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While Legislators are Back Home, Keep up the ContactsLegislators adjourned their regular session last Thursday and are back home until a likely special session, probably within the next six weeks. This provides KEA members with a great opportunity to speak directly and personally with legislators at home about the damage that cuts in our insurance will do to school employees’ economic security and what cuts in school funding will mean to our students. The message about health care is simple. Let legislators know how important your health care is to you and your family. Cutting school employees’ health care will make it harder to attract and keep quality school employees and will reduce the money you are able to spend in your local community’s businesses.
The message about school funding is also simple. Any reduction in school funding will reduce your ability to help every student achieve his/her potential. Just as we are preparing to implement SB 1, we need more support for student achievement, not less.
Also please thank legislators for passing HB 540 and HB 531 (see below), two bills that will help assure the security of KTRS retirees’ health care. These bills were priorities of KEA for this session. |
Legislative Session Ends with no BudgetLegislators left town last Thursday adjourning the 2010 regular legislative session sine die. Much back and forth maneuvering took place into the evening but no final deal on the budget could be reached. According to the Kentucky Constitution the session cannot go beyond midnight on April 15th so the legislators left town with no budget. The likely result of their failure to reach a compromise on the budget will be a special session in May or June. |
KEA Leaders Deliver the Message: Don’t Cut School Funding & Don’t Cut our Health InsuranceKEA leaders from across Kentucky came together in Frankfort last Wednesday to talk with their legislators about inadequate funding for public schools and their own health insurance. In response to our efforts on the hill and your hard work back home members of House Leadership met with KEA Thursday morning. We talked through our concerns about the budget plan and its impact on employee health insurance. House leadership committed to work with KEA to develop a solution that both the state and school employees can more easily afford. Please visit http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104140414 for more information on KEA’s advocacy last Wednesday. |
Few Education Bills Passed
The 2010 General Assembly saw fewer pieces of legislation passed than any recent session. About twenty education bills passed, including:
HB 540, to fund KTRS retiree health insurance, with strong support from KEA and other organizations. This bill will require active KTRS members, local school districts, and retirees under age 65 to contribute more to the cost of retirees’ health insurance.
HB 531, to allow the state to issue bonds to repay KTRS for the money borrowed to pay for retired teachers’ health care in the past
SB 178, to allow discussions of the superintendent’s performance to be held in private, prior to his/her public evaluation
HB 51 and SB 65, both to help prevent suicide
HB 327, to allow districts to athletic coaches who do not have college credit hours |
Finding out about the General Assembly is Easy
During every legislative session, KEA tracks all education bills every day. You can find the daily bill status update for the last day of the regular session on www.keepkentuckylearning.org. Click “Bill Status Report” in the left column. For even more information about bills and to read the summary and text of all bills, visit the Legislative Research Commission’s web site: www.lrc.ky.gov. The LRC’s web site contains a wealth of information as does KEA’s Keep Kentucky Learning web site. |
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