>> The data that you'll see in the school report card released paints a complex picture for the Commonwealth Education community.

The state's news school report card is out the work.

Educators and state lawmakers say still needs to be done to get Kentucky students back on track to post pandemic.

>> Kentucky's ban on gender affirming care for minors could soon be heading to the U.S. Supreme Court.

>> You head up along with him from the time.

You know, we we.

>> But look at the other different, you know.

>> And make the father son Barber duo who say cutting hair is an art.

>> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

The only entered Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Wednesday, November.

1st.

>> I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for spending some of your Wednesday night with us with its unique blend of urban and rural interest.

Madison County will be one of the places to watch on election night to determine who will be our next Governor.

Kentucky Edition spoke to involved citizens in the community to see what issues are bringing them to the polls this year.

>> We do have this little microcosm of Kentucky located within that is in county.

We do have the Madison County seat, a Richmond where you have the university.

You also have Korea college just down to the south and additionally do have a lot of farms, a lot of rural area as well surrounding it.

>> We do seem to go the way that the net the state totals go this year narrowly won this state by very few votes in the 2019 raise.

And so I think people are looking again to see whether or not we will go as the rest of the state ends up going.

I'm not a one issue by any means.

So I tend to look at all and and there are several, but I'm concerned about I have kids so.

>> I'm always going to be concerned about I'm always going to be concerned about employment opportunities and employment growth and things like that.

But I think for me as a nonprofit later in this community.

One of the biggest issues that I'm always going to worry about.

plans for those social service agencies and for folks who are of lower see a lot of people in poverty.

And I know that here in Madison County, affordable housing is a big issue as our homeless population continues to grow.

So those are some issues that I'm going to be looking at.

What I'm going to the polls.

I think people are really paying attention.

>> 2 words and actions of all the candidates.

I think they're looking at how we're going there with teachers and education, people in community are very and to the abortion debate one way or the other.

As a first responder, you know, a lot of air, the fire department budget and stuff come out of state.

They give us a lot of.

Funding throughout the throughout the year for station volunteers.

I've been on the school board is give me a different set of eyes and I've seen what an to do to education we want and ministrations.

It's going to support the local school boards.

And not dictate terms to them and make them do things when it should be and what will control issue.

>> I do think that although some of the polls are showing commanding leads for this year, the race is actually going to be a lot closer than that because the polls do 10, 2 under represent Republican voters.

I think basically this election is going to boil down to the turnout story.

So I'm a little bit skeptical about whether that 10% of people who are still undecided are actually for sure going to vote or are really undecided or not.

>> And so the question will probably turn on turnout and which side can actually mobilize their voters to the polls, Kentuckyian especially in Madison County area was very diverse because you would talk to her husband who is Republican.

>> But in the same house, so you have the wife who was a Democrat.

In the same household, which is very unusual from a lot of other places.

So you have, you know, you have different views in the same house.

>> I don't believe voting straight ticket.

I don't want my color to win just because I'm registered one.

Why?

I want the right person in who represents May and >> my beliefs and not just mine, but what's good for the whole right.

I want somebody who's willing to work with somebody on the other side of the aisle.

>> To come to a great solution rather than just trying to win an argument over something.

Now, according to experts, other bellwether counties in the governor's race include Kenton and Campbell County in northern Kentucky.

>> Both of which were won by Governor Andy Beshear in 2019.

And based time now to check in with our good friend Ryland Barton.

He's the managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio about all things governor's race because we are just days apart.

It friend since I could got here so quickly.

And yet we're so ready for Syria, good to see you.

So the candidates at the top of the ticket and the rest of the ticket.

In some cases they're all traveling on these big bus tours crisscrossing the state.

This is pretty conventional pretty typical for this to happen.

This time of the year.

>> It is on its conventional, but it's also it's incredibly important in these races in these years when only the governor and these other statewide offices are on the ballot for the most part of this couple special elections around the state of the turnout is always a little bit lower during these years.

you know, 2 candidates don't benefit from your national coverage of the presidential race for congressional races that are on the Bring people out to the polls really destroying people who are pretty focused on statewide elections.

So they're both of the campaigns and mostly the tickets are traveling around the state to try and energize the voters that they can interact with and his many spots that can right now.

>> Your new enterprise statehouse reporter who was no stranger to the Kentucky political beat.

Osaka had a great in-depth comprehensive story following the money and the Kentucky governor's race who's bankrolling at how spending it where it's going and how much could be spent.

We know that this is a history making in terms of money and the Kentucky governor's race.

And this is the most expensive part that we're in right now these last few days.

So tell us about what he found.

>> Yeah, we already KET that this was a big expensive race.

It's the most expensive races in Kentucky history.

But this is the This is the last report that we get it before the election next Tuesday.

That reports on these numbers are as of last week, a lot more spending to come in those final in these final 2 weeks.

