music >> We have the capacity to do it.

Coming together and agreeing that we need to do it is the key question.

[MUSIC] >> Democratic state lawmakers in both chambers are making their case for universal pre-K.

>> And if we keep kicking the can down the road, you know, we get a consent decree.

We don't have any choice.

Then we're going to do what they tell us to do.

>> Kentucky's youth detention centers are under investigation.

A state senator says new mental health services for these kids are needed now.

>> Many of them say, you know, we can't wait until the plant is retooled and begins operations in 2027.

You know, we have to find work now.

>> What we're hearing from laid off workers at Blue Oval SK.

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

[MUSIC] .

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this brand new week.

It is Monday, February the 9th.

I'm Renee Shaw, and we thank you for spending some of your Monday night with us.

[MUSIC] Education has emerged as a top focus for state lawmakers in Frankfort today.

The full Senate took up three bills that sponsors say are designed to support teachers, administrators and local school boards.

More about these bills in tonight's legislative update.

[MUSIC] Senate Bill two would keep pay raises for public school teachers and administrators comparable under the bill, raises for school administrators could not exceed the average percentage pay raise given to classroom teachers in the same district.

Republican State Senator Julie Adams of Louisville is the sponsor of Senate Bill two.

She says it's designed to support teacher recruitment and retention and to promote fairness and transparency.

>> Senate Bill two is a common sense priority education measure focused on fairness, balance and trust.

It reinforces the principle that classroom teachers should not be left behind in compensation decisions, while still allowing school districts the flexibility they need to operate effectively.

>> Senate Bill two passed the full Senate unanimously with no debate.

It now heads to the House for consideration there.

Another priority bill that advanced today's Senate Bill four.

It would create a five year mentorship and training program for new school principals.

Sponsor Republican Senator Stephen West of Paris, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, says the plan would put Kentucky out front regionally and school leadership development.

That's an investment of both public and private sector dollars.

>> If you're going to be a new principal in Kentucky and this is for new principals, the first cohort would be all new principals.

If you're going to be a principal in Kentucky, what do you need to know about being a principal?

What do you need to know about school security?

What do you need to know about liability?

What do you need to know about working with teachers and and helping them in the classroom, and all the things you need to know to be a good principal in Kentucky?

>> West Senate Bill four also passed the full Senate by a vote of 38 to 0, and is also headed to the House for further consideration.

Finally, Senate Bill 71 would require local school board members complete six hours of finance training every two years.

Bill sponsor Senator Matthew Dineen of Elizabethtown says news about budget concerns at some of the state's largest public school districts show this.

Needing this training is needed.

>> As we've seen across the Commonwealth, not only in our largest districts but in others.

Our school board members are newly elected.

They're required to have three hours of initial training.

This bill requires an updated and ongoing training of two additional hours every two years.

This provides them with the framework and the collaborative support system to better serve alongside their superintendents.

>> Senate Bill 71 unanimously passed the full Senate today, and is now headed to the lower chamber for further debate and consideration.

Over in the House today, that chamber approved a measure that's meant to pump the brakes on hurried drivers in the morning and evenings.

House Bill seven paves the way for cameras on school busses not to watch the kids, but to spot drivers violating safety rules.

>> It sets up a an entirely violator funded stop arm camera safety program.

What this does is the cameras would be installed upon the school busses.

If a district so chooses to do this.

This is not a mandate, as.

>> You have heard me before say this has happened to me.

I was hit by a truck after getting off of a school bus and it did change my life.

I was very blessed.

I was very fortunate to live through it, so I'm a lucky one.

The next 1st May not be.

>> House Bill seven passed the House on a vote of 78 to 15.

It now heads to the Senate for consideration.

There also today, state Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate called for action when it comes to universal pre-K.

Lawmakers in both chambers have filed bills to expand preschool access.

House Bill 574 and Senate Bill 165 establish a phased pathway to universal preschool access for all four year olds.

