Despite an outcry from hundreds of students, the full state Senate on Monday removed the non-voting student and teacher seats on the Kentucky Board of Education.
House Bill 178, which passed the Republican-majority Senate by a 29-7 vote, also requires that the governor appoint a balance of members on the board from a political affiliation, gender and minority standpoint. It now goes back to the House for approval before it can be sent to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
The student and teacher seats were created last year.
But on March 11, the Senate Education Committee removed the seats in a committee substitute, leading to a social media movement from “The Kentucky Student Voice Team” called Save our Seats. Within hours, hundreds of students, educators, and others voiced support of student and teacher seats on the Kentucky Board of Education.
“The Kentucky Student Voice Team is devastated to learn…that so many members of our state Senate do not support such a basic expression of student and educator voice,” the team said in statement after the full Senate vote. “The representation of students and teachers on the Kentucky Board of Education is less about the board itself and more about the need to shift power to young people and educators in every classroom, school, and education decision-making space.”
Students said they should be on Kentucky school panels ranging from school based decision making councils to the state Board of Education.
“We are the primary stakeholders of our education system, a fact that this vote denies. Our team will keep pushing for student and educator voice through grassroots and legislative advocacy. We will ensure that our schools cultivate democracy and work towards a more just Commonwealth,” the team’s statement said.
Allison Slone, who holds the non-voting teacher position on the board, said after the vote that “today’s decision by the Senate to remove the teacher and student seats from the Kentucky Board of Education is a step backwards for our state.”
“Kentucky was leading the way by valuing the perspectives, ideas, and solutions oriented mindsets of both a practicing teacher and a current student,” said Slone.
“It’s about ensuring those seats are available for many years to come. It’s about bridging the gap between decision makers and practitioners. It’s about rebuilding trust and building relationships so that decisions made and legislation passed is directly related to the success of our students, the future of the commonwealth, and the growth of our economy. If our legislators can’t see that, I welcome a conversation to discuss the direct correlations,” said Slone.
Slone said she and the student provided a bipartisan approach.
At the March 11 Senate Education Committee meeting, Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, said students and teachers already have multiple opportunities to have their voices heard through committees and other ways. He said being appointed by the governor puts them in a “precarious position” in that their viewpoints might have political influences. He said the high school student voices might be scripted by adults.
Wilson reiterated on the Senate floor that there were plenty of avenues for students to have their voices heard and that retired teachers could be on the Kentucky Board of Education.
At the committee meeting, Chuck Truesdell, director of government relations at the Kentucky Department of Education, told the committee that department officials were in favor of keeping a teacher and a student on the state board. Fourteen other states have an acting teacher on their board and 20 other states have an acting student, he said.
“We think that lends a very important voice,” said Truesdell. Seven of the 11 current voting members on the state education board appointed by the governor represent Supreme Court districts and the other four represent the state at-large. Aside from wanting to keep the student and teacher seats, Truesdell said the state education department supported requiring balance among state education board members.
On Monday, Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, filed a floor amendment to save the teacher and student seats but it failed. He said in a floor speech that state universities had students and teachers on their boards.
“They have the most at stake when we talk about education,” he said.
“Where do they (students and teachers) have a voice in the process?” Thomas had said at the committee hearing.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Steve Sheldon, R-Bowling Green, said he could see both sides of the argument regarding student and teacher seats.
Sheldon said that overall, the bill made changes to the Kentucky Board of Education so that members would not be “a political pawn.” There have been multiple Kentucky Education Commissioners in the last few years, two that resigned under pressure from state boards that had been newly appointed by governors.
(Photo courtesy of the Lexington Herald-Leader)
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, the Lexington Herald-Leader
