music >> We don't need new gun laws.

We need to enforce the ones we have.

That's this bill.

>> Kentucky lawmakers again debate safety and the Second Amendment.

[MUSIC] >> They shouldn't be fearful at work.

>> School expulsion bill looks to protect teachers.

But is the punishment too much.

>> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for this Tuesday, February the 24th.

I'm Renee Shaw, and we thank you for spending some of your Tuesday night with us, bringing money home to Kentucky students and schools.

That's the bottom line.

Boasted by proponents of a plan to take advantage of a federal scholarship tax credit initiative that came about from the so-called one Big, beautiful bill approved by Congress last year.

Details about this in tonight's legislative update.

[MUSIC] Kentucky Republicans, House Bill one, a bill assignment number that indicates the priority level it's given, also lets the state identify eligible scholarship granting organizations, or Sgaus, which could include public schools.

The dollar for dollar tax credit is up to $1,700 a year.

The Kentucky Secretary of State would oversee the registration of the Sgaus and submit the required paperwork to federal authorities.

But Democrats, including the governor, argue the fast tracked measure gives tax dollars to private organizations without public oversight, transparency or accountability.

State Representative Adrielle Camuel, a Democrat from Lexington, says low and middle income families won't benefit and blast the Republican plan as a backdoor voucher system that would disadvantage public schools for the wealthy.

>> The General Assembly is trying to accomplish through a federal tax mechanism, what the voters of this Commonwealth explicitly refused to authorize directly.

This is an end run around the Democratic will of the people.

Rural Kentucky counties already operating on razor thin school budgets, depend heavily on federal title one funding.

I'd a funding and other federal education dollars.

This program structurally disadvantages them for the benefit of private institutions concentrated in urban areas like mine, that most rural families cannot access.

>> Jefferson County Public School educator Tina Bojanowski, a Democrat, voted for the bill and urged public school advocates to form a scholarship granting organization of their own.

>> But the more I read about the federal law, the more I thought about how if we are very intentional, we can ensure that this money can transfer to our public education students.

The only thing that a public school student could not obtain would be tuition, but public school students could receive scholarships for fees, academic tutoring, special needs services, books, supplies and other equipment, room and board uniforms, transportation, extended day services, computer technology, and even internet access for the families at home.

>> Northern Kentucky Republican T.J.

Roberts, who is also a sponsor of House Bill one, reiterated that no state dollars will go to this program and that ultimately it will help Kentucky kids.

>> Every single day that this bill is not law in the Commonwealth.

Students out of Kentucky are benefiting from Kentucky donors in 27 other states.

Every day we hold up on this bill is a day a Kentucky student is denied education, freedom, and the ability to have the best education that they are entitled to.

And on to amendment two.

Amendment two is simply about state tax dollars.

This is a federal tax cut.

Article six, section two of the United States Constitution makes clear that when there is legitimate federal law and legitimate state law that are in conflict, the federal law prevails.

>> House Bill one passed the full House today by a vote of 79 to 17, with one abstention.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration there.

State lawmakers also considered changes to Medicaid eligibility.

Today, a Louisville Republican says House Bill two would reduce costs while covering health care for Kentucky's most vulnerable.

But as our June Leffler reports, local health advocates have some concerns.

>> This Louisville Republican wants to reduce the cost of running the state's Medicaid program.

>> A medicaid budget has nearly doubled, in fact, over doubled over the past five years to an unsustainable level.

>> Congressional Republicans echoed those concerns last year when they passed the big beautiful bill, which mandates new co-pays and work or community engagement requirements for Medicaid recipients.

>> That has a lot of criteria involves community engagement, cost sharing, eligibility integrity.

>> State Representative Ken Fleming proposes House Bill two to mirror those federal changes, but health advocates say it goes too far.

>> Well, there's no question that we must comply with federal law.

It's important to ensure that House Bill two strikes the right balance to protect our health care safety net, to keep eligible Kentuckians enrolled, and to ensure that copays don't reduce access to critical care.

>> House Bill two requires more data matching a process to verify someone's identity, address, and income.

A Louisville Democrat worries this will wrongly kick people off Medicaid.

>> No, my question is why does it immediately lead them to ineligibility with the chance to appeal, as opposed to allowing the individual to provide feedback to correct, perhaps misinformation?

>> They will receive a notice that they need to go through and and verify their status.

Yes, there is an appeals process to go through that, but they will not be taken off immediately.

>> A former state worker says.

Data sources mentioned in House Bill two aren't always correct.

>> Some specifics about that.

The Paris matches are mentioned in there.

That's the Public Assistance Reporting Information system.

Those are updated quarterly.

So the information in those matches is sometimes up to six months old.

>> Last year, the state auditor reported that Kentucky has paid millions to ensure people living outside Kentucky, though other states fell into this trap.

