislation.
“My students learn the value of civic engagement and involvement every day in my classroom,” Murphy said. “(Wednesday), a majority of the legislature told them that my voice as an educator has no merit on the school board in the community where I live and pay taxes.”
Murphy said this legislation undermines educators’ voices in the two biggest counties and is a “slap in the face to voters who make up one of the most diverse communities in Lexington and who have twice elected me to serve them.”
“We’ve made significant progress as I’ve relied on my insight as a classroom educator to advocate for meaningful investments in our students and schools and strategic initiatives that have led to historic gains in student achievement,” Murphy said.
Murphy said the legislation “obviously raises serious constitutional questions,” and he wishes lawmakers would work with school leaders to help solve problems such as school funding, school transportation, housing, food access and more.
“In that work — the work that matters — they could count me a willing partner,” Murphy said.
Murphy on Friday morning told the Herald-Leader that he was “carefully reviewing the matter and am not in a position at this time to discuss specific next steps.”
“I remain focused on representing the people in my district who elected me to serve and continuing to build on the important work we’re doing to support students,” he said.
SB 4, in its original form filed by West, was simply a principal training bill. However, the House made changes to the legislation that included the provision affecting Murphy.
This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 4:20 PM.
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