And we get to see what it was all spent on a little bit later after the mean takeaway issue still win the league with fundraising.

But David Cameron has been able to stay competitive and catch up with all that support from from outside political groups of we've seen the commercials and Ruben, this year's also getting a lot of support from outside political groups as well.

Those are mostly funded by the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association.

They also get a little extra call some big You know, deep pocketed a philanthropist, sort of people who are involved in Palm Politics agenda.

Yeah.

To somebody contributed a lot to Rand Paul's campaign is a big supporter of to UK.

There's PAC supporting Gay Cameron's efforts in this year's elections.

And this year signed a lot of the national.

You need a teacher union efforts up and throwing their support behind behind his campaign as well.

I think another really interesting finding in this is a community to report just 6 per down exactly where the contributions are coming from in Kentucky.

And I think that I was surprised at least to see that this year has a pretty deep supporter, least fundraising support across the state as large swaths, even in rural Kentucky that are supporting the shares.

Some of that looks kind of similar to the out of my eyes kind of lit on and on that there's a certain counties in northeastern Kentucky like Elliott County, Rowan County.

I'm that weird, which are all Democratic stronghold.

And though politically, they've not been working so well for Democrats are still a fundraising element to it.

That is at least working for Beshear right now.

And we will kind of see if that's if he's able to convert that into actual votes on Election Day.

>> Well, we know that was a senior adviser is from Elliott County, a former representative, Rocky Adkins, who was majority leader at one time.

He's from La County.

So maybe that explains some of that.

Let's talk about the number 2 on the ticket.

The Lieutenant Governor candidates made their first their first and only TV.

Your parents jointly together on KU team Monday night.

Any main takeaways from that seems like they did.

But they were supposed to do as the Senate gets to the top of the ticket.

>> Yeah, that's really what their surrogates further and further me for the first time that a cut for the main candidates on about.

Yeah, they're talking about education, talking of conservative The Robin Mills, a judgment call and was criticizing him for being a legislator.

There's the mall in a passing.

The so-called Stewart, all the just and pension benefits that a pass on the Legislature.

I was at in 2018, a all right.

Been subsequently start time at the Supreme Court.

So, yeah, it's an that was an debate to but, you know, then the lieutenant governor's meeting hours really to step in in the governor's incapacitated of you lately.

It's really kind of to the governor to what extent they want to empower lieutenant governors do anything.

And yeah, it'll be interesting to see.

How are these kids were playing this next administration?

>> And they ask whether or not they really want to be governor course.

That would seem a little bit to stikel to get out front, I guess at this particular moment, finally, attorney general.

So we know that those 2 candidates of the Democratic challenger who is a state representative out 27 year veteran of the Air Force as a colonel, Pam Stevenson is up with an ad.

But also we know that the Republican challenger, Russell Coleman, former U.S. attorney, also has an ad about he is how he is going to stop Biden not resonate with folks >> Russell Coleman is the time to really lean into the national issues.

This is something that up and down about it really been doing.

That's, you know, that's really something to do in Kentucky where national figures like President Joe Biden are wide and are very unpopular in the state and so trying to connect their opponents too.

Those kinds of figures as typically work pretty well for Republicans.

I found this kind of notable over the years Russell Coleman it since here.

We used to be the stopper for Mitch McConnell.

But then when he was Kentucky state Legislature is not good for the Smart on Crime Coalition.

A coalition of bipartisan coalition of the public and Democrats are working on criminal justice reform issues.

This seems totally different from that particular area and time.

And I think a lot of that comes during this campaign season.

This is that this is kind of how we talk about the issues around elections.

The state.

Yeah.

>> Public safety is one of the main aims along with education.

Right?

And that's certainly what Daniel Cameron has been talking about as the top of the ticket give internal candidate.

Well, thank you, Rylan so much to break down will do it again next week.

Take good care.

And be sure to tune in to KET on election night November.

The 7th Tuesday for returns and comprehensive analysis from the most experienced team of political pundits and observers, our live coverage and informed analysis begins at 07:00PM Eastern 06:00PM Central right here on KET.

Now turning to education news, the Kentucky Department of Education has released the 2023 State School report card.

While the new data shows growth in some key areas.

Education officials say students are still struggling to catch up from the lost classroom time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

>> Kentucky's education system is still in recovery.

>> The data that you'll see in the school report card released paints a complex picture for the Commonwealth Education community.

>> According to data from the new school report card.

But it came to factors like state assessment results.

Graduation rates in post-secondary readiness.

Most Kentucky's elementary, middle and high schools ranked in the middle on student assessments report shows less than half of all Kentucky students proficient in reading.

But there were some improvements, especially at the elementary school level.

47% of students were considered proficient or distinguished.

That's up from 45% in 2022. students at the middle school level made modest gains over the previous year.