In this measure, school districts would implement pre-K programs when they are ready, but no later than the 2034 school year.

The bill's also set statewide quality standards and create a database to track the progress of students who enroll in pre-K.

House Bill 572 and Senate Bill 166 would expand pre-K access to families whose income is 250% below the federal poverty line.

Right now, families are eligible if their income is 160% below the federal poverty line.

>> This is not just education policy.

It's a workforce policy.

It's an economic policy.

It's a rural development policy.

Over time, expanded pre-K access is projected to grow Kentucky's workforce by up to 70,000 people, and research consistently shows that every dollar spent in high quality early learning returns up to $10 to the community through higher earnings, lower remediation costs, improved health, and reduced justice system involvement.

>> The bills, which would phase in universal pre-K access, would cost an estimated $40 million, according to House bill sponsor representative and Don worth.

Governor Andy Beshear, who has championed pre-K for all, recommended to use funds from sports wagering to cover the cost of expanded preschool.

Democratic leaders said today they did not specify in their legislation where the money should come from, but they believe the state has sufficient funding to foot the bill.

As long as leaders from both parties can come to an agreement.

>> It's not a matter of whether we have the capacity to do that.

We have the capacity to do it.

The coming together and agreeing that we need to do it is the key question.

And then we can determine the best path pathways.

And maybe the governor has insight into it and has the best way to do it, but we're going to all have to sit down at the table and agree on where that's going to come from.

>> When you look at the budget of the state of Kentucky, you should be able to tell what we value.

And one of the things that we should be investing in the most is education.

I'm proud that we do invest a lot in education.

Maybe we have to invest less in those programs to help kids along the way.

When they get to be middle schoolers, high schoolers, post-secondary education, because we invested in them early.

>> The Senate minority leaders emphasized that their bills do not mandate universal pre-K, but they expand eligibility for parents who choose to enroll their children.

These bills now await committee assignments.

Education is the focus of our hour long conversation tonight on Kentucky.

Tonight for key legislators are with us to break down other recently advanced measures on school government governance, financial transparency testing plans to expand pre-K in Kentucky, as you just heard, and so much more.

And of course, we welcome your questions and comments.

We invite you to join us tonight at 8:00 eastern, 7:00 central, right here on KET.

More education news.

A lawsuit over the quality of public education in the state is moving forward.

The student led group, Kentucky Student Voice Team, is suing the state and the Kentucky General Assembly for what they call a failure to, quote, maintain the level of commitment to education required by Kentucky's Constitution.

The Kentucky Attorney General's Office filed a motion to have the case dismissed late last week.

Franklin circuit court judge denied the motion.

And we'll have more on that ruling.

And hear from the Kentucky Student Voice team tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition.

We have some sad news to report this evening.

The state has lost a very well known education advocate who has seen on KET frequently.

Former Fayette County Public School Superintendent Tom Shelton has died.

Shelton was named superintendent in 2011, serving for three years before resigning in 2014 to become executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents.

Another former Fayette County public school superintendent who he knew very well, Stu Silverman, announced the death of his friend over the weekend.

In a Facebook post, Silverman called Shelton one of Kentucky's most outstanding and respected leaders, saying, quote, Kentucky lost one of its finest today.

Tom Shelton was an advocate for kids and educators.

He stood up when needed, no matter what.

Tom had the highest level of integrity and always tried to do the right thing.

So many loved him and will miss him.

End quote.

Mr.

Tom Shelton was 62 years old.

State Senator Danny Carroll is once again asking lawmakers to put up millions of dollars for a youth psychiatric hospital.

As our June Leffler reports, Carroll says the state can't afford to not find such a project or fund such a project as its juvenile justice system undergoes a federal civil rights investigation.

>> Many kids with aggression and severe mental health issues wind up in detention centers, says the state juvenile justice official.

>> And we equate this with a youth, for example, who, suffering from an appendicitis attack.

We would not just keep them in a juvenile detention center.

