School board members are in a unique position to fight against state budget cuts to education, and they need to speak up, said Elizabethtown Independent board member and state representative candidate Matt Wyatt.
“The people need to know exactly what’s at stake and it’s our job as school board members to educate people and to let them know,” said Wyatt, who was fired up enough to file for office after seeing the governor’s proposed draconian budget. “I think we’re too hesitant to talk politics, we’re too hesitant to be confrontational. And I think that needs to go out the window. And it’s not just the teachers – it’s the school board members, it’s the administrators, it’s the teachers. There’s no do-over in this. Once you cut these things, you’re not going to get them back.”
Elizabethtown Independent school board member Matt Wyatt
talks to a voter as he campaigns for state representive.
The issues
Public education has been a target, Willner said: “It has been blamed for every social ill and it’s called on to be responsible to fix every social ill. And I think teachers and educators of all stripes have had enough. The needs continue to increase and the funding has not kept pace.”
Col Owens, a former 16-year Covington Independent school board member seeking a House seat, said the pension system for teachers is “integral” to the education issue. “If we lose the concept of a stable and secure retirement option for teachers, we’re going to lose a lot of people going into teaching” said Owens, a retired attorney for the Legal Aid Society in Cincinnati. “So I’m deeply committed to increasing pay and getting a more stable and continuous funding for education and solving the pension crisis.”
“That’s why I got in the race – the pension issue,” former two-term Daviess County school board member and retired teacher Dianne Mackey said. “I do think there are other ways without tax increases that we can fund the pension system.” She said she thinks the conversation about the issue needs “somebody that’s been in the classroom.” And she’d also like to see more women in the legislature, where she is vying for a Senate seat.
Wilson, now the facilities director for Warren County Schools, said he became concerned about the loss of experience when both Warren County’s current lawmakers – Reps. Jody Richards and Jim DeCesare – announced their retirement. “I’ve always had an eye on politics and I’ve always felt like as long as things were going well, there was really no reason for me to run. But when we’re losing that much experience, somebody with experience needs to step in and represent this area,” he explained.
Madison County school board member Mary Renfro said her two major concerns in filing for state representative are school funding and the foster care system. “I thought, ‘The only way to make change, Mary Renfro, is to step up – you’re going to have to move up and open your mouth,’” she said.
Boone County school board Chairman C. Ed Massey, a former KSBA and National School Boards Association president, said the educator groundswell had nothing to do with his decision to file, though he had been speaking out against the governor’s pension reform plan and was “appalled” at his budget proposal.
Massey decided to run after incumbent Rep. Addia Wuchner told him she would not file for re-election. The two ran against each other for the 66th District House seat in 2004 and have what Massey called “a mutual respect.”
“My goal is to use my platform for three items: to honor my faith, my God; to honor my family; and to honor my community,” he said.
School board experience
Mackey, who – like Wilson and Owens –served on KSBA’s board, said her experience both as a school board member and a business owner would help her in the state Senate position she seeks. Renfro, a real estate agent, said her five years’ experience on the board have made her more aware of the budget and budgeting process.
“I reference my experience on the school board all the time as helping me to understand the complexity of the issues facing our systems – the need for resources that I’m very, very concerned about and the disinvestment that’s been going on for years with education,” said Owens, who has long been active in northern Kentucky politics.
Besides his 21 years of school board experience, Massey, an attorney, said his tenure as head of the NSBA board taught him skills in negotiating difficult situations – one of them, ironically, being the move of NSBA employees from a defined benefit pension system to a defined contribution one.
Wilson similarly cited the tough decisions he had to make during his 12 years on the Warren County school board. “When you look at what a school board member has to do, you’re looking at economic issues – whether or not to raise revenue, whether or not to increase programs or cut programs,” he said. “There are a lot of parallels between what a school board member has to do at the local level and what has to be done by state representatives at the state level in Frankfort.”
Wyatt, director of development for University of Louisville, also pointed to his experience with school district budgets.
“What I’ve learned more than anything else, is that budgets reflect our values,” said Wyatt, a board member since 2013. “And it’s so clear what values are being represented on the state level, and what values are being represented in my school district and school districts all over Kentucky. It’s a huge contrast.”
Willner, a licensed psychologist and executive director of the Kentucky Psychological Association, said her experience as a board member in “listening to constituents, representing diverse perspectives, standing up for people who don’t have a voice,” would be assets in a state representative. “Those are all really important skills that I think are far too lacking in Frankfort,” she said.
Raft of educator candidates a reaction to the pounding of public education
Candidates with school board experience aren’t the only education-sector hopefuls seeking state House or Senate seats.
A total of 40 current or retired educators – secondary and postsecondary – have filed for state representative or state senator. When some of them gathered for a Capitol Rotunda rally Jan. 31, they cited budget cuts to public schools, the pension crisis and the passage of charter school legislation in 2017 as catalysts.
Tim Abrams, executive director of the Kentucky Retired Teachers Association and a former Henry County Schools superintendent, said he believes the large number of educators and retired educators who have filed for state legislative seats is tied to the erosion of funding for public education and educators.
For the past several years, he said, recently retired and current teachers “have seen a constant barrage on public education as far as funding for both increases in pay and benefits, and also funding for schools to operate. And I think people have stepped up for the pension costs as well.
“They want folks in Frankfort that realize how important public education is to the future of our state.”
Having retired teachers run for office has been a topic of discussion at meetings of Abrams’ group. “They have the ability and the intellect and they have thrown their hat in the ring,” he said. “And I’m excited about that.”
Abrams thinks some of these candidates have a shot at getting elected – on both sides of the political party aisle. “I’ve thought all along that education shouldn’t be a partisan issue, and it’s not,” he said, “but some people have turned it into that. Everyone wants a good school in their community, regardless of political party. So I do think some of these candidates are very viable.”
The involvement of educator candidates has had an impact on the 2018 session of the General Assembly, Abrams added. “Whether it be the competition in the primary or the general election, I think it’s sending a strong message,” he said. “And I do think all members of the General Assembly deep down love their public schools, they love the schools in their community. They’re just facing a very tough issue with not enough revenue coming into the state to meet the needs of essential things the state needs to support.”
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