Well, high school students remain the same at 44% elementary school students also showed improvement in math on middle school, students remained at the same proficiency level and high school is dropped.

Interim education Commissioner Robin Fields.

Kenny believes difficulty in recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers in that subject may be partially to blame for the lead mass course.

>> We really need those high quality teachers and so recruitment and retention of those high quality teachers for the very best instructor that we have at the big at the front of her classroom to assist our students.

Those are just problem So we have to we have to figure out ways to not only get those teachers that traditional way.

We're born to be a teacher.

Their family members are all teachers and they are that pipeline into the classroom.

Almost normally we need to find those other individuals that have the strong experience in math and science to also be at the front of our classrooms as well.

>> But the pandemic had the biggest impact on student learning.

And Kenny said it will take time to get students back on track.

>> We must not underestimate how much of an impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our students.

We know that changes in the way instruction was delivered from 2020 to 2022.

Had an impact on student learning.

Despite the tremendous efforts of Kentucky educators and parents to remediate those impacts.

That combined with the continuing impacts on students, staff and our community tease from our devastating floods and tornadoes in some areas as well as just the day-to-day challenges that school administrators, educators, parents, families and students face on a daily basis.

We expect that there will be needed a multi-year recovery period before school performance really gets back.

2 similar pre-pandemic levels.

>> And the brand Kenney said the Department of Education remain focused on mitigating the learning loss brought on by the pandemic.

>> Yellow, some efforts are already underway and should be sustained.

The commonwealth like other states has utilized funding from the American rescue plan towards learning law supports.

Districts have worked hard by expanding tutoring.

They've added more summer learning and after school programs to enhance our recovery efforts.

Districts have also focused on strategies to support the whole child.

Social, emotional and physical health in order to create environments for children are ready to learn.

>> We thank producer Echo Gal for that report.

Tomorrow there are more key findings from the Kentucky school report card that will have for you now some state lawmakers are reacting to the states report car during a legislative hearing in Frankfort today.

Republicans in particular expressed concerns about the lagging educational progress of Kentucky kids.

Our June Leffler has this report.

>> When I see the Curia reporting at 48% over 45,000 recent graduates.

Left high school without achieving at least one of our careers readiness indicators.

Then we're failing students.

When I seen the Herald-Leader that only one in 4 schools had 50% or more students scoring proficient or distinguished in mask.

We're failing too many students for all the celebrations that were enjoying in some districts with these results.

We have some districts that.

Have failed.

Have kids given says the scores will be addressed in next year's legislative budget session.

>> Whether it's a classroom environment situation.

Whether its wrap around mental health services, whatever it may be.

But let's help these kids and these families in the systems move Future leaders.

>> Several lawmakers say they need this data sooner.

This.

>> This score, it's simply a snapshot.

As a principal, we talk about Ksi 2 different times.

We talk about them while we're taking is and we talk about them today.

So, you know, we've got an election coming up next Tuesday, I believe.

And let's let's imagine that we have this election and we don't find out who wins for 6 months.

How effective?

He is.

We took a it's a back in May.

We are celebrating today.

With students who are not even in my building anymore.

>> How often students even go to class was also on the state report card.

Almost 30% of Kentucky students qualified as chronically absent in the last school year.

Meaning they missed 17 or more school days.

Well, an officer with the courts says diversion measures can curb truancy.

Prosecutors say early intervention with consequences could solve Kentucky's chronic absenteeism for Kentucky edition.

I'm June Leffler.

Thank you, June.

That was the last meeting of the interim Joint Committee on Education for this year.

>> But Kentucky state lawmakers will revisit learning loss and other education matters when the Kentucky General Assembly convenes in January.

A Kentucky law banning certain gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender youth could go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has announced it will petition the high court on behalf of 7 transgender minors and their families who sued the state over Senate Bill.

One 50 a decision by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in July upheld the ban.

The ACLU of Kentucky, along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

We'll ask the nation's highest court to overturn that decision.

The group say their petition will be combined with a similar legal challenge in Tennessee to become the first case challenging transgender healthcare restrictions to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

♪ One person is dead and another remains missing after an idol coal preparation plant collapsed.

And Martin County, the 10 Storey plant located in an abandoned mine site near the community of Pilgrim was being demolished.

It collapsed Tuesday evening, trapping the 2 workers under multiple floors of concrete and steel.

This is video from the same courtesy of W S AZ.

>> Governor Andy Beshear confirmed on social media this morning that one man was killed.

That news came shortly after the governor declared a state of emergency in Martin County mobilizing state resources to help with the rescue.

>> National use U.S.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has sided with President Joe Biden on his pick for ambassador to Israel.

Paul was only one of 2 Republicans to vote in favor of confirming Jack Lew as ambassador Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the other with the recent escalation in violence between Israel and the militant group Hamas senators of both parties agreed on the need to quickly confirm an ambassador.