I think everybody would agree they need to go to a clinical medical facility for care, and youth with severe mental health needs are no different.

>> That's why Senator Carroll proposes a new 24 bed facility and Senate Bill 125.

>> Without question, there are enough kids that are assessed that would would fit this definition and would be housed in this facility.

That facility is not going to sit empty.

>> The state run psychiatric hospitals for adults, but not kids, and private treatment centers won't take everyone.

>> Hear terms like they're too acute.

There are no beds is also a very frequent response.

They're too aggressive.

We this youth has already assaulted one of our staff in the past.

So those are the responses we get from the facilities.

>> Carroll first proposed this three years ago.

The state juvenile justice system is currently under a federal civil rights investigation for alleged abuse of its child inmates.

>> And if we keep kicking the can down the road, you know, we get a consent decree, we don't have any choice, then we're going to do what they tell us to do, which could result in a much higher cost to to the taxpayers of this state.

>> Carroll pitched the idea to an oversight council of lawmakers and citizen members.

Senator Matt Nunn also presented Senate Bill 101 on student assault against teachers.

>> Since 2021, in our Commonwealth, there have been 25,000 instances of assault against a teacher.

In my opinion, it's not fair to teachers who merely want to earn a living.

You know they shouldn't be fearful at work and then ultimately be assaulted.

>> He proposes any middle or high schooler that assaults a teacher be expelled from school for 12 months, and that kids 14 and older could be tried as adults.

>> These kids that are out of school for 100 days, they don't cease to exist.

They're somewhere.

And if they're not in school, they're in the community.

They're, you know, and these are troubled kids.

Maybe they need to be in detention.

But again, that's something that should be decided through the court system, not through a school board process.

>> My my understanding, talking to superintendents and talking to staff is that school boards have the option to provide services during that time.

They have that option today and they do not lose that option through this legislation.

And so they decide if those services can be provided in a safe manner.

I think that includes counseling, alternative school settings.

There are options at their disposal that they then decide whether those options can be given safely or not.

>> This bill has a long way to go in the state House, neither Carroll or Nunn's measures have been assigned to a committee for Kentucky edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Now moving on to election news.

Kentucky's 2026 primary elections are a little more than three months away.

Republican Congressman Andy Barr is now out with his first ad in the U-S Senate campaign here in Kentucky.

In it, Barr blasts DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, calling them, quote, dumb, evil and indoctrination.

>> It's not a sin to be white.

It's not against the law to be male.

And it shouldn't be disqualifying to be a Christian.

I'm Andy Barr, and I approve this message to give woke liberals something else to cry about really stands for.

>> While some Democrats in Kentucky's U-S Senate primary contest responded to the ad on social media, Amy McGrath suggested this was a distraction, saying Kentuckians, quote, wake up worried about bills, jobs and health care.

Let's talk about that.

End quote.

Charles Booker, another contender in the Democratic U.S.

Senate primary, pointed out that Barr has not yet been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Quote, Andy, it's not working.

You've been in the race nearly a year and Trump still doesn't like you.

End quote.

Two independent polls released last week show a tight race for the U.S.

Senate in Kentucky between Congressman Barr and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Lexington businessman Nate Morse trails both candidates, sometimes by double digits.

Last week, U.S.

Senate candidate Congressman Andy Barr made a rare endorsement against a fellow Kentucky Republican with whom he serves in Washington.

It's one that aligns with President Donald Trump in Kentucky's fourth congressional district race.

Trump is supporting Navy Seal Ed Gallrein, who is going up against incumbent incumbent Congressman Thomas Massie in the GOP primary.

Massie is an outspoken critic of the Trump administration.

Speaking on CNN's Inside Politics Sunday, Congressman Massie said Trump's endorsement is about more than just this race.

>> Well, look, I vote with the president 91% of the time.

The 9% of the time my party has taken up for, bankrupting this country or starting another war.

I don't vote with them and they want 100% compliance.

That's why they're trying to take me out.

It's really about keeping my colleagues in line.

