Need a good news story?
This is what you get when a Democratic Governor plays hard ball to win ... and Governor Beshear -D did it with bipartisan support for education in the KY House against the Republican controlled State Senate. The show down was all about education.
There will be NO cuts to the education budget in KY.
For a good news story and epic Republican Senate Leader fail join me over the bump.
From a KEA Union email alert:
Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville) has consistently advocated for cutting school funding. His lack of willingness to reach an agreement resulted in the regular session adjourning with no agreement, a special session being called, and that special session would likely have stretched into the future.
A bit of background, Senate Pres. Williams was pulling this crap as part of his bid to run for governor against our guy, Beshear. LOL Williams is a cynical, idiot. He saw Rand Paul win and probably got visions of Koch money dancing in his head with a mind to becoming a Kasich/ Walker/ Snyder mini-me.
What he forgot about was us -- his KY constiuents. KY may vote conservatively at a federal level, but touching education is turning out to be almost a 3rd-rail in this state. Last year, Governor Beshear was even able to get support for raising taxes to keep from reducing funding to education.
And, the House Republicans know this. While Williams was throwing his trantrum about a future Medicaid shortfall and the need to "fix that" with across the board cuts, now, House Republicans kept meeting with our Governor to find a solution that would keep them from having to side with William's plan to cut education.
As an aside, after sending an email to our Republican House Rep., I actually got a call from her to talk about the situation. I'm just a teacher in her district, but she wanted to get a feel for how things were "playing" back home. She knows I'm a liberal Dem, but we've gotten to know each other over the years with her visits to our school for government class presentations. She's pretty much the type of old-time Republican we used to deal with before their party went bat-shit crazy, and she is a real lion for education. I asked her if she was getting emails and calls. She said she was "getting a ton of them." I told her the truth about what I've been hearing.
It's been pretty extraordinary, actually. I've even been getting calls from parents worried sick that our school might be hurt, and asking ME how "I'm holding up." They want me to know that they've been calling and emailing ... wanting me to know that they really appreciate what our school does for their children and that they are plenty mad about what was going on in Frankfort. LOL I heard things like ... "if they think Kentucky is going to be like Detroit with 60 kids in a classroom, they have another thing coming!" Many comments have been along the lines of, "we have been working hard to make our schools the best in the nation for 10 years, now, and if they think we're going back they are are nuts." I even had the pleasantly bizarre experience of having a mother hug me after a parent meeting about her son's poor behavior, and this morning, a father declared my teacher partner and I "saints" for how we have been working with them to help their ADHD son at the end of our parent meeting.
I gotta tell you, THIS is a pleasant and surprising change. But back to the political drama:
Throughout both sessions, the House has been just as firm in its dedication not to cut school funding. HB 1 as originally passed by the House on Monday, March 21 balanced Medicaid within the Medicaid budget, not requiring any cuts in education.
The Seante still rammed through their bill along party lines. This occasioned emails from our Superintendent and Union (who BTW were fighting together) for all of us to brace for big cuts and to come up with a contingency plan. We even stepped up our STEM student project being done with our custodians to study how we could further cut energy costs to save Special Ed Aid jobs. We told the kids that we were going to try to reduce further copy costs, and the kids stepped up to give it try to do more note-taking and write faster. (You have to love it when your kids "get it" about trying to keep class sizes smaller.)
A BTW about class-size: Ask your children! THEY know they want smaller classes. They know that a teacher is the KEY resource in a classroom, and if there are more kids, they have to compete with each other for more access to that resource.
But, back to the big, grown-up fight:
The House spent much of the day on Thursday in recess, while House leaders from both parties conferred, met with House members, and met with Governor Beshear.
After 10 p.m. last night, the House convened and surprised many observers by agreeing to the Senate version of HB 1. They did this only after Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins (D-Sandy Hook) read aloud a letter from Governor Beshear pledging that he would line item veto the portion of HB 1 that would cut education funding.
After that important vote, the House then adjourned sine die, effectively ending the special session and making it impossible for the General Assembly to override the Governor's line item vetoes.
Result? No cuts to education. Republican Williams goes down in flames, and he gets to run on the platform that, "I tried to cut education in KY, and I failed."
ROFLMAO.
If you would like to join me in congratulating Governor Beshear, here is his email:
Thank you, Governor Beshaer for fighting the good fight for education!