It's one reason Republicans want to better track who's enrolled in the program.

>> And we need to take some corrective action in order to help get a more, more transparent, more accountable, more responsible Medicaid program.

>> House Bill two passed an Appropriations and Revenue Committee in a 14 to 4 vote.

Democrats and one Republican voted no for Kentucky edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Thank you so much.

June.

House Bill two also establishes accountability measures for managed care organizations, or Mcos, as they're often called.

These companies profited off the out of state Medicaid recipients found in the state auditor's report.

Kentucky has some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, but state lawmakers still want to crack down on abortion inducing pills, which can be ordered and mailed in from out of state.

As our Emily Sisk reports, Republican lawmakers say they want to punish the suppliers, not pregnant women.

>> Kentucky's law is clear abortion is illegal, and euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal.

>> State Representative Nancy Tate, a Republican from Brandenburg, speaking today on House Bill 646, which looks to crack down on abortion inducing, life ending drugs.

This comes after the General Assembly passed a bill last year which clarified the state's near-total abortion ban and spelled out which types of medical procedures are not considered an abortion.

Still, Tate said, there is a need for further restriction.

>> This bill is not about ideology, it's about protection and enforceability.

>> HB 646 expands Kentucky's trafficking laws to include the illegal distribution of the abortion inducing drugs, making it a class D felony for the first offense.

The bill also requires health care providers to inform patients of potential complications from the drug, and any patients who experience complications may sue the manufacturer or distributor.

A 2023 study by the Society of Family Planning, a group that supports abortion rights, found that about 8000 women a month received the drug even in states that strongly restricted or banned abortion.

Representative TJ Roberts, the primary co-sponsor of HB 646, said the bill is meant to crack down on suppliers from beyond state lines.

>> Where there is smoke, there is fire.

We know it's happening in Kentucky.

We know there are out of state entities that are trafficking these pills into our Commonwealth, notwithstanding our laws.

>> Representative Tate clarified this bill would not punish pregnant women who take the abortion inducing drug.

She said there are medical exceptions where the pill can be necessary and beneficial.

>> One of them actually has a legal and a lawful purpose, and that's whenever a lady is a miscarriage, that it helps to remove the baby from the womb.

>> Some other conservative pro-life groups joined in for the press conference, citing the medical harm women can experience from these drugs.

>> Something like 11% of cases of women who take the abortion pill have reported serious medical complications, much higher than even a surgical abortion.

>> Along with penalties for abortion inducing drugs.

The bill also creates a new offense for medically assisted aid in dying, classifying that as a class B felony.

HB 646 was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee, where it awaits a hearing for Kentucky edition.

I'm Emily Sisk.

>> Thank you Emily.

The conservative groups touted other legislation as well, including a bill to restrict children under the age of 15 from accessing social media, and another measure to put the Ten Commandments back in public schools.

A bill that cracks down on machine gun conversion devices now heads to the House floor.

So-called Glock switches are already illegal under federal law, and House Bill 299 would make them a crime at the state level as well.

Our Laura Rogers brings us more from today's committee hearing.

>> Good Second Amendment supporters like us always say we don't need new gun laws.

We need to enforce the ones we have.

That's this bill.

>> It's a federal offense to own a machine gun conversion device.

>> What this allows us to do is take these off the street when they're already illegal.

But we currently have no ability to enforce that.

>> That's because these devices are not prohibited under Kentucky law.

And House Bill 299 aims to change that.

>> This bill doesn't make anything illegal that is not already illegal.

All it does is mirror the federal law with respect to these machine gun conversion devices.

>> Also called Glock switches.

They can turn a semi-automatic handgun into an automatic weapon that can fire up to 1200 rounds per minute.

>> We've also had a police officer who was shot with one of these that was prosecuted by the federal government, luckily, and we had two people that took charges on those.

>> Federal prosecution is the only way to hold a perpetrator with this device accountable.

>> Even in Louisville, where we have access to many of the federal resources and we work very well with them, that is not likely to happen on the average incident that we might have.

>> And Chief Humphrey says those incidents are growing.

He testified this morning that Glock switches were believed to be used in two Louisville shootings just last week.

>> We know that this is a growing issue.

>> While supporters of the legislation say it would cut down on violent crime, two Republican lawmakers voted no, citing concerns over Second Amendment violations.

And if these devices would just be replaced by something else.

>> Always stand with our law enforcement.

But I gave my people a word and my word that I would always stand for our Second Amendment right, and my people back home is going to say that we don't have gangs.

We don't deal with that back home.

>> A forced reset trigger on a Glock costs about $60, and I just know that we take these off the streets.

Criminals are going to switch to those.

It's always a moving target.

>> Despite those concerns, the bill did receive wide support in committee.

>> You help keep us safe.

And if this helps in any way, I'm proud to offer my support.