They're under no illusion that I will snap back into line because they're spending millions of dollars against me.

It's going to be tough, but I'm going to win.

>> Congressman Massie also remains critical of how the Department of Justice has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Today, lawmakers on the U.S.

House Oversight Committee tried to question Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins former girlfriend and confidante.

Instead, she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions.

Congressman James Comer of Kentucky's first district, who chairs that committee, said it was, quote, very disappointing that Maxwell declined to participate in the deposition ahead of midterm elections.

Kentucky Governor Andy Barr is or Beshear, rather, is pushing back against President Trump's threats to nationalize elections in targeted cities, mostly Democratic ones.

Beshear is now chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

He was on CNN on Friday where he was asked about the president's statements.

>> I think what they want to do is try to create fear.

They want to try to silence the voices of of our citizens.

They want people that are voters and valid voters to think that they shouldn't show up at the polls.

But guess what?

They are going to show up in droves.

They see what's going on.

It's anti-American.

It is undemocratic.

And people are going to stand up and turn out for the future of this country.

What we saw last year in the elections of Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill by enormous margins, show the American people are ready for change and they won't be bullied by this president or anybody else.

>> Governor Beshear was also on ABC's The View today, where he said Ice agents should be removed from every city therein.

He added that every agent needs to be retrained, and that the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christian Noem, should be fired.

>> Time now for our Reporter's Notebook segment.

I'm Laura Rogers with WKU Public Radio reporter Lisa Autry.

And Lisa, we've seen plans for proposed data centers in western Kentucky and Hancock County there in Hawesville.

Tell us about the plans there and how that's being received by the community.

>> Yeah.

Just last week, it was announced that a digital asset company known as Terra Wolfe had purchased more than 250 acres of land in Hancock County.

And it's the site of the former aluminum smelter owned by Century Aluminum.

It's set to become a large scale data center.

The land was purchased just a few months ago.

I talked to the director of the Industrial Foundation who said, you know, just as recently as a few months ago, there were still conversations about reopening the smelter.

But those conversations didn't lead to any place.

And so they just started talking about repurposing this industrial brownfield site.

Terra Wolfe is going to build a large scale data center there.

One of the things that attracted the company to that location was the fact that there's already a power supply there.

There are about 480MW of power previously used by the smelter that's already there.

And then there's the potential to expand over time.

So power capacity is a big issue when it comes to talking about data centers.

Terra Wolfe will not have to go out and look for additional sources of electricity.

The power is already there, and that's one of the sticking points when you talk about data centers in these rural communities.

Opponents have this fear of these facilities being a large drain on the energy grid.

There's also concerns about noise pollution and environmental pollution, those types of things.

And so data centers largely have been pretty controversial.

The head of the industrial foundation, though, said that that piece of land is already zoned heavy industrial use, and he doesn't anticipate a lot of challenges coming from it because it's simply a private company selling the land and facility to another private company.

Century aluminum, sold it to Terra Wolfe, and there wasn't a timeline for developing it into a data center.

But in all likelihood, it's coming to Hancock County.

>> And in Simpson County and Franklin.

We've seen plans there for a proposed data center as well.

And a very vocal group of community members have been attending these public meetings.

I know you've been covering those, and they are really they have a lot of reservations about what that could mean for Franklin.

And now there's also a question over who has jurisdiction over that land.

Is it the county or the city?

A lawsuit has been filed over a conditional use permit ordinance, and that vote tabled again.

And so what are we seeing there and and Franklin and Simpson County.

And what do we think is going to be next for those plans?

>> Yeah, I've attended a lot of the public hearings and they've turned into pretty raucous gatherings, lengthy and raucous gatherings.

People are very outspoken about this particular project.

It would be located just off exit two on I-65, close to the Tennessee border.

A lot of people are concerned, like I mentioned, about the noise pollution that would come from that, the fact that it sits on a karst landscape, it's about 500 acres of land, and it would be developed by a company called Tennessee Land Co, and they have gone to the Franklin Planning and Zoning Commission twice now to seek approval of their preliminary development plan.

