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Lawmakers gaveled in the 2023 legislative session on Jan. 3, then adjourned until next month.
So far, legislators have filed 200 bills to be considered during the 30-day session which ends on March 30.
In the short first week of the session, legislators in the House quickly passed House Bill 1 which reduces the income tax rate to 4.5% for this year and 4% in 2024. The Senate is expected to pass the bill when the session resumes Feb. 7.
Numerous bills impacting education have been filed, but two bills would have significant impact on school board members.
The bills, HB 50 and SB 50, filed by Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, and Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, respectively, would make local school board seats partisan, with primary elections in county districts. The bills would also apply to other nonpartisan offices such as city councils.
KSBA’s Director of Advocacy Eric Kennedy explained in a Herald-Leader story that changing the office to partisan may be unconstitutional in light of at least two opinions. In the 1989 Rose decision, the Kentucky Supreme Court not only ruled that our system of common schools must not be subject to political influence, it also cited and reaffirmed another ruling from 1956 in which the Court held that our constitution mandates that the system “shall be nonpartisan.”
On KET’s Kentucky Tonight, legislative leaders Sen. President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. David Meade, R-Stanford, said they haven’t yet discussed the bill in caucus. Meade said the impetus for change is parents being even more engaged in schools after COVID-19.
“They want to make sure that those folks that are being elected are of their same ideas and their same beliefs, they want to know where they stand and be more transparent,” Meade said. “I also understand that partisan politics are invading every piece of society right now we want try to keep politics out of as much as possible.”
Stivers said voters want to know a candidate’s party because it defines their beliefs.
“I also understand that people want to try to get away from partisan politics,” he said, “but when you see some of the things that parents have seen during COVID that their children have brought home, through their internet classes, and their homework, it has really raised concern to where people want to be more engaged in this educational form and how critical school board elections are in determining the direction of what way a school goes.”
Kennedy encourages board members to reach out to their legislators about the proposal. At least one board member, a federal firefighter, would have to resign if the bills pass because federal law only allows employees to hold a nonpartisan office.
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