Kentucky School Advocate
February 2020

By Brenna R. Kelly
Staff writer

Seven of the 11 former Kentucky Board of Education members who filed a lawsuit in state court to get their seats back have moved their lawsuit to federal court. 

The members – Rich Gimmel, Gary Houchens, Milton Seymore, Ben Cundiff, Joe Papalia and Laura Timberlake – are now getting legal help from the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions to pursue their claim in U.S. District Court. 

“In addition to our contention the executive order violates Kentucky law, we believe the Governor’s actions violate the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, and also denied board members their right to due process,” Houchens said. 

The former members also urged the Kentucky General Assembly to change state law to curb the governor’s reorganization powers and make the law retroactive to allow them to regain their seats. 

“The state’s education system is too important to be treated like a political football every time there is a change in administration,” Houchens said. “It’s time for the General Assembly to reassert the separation of powers and establish some limits on executive branch control of the Department of Education.”

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, told Spectrum News1 that he was reluctant to consider any legislation to alter the governor’s power.

“I still think that the use of that executive power was inappropriate and needs to be questioned,” Osborne said. “But just as I’ve said many times with (Bevin’s) pardon situation, I think that we need to be careful about making wholesale changes just because of one inappropriate action.”