Friday is the deadline to apply to be Kentucky's next commissioner of education.

The Kentucky Board of Education tells us it's received six applications.

The board began the search following the departure of Jason Glass, who stepped down as education commissioner back in September.

Glass became a target of some Republican lawmakers over his guidance on policies involving LGBTQ plus students.

The GOP led General Assembly also passed legislation last year requiring the Kentucky Education commissioner to be confirmed by the Senate on Friday.

Comment on Kentucky panelists discussed the search for a new education chief and whether the current political climate was the reason there were not more applicants for the job.

It's when the Senate passed a law that made it such that they had to confirm the nominee, or rather the higher.

It created a kind of needle that higher has to thread.

Right.

They have to be accepted by Beshear, who is a Democrat appointed board, and also signed off on by a Republican dominated Senate.

So who is the candidate who fits both of those boxes?

I don't know.

And I guess we'll find out soon enough, at least according to the board.

Yeah, this is a real new, uncharted territory for how to run the the the state Department of Education, because Kentucky went through a period of electing the commissioner of education on a statewide level.

And then, you know, kind of came to this point of the the governor appointing people to the board of education who end up hiring the the the commissioner, which was supposed to be insulated.

But now having the legislature in here, they've really kind of boxed themselves into a corner and having to come and, you know, maybe, maybe happily, that they will have to come to an agreement on somebody.

But it's also possible that that they won't be able to come to agree to come to agree on somebody.

And that's that's something I think we're all waiting to see who turns up in like and whether everybody can be happy with them.

A list of finalists is expected to be announced the first week of March.

The board says it wants a new commissioner in place by July 1st.