Thirty years ago, Diane Hatfield, then a Campbell County Schools teacher, rode a Campbell County school bus to Frankfort to rally with an estimated 20,000 educators for education funding. On April 2 of this year, Hatfield, now chair of the Southgate Independent school board and working for the Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services, was again riding a Campbell County school bus to Frankfort, joining thousands of educators who were pleading for funding and protesting pension changes.
“The voice needs to be heard for our students, our children,” Hatfield said. “It is about meeting the needs of the students in Kentucky and adequately funding education. Obviously, the adults are a big part of that equation, but it is all about students.”
Southgate Independent school board Chair Diane Hatfield at the April 2 Capitol rally, flanked by,
right, Dayton Independent media specialist Angie Boyers and Southgate teacher Melissa Herald.
The rally was also a bit of déjà vu for Harrison County school board member Mary June Brunker, who retired as a teacher in 2002, and also attended the 1988 rally. But more than that, “I have participated in every one of them since 1973 – anytime there was a rally for education I was there, unless I was pregnant and having babies.”
Brunker said it’s important for school board members to be part of this rallying for public education, “because the board members represent their constituents in their counties and in their independent districts, and public education is the backbone, in my mind, of our whole democracy.”
Rockcastle County school board member Carrie Ballinger had a similar reason for attending the April 2 rally. “I went to the rally to protect the future of public education in Kentucky,” she said, “and to fight for respect for our educators and most importantly, to rally to ensure funding for our students who are the most important equation in this debate right now.”
Ballinger went in equal capacity as a five-year member of the Rockcastle County board and as principal of Model Lab School in Madison County. “I hope that our legislators and our governor can see the importance of funding education in our state and can see that Kentucky cannot expect to see an increase in economic development or move our state forward if we do not properly fund public schools and make education a priority,” she said.