The Repubs in Frankfort have come up with a novel approach to passing even more bad legislation: take a bill that’s already bad and pass a committee substitute that adds another bill to the first bill, then pass the whole pile of excrement at once.
SB 1, the anti-SBDM bill, was already bad. It removes power from the site-based decision-making councils that were established as part of KERA, and hands that power to the superintendents. In its latest form, it gives even more power to superintendents, especially the superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools. (When asked about it, the current JCPS super, Marty Pollio, said he had not been consulted, did not know they had added these things to the bill, and frankly didn’t want the extra power.)
Then you’ve got SB 138, Sen. Max Wise’s anti-CRT teacher censorship bill, that tries to have its cake and eat it too, by sort of acknowledging racism in the past but insisting that “that’s not who we are now.” Plus, of course, dictating curriculum down to the actual document level.
So what do the Repubs, in their infinite wisdom, decide to do? They take the main language of SB 138 and stuff it into SB 1, word for word. (Compare SB 138 with page 34 of the House Committee substitute to SB 1.)
Oh, and just for fun, the bill also takes out this part of the law about collective bargaining agreements and non-disclosure agreements:
Discretionary authority exercised under subsection (2)(h)2.b. of this section shall not violate provisions of any employer-employee bargained contract existing between the district and its employees. (page 15 of the committee sub)
Senate Bill 1, now pregnant with SB 138, is up in the Senate today for concurrence with the House committee sub. So it looks like the whole thing, Reagan speech and all, is going to pass.
You have to hand it to the Repubs. In their creativity, they have come up with another way to pass more bad legislation even faster.
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