So I am a yes.

>> On Kentucky tonight.

Last evening, Republican House leadership indicated support for the measure.

>> The only reason you would really use one of these switches is for something that that is criminal.

>> There's also strong bipartisan support from Democratic leadership.

>> Renee.

These are killing machines.

These are killing machines.

They're not sport.

>> But Senate Majority Floor Leader Max Wise declined to take a position, saying he'll be monitoring the legislation and discussions surrounding it.

>> I would just need to see if it's a federal felony law already.

If that already exists, then is the law already redundant of what we would look to do since it's already there as federal felony law?

So I would just need to look into that.

>> Passes with favorable expression.

>> For Kentucky addition, I'm Laura Rogers.

>> Thank you Laura.

The bill was reassigned last week from Judiciary Committee to the veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee, where it was approved this morning.

It would make possession of a machine gun conversion device a class C felony.

Students who transferred to a different four year college in the state can end up spending time on classes they don't actually need to graduate.

That's according to State Representative Vanessa Grosso, who aims to solve the issue with her House Bill 94.

Our Mackenzie Spink tells us what her bill would change and why it's being criticized by Kentucky's largest public universities.

>> If House Bill 94 becomes law, the Council on Post-secondary education would create transfer pathways between universities for some of the most high demand majors in the state.

The bill's proponents say it will prevent students from earning credits that become obsolete when they transfer to a different school.

In last month's Post-secondary education committee, four universities testified against the bill, saying it solves a problem that doesn't exist.

>> Transfer students are actually graduating more efficiently than native students, and we have not seen data to credibly challenge this evidence to date.

>> Students are not losing earned prior credit excess credit, which for our Kentucky residents transferring from a four year public university is around nine credit hours or three courses.

Usually, results from student driven changes.

Maybe they've switched their academic program.

They've added a major.

They've added a minor.

>> In today's committee meeting, bill sponsor Representative Vanessa Grosso said the data provided by the universities was too broad.

She presented transfer student data that focused only on the programs addressed in the bill, such as education, nursing and social work.

>> When we look at education programs in particular, and we know we need teachers out into the workforce, there's a significant transfer penalty for students who move between four year institutions.

You can see this in green at UofL.

The burden is the greatest.

When we look at education with students completing over 155 hours on average in order to graduate.

>> Representative Grosso argues that the state's public institutions do have room to grow in these high demand areas of study.

Transfer students in these programs often take far more than the 120 credits required for bachelor's degree, compared to native students.

>> Nursing has the highest institutional transfer burden of all.

When we look at four year to four year transfer again in green at UofL and UK, four year to four year transfers complete 166 hours on average.

>> In previous hearings on the bill, Representative Grosso said she experienced an unwillingness on the part of the universities to collaborate with her on the proposal.

A new committee substitute requests that the schools do more research and find solutions.

>> This bill asks CTE to convene the chief academic officer, or their designee from each institution, to specifically work on the pathways that we identified over a year ago that are in high demand and high demand for the workforce, like teaching and nursing, and to issue a report to this committee by December 1st of this year on how to improve and streamline transfer for these specific pathways aimed at reducing both cost and time to degree.

>> The pathways outlined in House Bill 94 would not be mandatory for every school to adopt, but the institution would have to publicly explain why specific programs should be exempt.

The House Committee on Post-secondary education passed House Bill 94 unanimously.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

>> Thank you.

Mackenzie.

Now, the next stop is the House floor.

If House Bill 94 passes altogether, it would also create a one stop shop transfer portal for students and advisors.

It would also compare credit transfer information between each public university and outlined the different available pathways.

The Senate also took up education related legislation today.

That includes a bill that would require some middle or high school students who assault a teacher to be expelled for one year.

Republican Senator Matt Nunn is the sponsor of Senate Bill 101.

He says there have been more than 25,000 instances of assault against a teacher in Kentucky since 2021.

Democrats and some Republicans say this legislation is too harsh.

>> I don't think it's fair to teachers who merely want to earn a living.

They shouldn't be fearful at work.

This condition often leads to teachers leaving the profession.

It's not fair to them to leave their chosen profession a career they went to college for because they fear for their safety.

And the last point I want to make, Mr.

President, is we talk a lot about how this legislation might affect the expelled student.

I like to say, what about the other students that are in the building that just want to get an education?

When good teachers leave, instruction suffers.

It's not fair to those students who need good teachers.

>> You're not requiring children from grade six to grade 12 to be expelled for a year.

We're talking about, again, 11, 12, 13 year olds, children.

These are children.

And if we expelled them for a year.

Mr.

president, the reality we all need to understand this.

The reality is we have lost that child.

>> With this piece of legislation.

Should there be a child that comes to school one day?

And maybe that child has had a very difficult night.

Maybe that child has been abused the night before and that child gets to school.

