— by McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern —
FRANKFORT — A bill that began as relief for Kentucky schools from weather-related closings was transformed by the Senate Thursday into relief for a controversial virtual school.
After the Senate overhauled House Bill 241, its sponsor, Rep. Timmy Truett, an elementary school principal, said he would recommend that the House now kill it.
The Kentucky Board of Education recently limited enrollment at the Kentucky Virtual School based out of the Cloverport Independent Schools in response to concerns about poor student performance and failure to meet staffing requirements.
The bill that emerged from the Republican-controlled Senate Thursday on a 23-14 vote would block the Department of Education from enforcing the enrollment cap on the privately-operated virtual school which has students statewide.
Some Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill.
Supporters of the virtual school attached their provision to a bill described by Senate President Pro Tem David Givens as “vitally important” for school districts affected by recent flooding.
State law requires districts to provide 170 student attendance days. The original bill would allow districts to have five of the required days waived and to lengthen the school day. It also granted them additional days in which students could be taught at home via virtual learning. Some schools in Eastern Kentucky have yet to reopen following floods in mid-February.
In a Thursday morning committee meeting, language from Senate Bill 268 was added to the House bill. Truett (R-McKee) told senators it was the first time he had seen the new version of his legislation.
“This bill started off as a really good bill for all the districts in the state of Kentucky, especially the districts in Eastern Kentucky where I live,” Truett said. “But you can take a good bill and make it bad. And I’m afraid that with the amendment that may be on this bill that I would have to encourage my colleagues to be against this bill.”
The move could mean the bill doesn’t pass at all this session, Truett warned.
Concerns about the Kentucky Virtual School have been reported by the Louisville Courier Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, which highlighted numerous accusations and lawsuits raised against Stride, a for-profit company that has a contract to run the virtual academy. While it serves students across the state through online instruction, the academy is attached to Cloverport Independent Schools in Breckinridge County.
According to the media reports, the school has rapidly increased its enrollment over the past two years but state education officials say it has failed to meet staff and testing requirements. The Kentucky Board of Education recently took action to limit enrollment through a new statewide policy.
Senators debated not only the contents of the bill, but the legislative process behind it, for more than an hour Thursday afternoon. Democrats futilely attempted to argue the bill was out of order under Senate rules because it had emerged from the committee just hours earlier with significant changes.
Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Reggie Thomas, of Lexington, cited the newspapers’ reports on the floor and emphasized the legislation is a “matter of public interest.”
“The public, I feel, does have a right to know about what we’re about to do,” Thomas said.
Sen. Aaron Reed (R-Shelbyville), who was the original sponsor of the bill revoking the enrollment cap on the virtual school, cited “emotional testimony” from parents of students enrolled at the academy. “What I heard from parents made one thing very clear — this decision (to cap enrollment) was made without fully considering the impact on students and families who had built their education around this model. To me, that’s not right.”
Truett heard some of the Senate debate, watching from the side of the chamber. While he was present, Sen. Lindsey Tichenor (R-Smithfield) said that she wasn’t happy with Truett’s original bill, but was supportive of Reed’s bill, and added that her family used Stride’s curriculum for homeschooling in the past.
“I’m going to encourage the House sponsor to support this bill, because House Bill 241 didn’t change the way that I want to see it change,” she said before voting in favor of the bill. Tichenor had filed four floor amendments to the original version of the bill.
Truett quickly left after the vote.
Givens said he was a supporter of the new language and also supports the original provisions for making up school days missed because of weather. “This door provides relief for those districts,” he said. “This is vitally important that we do this.”
The House must concur with the Senate’s version of HB 241. It’s not the first time in recent sessions a bill has been drastically changed in one chamber. Last year, the House overhauled Senate Bill 6, which became a bill to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. The measure died at the end of the session because the Senate and House couldn’t agree.
The Cloverport district’s superintendent, Keith Haynes, said in an email to the Kentucky Lantern that while he couldn’t speak to the merits of the legislative process, he was supportive of the contents of SB 268 “as it affords us the opportunity to continue operating and improving the Kentucky Virtual Academy, which has provided so many students and families with the kind of school environment that best suits them.”
“Our experience with Stride has been great,” Haynes added. “They have been highly professional and laser focused on ensuring that KYVA is the kind of school that all involved can be proud of.”
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Written by McKenna Horsley. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
