Time now for our Reporter's Notebook segment, where we're talking about some of the major public education legislation that's moving through the Kentucky General Assembly.

With Jess Clark, who is the education reporter for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

Good to see you, Jess.

Thank you for your time.

Hey, Renee.

You know, I don't maybe I'm over characterizing this, but it seems like we're a third of the way into this legislative session of 60 days.

And a lot of the concentration, particularly from Senate Republicans, has been on public education legislation.

In fact, some of their top priority bills, the first ten half of them deal with education in some manner.

So let's talk about what their agenda is.

Overall arching picture.

What is it they're trying to get at with the measures they're putting forth this session?

I think there's a lot of focus on accountability and transparency in school districts.

And also in the financial area, both of Kentucky's two largest school systems are facing, budget shortfalls.

And, you know, in many ways, those shortfalls were predicted because of the end of Covid relief funding running out and expiring in 2024.

And so districts were, anticipating having to tighten their belts.

But I think there is still some concern among constituents and definitely among state lawmakers that that those budgeting decisions were not handled as well as they could have been or should have been.

And so a lot of the focus is this session on, you know, how do we prevent this from happening in the future.

You know, what are some transparency measures we can have around that?

You know, there's a lot of interest in kind of the, growth in administrator, funding for administrators and how that's kind of grown over the pandemic.

So there's some, there's a measure targeted at administrator salaries.

And then, of course, the perennial issue in education, lawmakers tend to want to look at Jefferson County public schools, in particular, for changes and interventions.

So that is also on their docket.

Well, let's pick up right where you left off.

Right there.

Senate Bill one does just that.

This is by Senate pro tem, David Givens of Greensburg.

And this measure would give more authority to the superintendent when it comes to day to day operations.

Why is that such a big deal?

And is this signaling some mistrust or lack of trust in the Jefferson County School Board?

Yes.

So I think yes, I think it is signaling a lack of trust in the school board.

That is a longstanding kind of, tension between state lawmakers and Frankfort.

Frankfort, who have been Republican and a Democratic, largely Democratic, board in Jefferson County, even though it's nonpartisan, you know, voters in Jefferson County and the people they elect tend to lean towards more liberal or progressive ideas.

And so you often have a tension between, the school board in Jefferson County and, Republican state lawmakers in Frankfort.

I think it's fair to say that this issue goes back to that longstanding tension that kind of came to a head in 2021 when, the school board was making decisions about masking and remote learning that lawmakers in Frankfort were very unhappy with.

And so they passed this measure, SB one, back then to move more authority away from the board and give it to the superintendent.

That measure was challenged in court and actually, after several years of litigation, was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court last year.

So this measure is actually that exact same, law that was passed that was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court.

The only difference is that, Givens has included a number of, statements that are, you know, reasons why the lawmakers believe that this legislation should go forward.

And, his argument is that when the court overturned SB1, last year, they left the door open for it to be legal.

If lawmakers could articulate why they were specifically targeting Jefferson County in this way and that it was an arbitrary.

Right, because they said it was unreasonable and how they had approached it before.

And I think Senator Givens has said I've got 40 something reasons now why.

Right, that they have outlined.

Yeah.

So let's talk about that.

You had mentioned earlier about a measure we know there was some financial, fiscal accounting measures that would require some school finances to be posted on websites.

That was Senate Bill three by Senator Lindsey.

That really didn't have much opposition, not Partizan divide.

But there was some discussion about the whole, superintendent pay increases not outpacing that of teachers.

Talked to us about that a little bit more.

Sure.

That's SB two.

That is a bill from Senator Julie Rocky Adams.

And that measure would restrict boards from giving raises to administrators and superintendents that are above and beyond what the teachers would receive in a given year.

And so, Rocky Adams says this is necessary because she believes that resources need to be focused on those who are closest to the classroom, being classroom teachers.

And, you know, I think a lot of it also has to do with kind of, a, a general discomfort among lawmakers with how much administrator salaries have grown, in recent years.

There was a lot of, pushback when Jefferson County gave, former Superintendent Marty Polio a significant raise.

I think he was making over $350,000 at some point.

And so, this measure would just say so if a teacher's got a 3% raise in a year, that is the raise that that is kind of the max raise that, the board could give principals or counselors or other administrators or the superintendent there is an exemption.

So if the district wanted to give the superintendent a 20% raise, they could go to KDE and request that exemption.

And that could take in order for them to turn that around at Katie and Katie and process that exemption could take 30 to 60 days, according to lawmakers.

Well, Jess Clark, thank you.

There's never enough time to do a fabulous job covering education.

Look forward to reading you as often as you write.

And so thank you for giving us a few minutes of your time on a busy week.

Thank you, Renee, I really appreciate it.