And for whatever reason, something triggers that child to push.

A teacher knocks her down.

Guess what that teacher has to do?

She has to report that.

And guess what happens if she doesn't?

She could be.

Or she or he could be arrested for a misdemeanor crime, an A or B misdemeanor for not reporting that.

Is that really what we need to be doing to take that latitude?

>> The bill leaves it up to the school district to decide if the expelled student should continue to receive educational services outside of the school.

Senate Bill 101 passed the full Senate by a vote of 27 to 10.

It now heads to the House for consideration there, a bill that looks to keep students in school also passed the Senate today.

Senate Bill 170 would address chronic student truancy by setting up the, excuse me, supporting opportunities for Accountability and Restoration or Soar pilot program in ten school districts.

Under the Sword program, teams identified the barriers keeping students from showing up to school and creates a diversion plan with the family.

Republican State Senator Brandon Storm, who sponsored the bill, says collaboration between several agencies was key in creating the measure.

>> Members.

The bill is about responsibility, accountability, early early intervention and prevention.

It's coordinated across systems of education and judicial.

It's data driven, and it's focused on helping children succeed before they enter deeper involvement with the justice system.

This is what collaboration looks like.

We worked with education leaders, prosecutors, the judiciary, the child welfare welfare professionals who came to the table.

And this is the product of all that work.

Mr.

president.

>> The bill passed by unanimous vote, also passing today, Senate Bill 162, which eliminates the family accountability intervention and Response or Fair Teams program.

Supporters of the bill say the program, created in 2014 to keep juveniles out of the court system, has not worked.

President Donald Trump delivers his state of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m.

eastern, eight central, and you can see it live right here on KET.

Some Democrats say they will skip the speech as a protest.

Kentucky Congressman James Comer of Kentucky's first district says he's glad some Democrats will be boycotting the speech.

>> That room gets pretty crowded.

And and, you know, the Democrats who are there disrupting and showing out, booing, having signs and, you know, making gestures the better.

This is a very serious speech.

Our country.

As is always the case at the at the state of the Union, we have a lot of challenges.

We also have accomplished a lot from securing the border to to getting inflation under control.

These are these are things President Trump is going to talk about and remind the American people.

But he's also going to talk about his vision for the future.

And I look forward to hearing that because I want to work with him to pass his agenda.

>> The only Democrat in Kentucky's federal delegation, Congressman Morgan McGarvey of the third district, is among those who's sitting this one out.

He put out a statement saying, quote, the state of the Union is a time to reflect on the state of our country.

And when I do, I see our government unleashing unimaginable violence against our neighbors and our nation slipping into authoritarianism.

These are not mere policy disagreements.

We cannot pretend these are normal times.

And tonight the president will attempt to normalize that violence and gaslight Americans into believing our rights are disposable, or that we're powerless to stop it, end quote.

Meanwhile, Congressman James Comer is teaming up with Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture, Jonathan Shell.

Together, they're urging Senator Mitch McConnell to support delaying new federal restrictions on hemp.

The new rules crack down on intoxicating hemp products legalized in the 2018 farm bill.

Senator McConnell spearheaded the effort to include the new restrictions in a funding bill to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S.

history late last year.

In their letter, Comer and Shell say Kentucky farmers need more time to adjust.

Quote.

This additional time is essential to avoid unintended consequences for family farms and rural communities that have acted in good faith under existing federal and state law.

As it stands, the new rules on hemp are set to take effect next year.

Daniel Cameron and his wife Mackenzie now have a third child.

The Cameron campaign announced the new arrival last night.

The press release included this picture of their new son along with his two older brothers.

Cameron says mom and baby are doing great.

Cameron is Kentucky's former attorney general and a candidate in the U.S.

Senate race in the May Republican primary.

[MUSIC] One of the nation's largest fireworks shows is back.

[MUSIC] Thunder Over Louisville kicks off the Kentucky Derby festival season.

The fireworks and air show was canceled last year following historic flooding along the riverfront.

This year's show is set for Saturday, April the 18th.

The theme is Thunder in the USA.

It's in celebration of America's 250th anniversary, and KET is helping to celebrate the big birthday as well.

Head to Keturah Gus LaFontaine 250 for programs, educational resources, events, and more to celebrate America's 250th birthday.

Last night, state House Republicans issued subpoenas.

Or late tonight, rather, House Republicans issued subpoenas to the Beshear administration for budget information related to the state employee health plan.

More on this developing story.

Tomorrow night at 630 eastern, 530 Central on Kentucky Edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

Connect with us all the way.

As you see on your screen through the social media channels, we encourage you to give us a shout out or story idea at the email address on your screen, and look for us on the PBS app that you can download on your mobile device and smart TV.

I'm Renee Shaw, thanks for spending part of your night with us, and we'll see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Take good care.