Many Republican senators who came out against Lew's confirmation cited his role in the 2015 international agreement that lifted some economic sanctions on Iran in return for the country allowing restrictions on its nuclear program.

Iran is a major funder of Hamas.

In medical news.

Now enrollment is now open for health and dental coverage on Kentucky.

State-based marketplace.

Kentuckians who don't qualify for coverage through an employer, Medicaid or Medicare.

You can sign up for coverage through connect.

All plans offered through connect, cover 10 health benefits, including a our services and hospitalizations.

They also cover preventive services for free and no one can be dropped from coverage because of their health.

To enroll, in connect or for more information about the plans offered visit online K Y okay.

What could K wide net DOT K Y dot Gov.

That's connects DOT K y dot Gov.

♪ ♪ Danny Loy is a barber and Campbellsville and has been cutting hair for more than 50 years.

He says there's an art to it and he has learned a lot over that time.

And now he's able to teach that to his son Brent, who after years working in unrelated field has begun cutting hair alongside his father.

So take a seat in the Barber's chair for this week's look at arts and culture.

We called Tapestry >> we got that Morris.

Good 1968.

So it's been.

>> 55 years.

You love the changes.

The styles of the first towns were just short, just regular haircuts.

And you go in the 70's, you go through the Bee, Larry, a.

>> Where that they had the long hair and you don't take much out cause him from a you cut too short.

You know, so and then the sound change.

Now it's coming back.

Just a lot of changes over the years.

Yeah.

And you see changes even in the face and the clothes and stuff over the years.

You see a lot.

>> I cannot remember a time that I did not have the barbershop in my life.

I was always down here.

I didn't want to stay at home because I got bored.

So he was always just fascinating to me.

It's all really cannot remember a time when I wasn't part of the barbershop coach or so to speak.

So it was just kind of like on the Saints.

Most guys grow up.

Poor kids grow up a little boys.

I would imagine and want to do what their father does for a living.

So it was kind of one of those natural things that I wanted to do with my mom was like, you know, you might want to rethink that.

So I spent several years doing other things and getting other, you know, transferable through sales.

Most of my adult life.

I've been in sales.

But then I got a little older and I just decided, you know, if there's ever a time in my life that I'm going to go and cut needs to be now.

So I went to school, graduated work, Ali, by dad took me on.

So it's kind of crazy.

We have wisdom.

>> Some fun times.

We We laugh and and we just enjoyed been always enjoyed being around him.

You know, it's been good when jump on that.

And the intent.

>> Well, you have to have certain tools for certain things.

Every art has their their tools.

They work with artists as their brushes and the Anbar was have their scissors, their razors.

And the Clippers.

There's just little.

There's little techniques you learned over the years.

You know that you don't know.

Just get out of art school.

There's a lot of times.

I'm I've done things.

Things like, OK, yeah, but let me show you a little bit of a different technique so that this can help you out the easier on you.

It will achieve the same result, maybe even faster.

So there's a lot of things you know, 55 years of cutting hair, the experience that he has.

>> Has helped me out tremendously.

>> And I'm fortunate to that kind of.

>> You know, Tudor or teacher in my life to to kind of mentor me through those techniques and appreciate that valued a lot.

>> These are the their call.

Actually, they're called thing.

Shares with you mentioned is thinning.

People's is scares.

People may think you're going to end their hair out, but it actually more blending shares.

>> One of the things that I liked the most about cutting hair is like the interaction with the people connected with people and just the stories that you hear, the relationships that you build.

And I think, you know, in this line of business, if you're one of those guys, are your counselor, your a guy that people can listen to and sometimes you get bit by spent sometimes you just you just KET quiet, let them get things off their chance.

Then.

>> You build a relationship with the people has gone wrong.

Would people come in and yet they have a low points in their last night in you and you can relate with it may be in and talk to men.

>> And they they feel better when they leave, maybe look a little better and feel better.

You know?

So I thought that was always cool to how you could about changing their parents.

You can barely changed her life.

>> After Brent joined what had been a one man barbershop for his father for many years.

The duo are now in the process of moving to a larger location.

They hope to be open on East Broadway in Campbellsville by the end of next week.

Congrats to them coming up tomorrow and Kentucky EDITION will tell you about a group taking away barriers to fresh healthy food by giving away free groceries.

You don't want to miss that story and so much more tomorrow night on Kentucky edition at 6.30, Stern Five-thirty Central where we inform connect and inspire.

You can KET in touch with us all the ways you see on your screen.

Send us a.

>> The idea for story and public affairs at K E T Dot Org and connect with us on Facebook, X and Instagram to stay in the loop of all things happening.

We've got some great stories lined up for you tomorrow night.

Don't miss it.

I'm Renee Shaw and I'll see you right back here again tomorrow night to kick in.

♪ ♪ ♪