Commentary

The General Assembly has adjourned, and thousands of protesting teachers have left the Capitol and gone back to their classrooms. But the battle for public schools and universities in Kentucky has just begun.

We are seeing an increase in attacks on public schools, and even on the very concept of public education. In fact, it appears that some people, mainly Republicans, want to destroy public education. Why? I believe there are three reasons.

Never in the almost 28 years that Kentucky has had an appointed education commissioner has any governor flexed the kind of raw political muscle that Matt Bevin used to oust Stephen Pruitt.

The guy installing solar panels on Dr. Larry Tenkmen’s roof told him about a bill in the legislature that would make it harder for homeowners to afford adding solar energy to their house. “First I just tried to make sense of it,” says Tenkman. “Why in God’s name would anyone do that? It’s crazy.”

Dear Governor Bevin – After all the ways we have disagreed, it is nice to be able to say that for once, we agree with you about something. We fear, though, that the agreement will be short-lived.

The legislative members of The New Kentucky Project—an initiative founded to promote the introduction of new ideas and new leaders into Kentucky’s stale political system—offered a scathing critique of both the disastrous policies and lack of transparency produced by this session of the Kentucky General Assembly.

This is what democracy looks like when the Republicans hold the majorities in the House and Senate and the governor's office. This is Republican "democracy."

Lurking behind all this anti-worker legislation is a painfully inconvenient truth: Some of my union brothers and sisters helped put the Republicans in charge in Frankfort. Some teachers did likewise.

Tonight, in the halls of democracy, Kentucky Republicans took democracy and drowned it in a bathtub of sewage. And note I didn't say "Republican leadership" as I usually do. Every Republican in Frankfort deserves to have this pension bill travesty, this treachery, laid at their feet.

On Tuesday, state Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, unexpectedly announced an end-of-session schedule shift, purportedly to give lawmakers more time to hammer out a budget.   Liles Taylor, the Kentucky State AFL-CIO political coordinator, isn’t buying it.

We don't like to share hints and rumors, but this one seems important if true. Word came from Frankfort yesterday that Republicans are considering "doing a Kansas" on our tax system. Basically, that means raising the sales tax.

The KYGA budget conference committee is 20 white males. Nothing wrong with white males – but last I checked, there are some women living in Kentucky. And some people of color, too. Unfortunately, though, Dems in Frankfort have kept leadership to one gender and race. And that's a problem.