by Allison Ross

The sweeping education bill of this legislative session passed its first hurdle Thursday, moving quickly out of the Senate Education Committee on a 9-3 vote along party lines.

The legislation, Senate Bill 1, would significantly alter the way the state would review its education standards and would change how students and schools would be assessed.

The bill that was voted on includes a number of changes to the original version unveiled a few weeks ago, with concessions made to arts education supporters and a number of tweaks made to other parts of the bill, including those that deal with how the test scores of certain special-needs students are counted.

But some say they still have concerns, saying in part that some of the language could politicize education. And worries have been raised about the timing of the proposed legislation as well as how quickly the bill appears to be moving this session.

"I think this is premature. I think this is a sea change (to Kentucky education) in many respects," said Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, who voted against the bill. He said he would like to see more vetting of some of the numerous pieces within the nearly 90-page legislation.

But Sen. Mike Wilson, D-Bowling Green, the bill's sponsor, said the timing is perfect for the bill, noting that Kentucky is in a good moment for transition with a new governor and new education commissioner, and with the federal passing of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

"We can't let our teachers wait any longer," he told his fellow committee members. He said the legislation "allows teachers to teach," saying it frees schools and teachers from some of the onerous reporting requirements required by the state.

Wilson's bill would inject politicians into the review and recommendation of Kentucky's education standards by setting up a panel comprised of three senators appointed by the Senate president, three House members appointed by the House speaker and three governor appointees to review and recommend changes to standards and accountability to the Kentucky Board of Education. In addition, the state education commissioner would be a non-voting member of the panel, according to the latest changes to the bill.

The bill would also do away with state-mandated social studies tests - a move that has raised the concern of the Kentucky Council for the Social Studies, among others.

And it would eliminate program reviews, which were schools' self-evaluations of the quality of some of its programs - such as its arts and humanities or practical living programs - that may not be otherwise measured under state standardized tests.

However, one of the changes made to the bill adds in language requiring schools to submit letters explaining how they will integrate social studies, writing, arts and humanities and program reviews into its curriculum. If the state receives a complaint about one of these programs at a school, it can investigate deficiencies, the new version of the bill reads.

"People told us, 'If you don't test it, they won't teach social studies or the arts,'" Wilson said. He added, "The last thing we want to do is have it so people think they don't have to do arts."

The bill, which now has to go to the full Senate, makes a number of other major changes as well, including pushing for greater local control and oversight of things like teacher evaluations and struggling schools. The way schools' efforts to close achievement gaps are measured would also change.

The three democrats on the committee who voted against the bill each said they liked some aspects of the bill but had concerns.

Others in the education community have said the same thing. For instance, the Jefferson County Teachers Association has created a three-page document listing dozens of both positives and "concerns and questions" it has with the bill.

Neal said later he hopes that the bill, as it goes along, the bill will be honed "into something useful, rather than something I fear will be counterproductive, at least in part."

Wilson said he has spent a considerable amount of time in the past couple weeks talking with teachers, education groups, superintendents and others about any "unintended consequences" in the bill, and said he also has been working with federal legislators to ensure the bill's language wouldn't risk putting Kentucky out of compliance for federal funding in any way.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt, reached after Thursday's vote, said he just saw the changes to the bill for the first time last night and had not yet seen the latest amendment. He said he had concerns about the timing of the education bill, saying states are still trying to understand and parse all the recommendations in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act law.

"Senate Bill 1 addresses many of the same issues the Kentucky Department is currently reviewing and revising – standards, assessments, accountability and student achievement," Pruitt later added in an emailed statement. "The devil is in the details, however, and we are in the process of examining recent revisions to the original bill for clarification."

Brigitte Blom Ramsey, executive director of the Prichard Committee, said her organization has not taken an official stance on the bill as a whole. She said she was pleased with the concept of thinking about how to free up bureaucracy to allow teachers more time to teach, but also said she had some concerns, including about accountability for social studies and for arts and humanities programs.

"The bill is so new and there is so much in the bill that everyone is trying to get a sense of the impact of the bill at the local level," Ramsey said, noting concerns about how quickly the bill is progressing as people try to understand its repurcussions.

She said the Kentucky has made great gains in education in recent years and she wants to be sure that any changes to what the Commonwealth is doing be "targeted and intentional."

"Wide-scale changes are concerning," she said.