And the the Planning and Zoning Commission has now tabled a vote on it twice.

Their most recent argument last week, when they tabled the vote for a second time, was the fact that there's ongoing litigation between the county and ten Ki ten.

KY has sued the county over what fiscal court did in December, when they passed an ordinance requiring ten Ki, or any future developer of data center projects, to get a conditional use permit.

And basically that just gives the county more oversight into how a data center would operate.

>> So we'll have to see how that plays out in court.

>> Absolutely.

>> And how that could.

>> It's going to be a long process.

>> Yes, absolutely.

And then also in industrial news in Kentucky, the future of Blue Oval SK there in Hardin County's Glendale community.

What do we know about what we could see come out of that huge project there in Glendale?

>> Blue Oval SK announced in December they were closing, laying off the entire workforce, going to retool the plant for energy storage.

They will be producing batteries for industries like data centers, utilities, large scale industrial customers.

And so the plant is closed now, workers are getting severance pay until Saturday on February 14th.

Then that runs out.

Spent some time there, recently talked to several workers who said they're struggling to find other work.

In fairness to Blue Oval SK, the pay was pretty, pretty decent and they're struggling to find to find new jobs.

And many of them say, you know, we can't wait until the plant is retooled and begins operations in 2027.

You know, we have to find work now.

Some of them, it's interesting.

Say we would consider going back to work at Ford.

Ford energy is the new subsidiary that will run the plant again.

Some say they'll consider going back, but they want it to be a union shop.

Other workers just say they feel really burned by Ford just because the operations there were short lived.

And how they found out in a video from the CEO right before Christmas.

But the community there still very hopeful.

If you talk to business leaders, elected leaders, they're all very hopeful.

They said, you know, Ford has invested 5.8 billion in the EV battery plant.

They're investing another 2 billion to scale the energy and venture.

And, you know, this is a company that's been around in Kentucky since the model T. They're confident in Ford's ability to open a sustaining manufacturing plant there in Glendale.

It's just going to take a little bit longer than anticipated.

>> Just going to take some patience.

And something will be following of course.

And Lisa we appreciate it so much.

Lisa Autry with WQ Public Radio.

Thank you for your coverage.

>> Thank you.

>> It's the 217th birthday of Kentucky's most famous native son.

And do you know about the county that only lasted 80 days?

Well, you're about to find out about it.

As our Toby Gibbs looks at this week in Kentucky history.

>> Abraham Lincoln was born February 12th, 1809, near Hodgenville in present day LaRue County.

It was in Hardin County at the time.

Lincoln would later move to Indiana, then Illinois, where he became a lawyer and entered politics.

[MUSIC] President Theodore Roosevelt honored Lincoln by visiting Hodgenville and speaking at the dedication of a cornerstone at Lincoln Memorial Hall on February 12th, 1909.

President elect Zachary Taylor visited Frankfort on February 14th, 1849, on his way to Washington, D.C.

for his inauguration.

Inaugurations were in March.

At that time, thousands cheered Taylor in Kentucky's capital city.

Taylor had Kentucky ties.

[MUSIC] Although he was born in Virginia, his family moved to Louisville when he was a baby.

A&M College of Kentucky, which would later be known as the University of Kentucky, moved to its new campus in Lexington on February 15th, 1882.

It had three buildings the President's home, a boys dormitory, and a college building.

Beckham County, Kentucky, lasted 80 days.

The state created it from parts of Carter, Elliott, and Lewis counties.

On February 9th, 1904, a man named C.V.

Zimmerman sued.

He claimed the county was less than 400mi█!S in size, a violation of state law.

An appeals court dissolved the county in April of that year, and that's a look back at This Week in Kentucky history.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Thank you, Toby, and that'll do it for us tonight.

I'll see you at 8:00 on Kentucky tonight for a conversation about public education legislation.

See you in a bit.

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