Well, it's the last full week of the Kentucky General Assembly.

It's here.

Legislators are moving a raft of bills before the veto period begins.

Later this week.

Those bills include legislation that would give parents the ability to challenge school materials and would give the Senate confirmation power over the state's education commissioner.

Our Casey Parker bill reports on the education legislation working its way through the legislative process.

The purpose of this bill is to address the issues that parents think may be obscene.

Senate Bill five establishes a process allowing parents to have materials and programs they find objectionable removed from schools.

Opponents of the measure call it a book ban.

This doesn't seem to be coming from a real incident or something local.

That's that's happened in your community or even in our state that this seems to be part of a national conversation that, you know, has been divisive.

But Kentucky's Senate president says divisive programs and materials are already in Kentucky, referencing an incident at Hazard High School last year.

It was in my backyard that it did happen, that we had what was called talking with one of the administrators in the school system at a play.

If Representative Willner thinks it was appropriate, Governor Andy Beshear condemned it highly.

So it is here.

Senate Bill five allows parents to submit complaints to school principals about materials or programs in the school.

Principals then determine if the content is objectionable or should remain in the school.

Parents can appeal to the local Board of Education if they disagree with the decision.

If the appeal is lost, parents can still request the school, keep the material from their child.

What we are talking about is adult sexual content for children inside the public school building.

The school is not a place that that should be taking place for children.

But Emma Curtis, a trans woman, says the bill will open a pathway to restrict materials relevant to the LGBTQ community.

As a member of that community, it saddens me that so many of our legislators cannot understand the difference between who someone is or who someone loves and sexuality and perversion.

And the executive director of the Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Social Workers says that Senate Bill five could hurt LGBTQ children.

We have a 41%, 41% suicide rate for our amazing LGBTQ children and youth.

41%.

If that was 41% of straight white Kentucky kids, would we be more alarmed?

Senate Bill five was approved by the House Education Committee 6 to 4.

That same committee also approved a bill that would give the Senate confirmation power over the appointment of new state education commissioners.

Unfortunately, what we've seen over the years, as we've seen, every governor tends to believe that they're in charge of the education system.

Governor Andy Beshear reorganized the state Board of Education with an executive order on his first day in office.

Senate Bill 107 would also create a committee to make nominations to the governor for the appointment of new Board of Education members.

It's not a partizan school board.

It's educators school board.

So, I mean, you may say that this is following Cara and keeping politics out of education, but I think it plunks it right down in politics.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm K.C.

Parker Belle.

The full house can now take up Senate Bills five and 107, moving them closer to the legislative process Finish line.