April 7, 2018

Massive showing of teachers could overtake the state Capitol again

If Gov. Matt Bevin exercises his veto power to strike down tax or budget measures favorable to public education, a massive showing of teachers could overtake the state Capitol again.

“What happens next will be affected significantly by what the governor does,” said Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.

The Kentucky legislature — which passed the tax reform and budget bills on Monday amid a raucous teacher protest — is not scheduled to meet again until April 13. Bevin has until midnight on that day to decide whether to veto those bills outright. He also could veto specific items in the budget bill.

Bevin has not said whether he intends to use the veto pen, but in a statement Monday he said both the tax and budget bills did not meet “basic standards of fiscal responsibility.”

The budget bill, in particular, contains several measures lobbied for by the state’s public educators, including an increase to per-pupil funding.

“We have a budget that largely has responded to the priorities that we identified,” said McKim, noting that teachers’ groups were happy to see that most cuts to public education originally proposed under Bevin’s January budget have been restored.

Educators will now be watching to see what Bevin does.
“If the governor makes problematic vetoes in the budget, if he vetoes important things, that could escalate things significantly,” McKim said.

Here’s what we know about what could happen:

Will teachers head back to Frankfort?

The board of directors for the Kentucky Education Association was scheduled to meet Tuesday evening, a day ahead of the group’s annual delegate assembly.

The assembly, which brings together 700 union members from across the state, is taking place in Louisville and lasts through Friday. The group’s next steps are sure to be discussed during the meeting, a union official said.

McKim said the Jefferson County Teachers Association plans to have a contingent of educators in Frankfort on the final days of the legislative session — April 13 and 14 — regardless of what actions Bevin takes.

Legislators’ first day back is a Friday, and Jefferson County Public Schools will no longer be on spring break.

McKim said the union has a “robust retired organization” that will make the trip to Frankfort. There may also be some teachers who “choose to take a personal day,” he said.

“If there are really problematic vetoes, it might be more of an escalated kind of scenario,” McKim said. “A turnout like (Monday’s rally) is possible.”

The public education advocacy group Save Our Schools Kentucky has already reserved the Capitol rotunda for the final two days of the session, according to Gay Adelmann, the group’s co-founder.

“We will be ready for whatever they have planned,” she said.
Are teachers and their supporters satisfied with the current budget?
Lost in the noise of Monday’s massive rally was the fact that the budget satisfied many teachers’ demands — including restored funding for schoolbased resource centers and student transportation.

“Clearly the engagement statewide of so many educators and their allies has made a huge difference in what we saw as the final budget,” McKim said.

But education advocacy groups including the Prichard Committee said lawmakers need to invest further.

“Cuts to preschool services and other supports for teaching and learning, like professional development and instructional materials, will create barriers to student success,” said Brigitte Blom Ramsey, the group’s executive director.

The legislature should work to find more revenue for education by passing additional tax reform before the session ends, Ramsey said.
What happened to this session’s school-choice bills?

A year after passing a controversial charter school law, Kentucky lawmakers were tasked this session with agreeing on a way to fund the state’s charter schools.

Going into Monday, funding for charter schools was included in the Senate’s version of tax reform. But by the time the legislature passed a tax bill, the funding had vanished.

“We’re disappointed it didn’t come through,” said Joel Adams of the Kentucky Charter School Project.

Also not included in the legislature’s tax overhaul was language for a scholarship tax credit program.

The program would have provided tax credits to individuals and businesses who donate money to private school scholarship funds.
Supporters of the bill say it would allow more low-income families to choose schools to best serve their children’s needs. The bill’s opponents say the tax credits would drain needed money from the state’s general fund.

Andrew Vandiver, associate director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, lobbied for the bill.

“I have sat in dozens of meetings with legislators over the last two years in which they said our issue should be handled in tax reform,” Vandiver said. “For the legislators to now go back on that commitment is extremely disappointing for all of these families that called and expressed their desire that Kentucky pass a school-choice law.”

Vandiver said groups in support of the tax credit program aren’t giving up. He said he expects many legislators to receive calls from supporters of the program over the next week.

“We’re not accepting ‘no’ for an answer,” he said. “The General Assembly has two more legislative days that it can come back in and it can pass this bill if it wants to.”

How will this affect elections this November?

On Tuesday, the Jefferson County teachers union asked its members through a Facebook post whether they would use a yard sign that read “Education Voter – I WILL Remember in November!”

By Wednesday morning, the post had received nearly 250 “likes.”
The union also posted a link instructing members to register to vote.
Chants about voting were a constant refrain at Monday’s rally in Frankfort, with hundreds of teachers threatening to vote lawmakers out of office who didn’t comply with their demands.

At the same time, educators across the state have mounted campaigns of their own.

Adelmann said Save Our Schools has helped to recruit 40 educators to run for office since last year.

Adelmann, a parent of a Jefferson County Public Schools graduate, has signed up to run herself. She is running against state Sen. Julie Raque Adams, a Louisville Republican.

“We recognize that not all of us are going to win,” Adelmann said. “But there is such a war on public education right now that we cannot afford to have people running unopposed without hearing what’s really going on.”

By Mandy McLaren
Louisville Courier Journal