Time now for a midweek check in of some major political news so far this week with Rylan Barden, who is the senior editor for NPR States team.

So we're good to have you.

We have just four with you yesterday.

So it's good to see you two times in a row.

You can see it again, too, Renee.

Yeah.

So we're going to dispense with the inauguration talk.

I think we got a lot of that cleared away for yesterday.

Let's talk about the big news story for today.

It's our top story, the fact that Senate Majority Leader Damien Thayer has said that this next session in 2024 will be his last and he won't seek reelection.

Do some.

Yeah, this is a big change in what the Senate's going to look like and how it's going to be run.

Really a couple of years from now, because he still says, you know, he's still going to be part of the Senate this next this next coming calendar year.

But he's been a big force in the Senate.

He's one of the of the main people who goes out and talks about issues as they're moving through.

That's a really through the legislature.

You know that position as Senate majority leader, you're kind of the traffic cop, as they say.

You're working with the leadership to decide when bills are ready for a vote.

And and also just moving things along.

And that's something he's been praised for on on both sides of the aisle for his role in that.

He's a very he's a very combative, I would say, legislator.

He's somebody who really, you know, has been one of the most fiery critics of of Democratic Governor Andy Beshear.

So it's going to be interesting to see who kind of occupies that role going forward.

And something I'll note that the Herald-Leader reported he actually recommended that the Senate consider Louisville Senator Julie Rocky Adams as his replacement as House majority leader.

But there will be a different in actual election within his district to replace him just for that state Senate seat as well.

That's right.

And there could be some really interesting action there, even if he had remained right.

And we know that the first Friday in January is a very important date.

That's the filing deadline.

So we've had a rash of these announcements.

So it's remains to be seen who else may take retirement and we'll find out.

That's right.

And a lot of these really do come close to that deadline of January 5th.

A lot of those announcements end up coming.

But one other announcement that we heard this week and might be related to to Thayer's announcement that he won't seek reelection is that Bill Thorp, a Republican representative and chairperson in the House, announced that he wouldn't seek reelection there.

I believe he is in in Senator Thayer's district, so I don't know if that's related at all, but that's just it's notable, too, for those two announcements to be coming so close together.

There are some other big names on both sides of the aisle in recent weeks.

Right.

And these are, you know, high, high ranking folks.

And we've talked about the others who said that they will not be seeking reelection.

Derrick Graham, we talked about who is the House minority floor leader and others who have been there for a long time.

So would it be a lot of different faces there come 20, 25?

So let's talk about an important decision that was also rendered this week by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.

Phillip Shepherd when it comes to charter schools and this concerns House Bill nine.

Yeah, this is that bill from a couple years ago that actually set up the funding mechanism for charter schools or how they would be funded in certain counties in the state.

This yeah the judge Philip Shepherd, end up ruling that this went afoul of the provision in the state constitution that requires in a uniform and efficient system of common schools and and really defines how public dollars are spent on a public education.

This you know, this smacks pretty similarly of another so-called school choice law that was struck down by the state Supreme Court recently, and that had to do with a tax credit for people who donate to scholarship funds for folks who go to private schools.

Both of these rulings together really spell probably what this next legislative session is going to look like in Kentucky, that Republicans, or at least some Republicans in the legislature, really want to get some sort of school choice constitutional amendment passed.

Because, again, the same provision in the state constitution keeps on coming up and preventing these school choice measures from being implemented.

So interesting time for this ruling to happen.

And and then going back to that that conversation about Senator Thayer, he said that that is one of his priorities going into this into his last legislative session to get that over the line.

But as we talked before on this program and elsewhere, this is of all the things that will really split Republican votes.

These so-called school choice or or charter schools measures and really divide Republicans.

And it'll be interesting to see how that discussion plays out in the next legislative session.

And we have seen that play out in the vote in the roll call right in the House.

I mean, these measures have narrowly advanced from the House within just just a handful of votes.

So we'll see what happens come January 2nd.

Last item, we know that this country, the state, has been on the verge of a child care crisis for many years, and COVID certainly did not help it.

And now many child care centers are looking at loss of some federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The checks are being cut for the last installment there.

And this could mean some some really troubling times for these centers.

What are we learning about what the General Assembly may be able to do about this and the response to this crisis?

Yeah, the Kentucky Lantern did a great story highlighting this issue and trying to draw attention to it that the American Rescue Plan Act, that's that big, one of the big rotavirus relief measures that passed during the pandemic, a lot of that funding was used to in a lot of different ways.

And one part of it was supporting child care and that this extra federal funding allowed child care centers to want to stay open during the pandemic, but also pay their employees a little bit more.

And now folks who are running childcare centers are worried that once this funding expires without any help from state government, that they're you know, they're either going to have to pay folks less or increase tuition or for parents who send their kid the child, into child bear centers.

So this is this important thing for lawmakers to think about.

And this is only one of the of the issues that, you know, that coronavirus relief money ended up funding.

A lot to keep our eyes on, certainly in the future and this next few days, even before the year ends, we're looking for rendition day for the Kentucky Supreme Court to make other really crucial decisions affecting redistricting.

So that could be a matter that the General Assembly has to address on day one or two or three when they reconvene in 2024.

Thank you, Ryan.

It's always good to see you.

Have a good week.

Thanks for.